Wells Fargo Advisors continues management overhaul

Barry Simmons and James Craven of Wells Fargo Advisors

Reshuffle is 'a result of the brain drain,' says one senior industry executive.

Wells Fargo Advisors continues to reshuffle its lineup of senior executives as it focuses on growth in its independent broker and registered investment advisor businesses.

Late last week, the wirehouse said that 36-year veteran Mike Carroll is retiring as head of the Northeast division and is being replaced by Barry Simmons, who has been head of national sales for less than a year.

Meanwhile, James Craven will replace Simmons as leader of national sales, which puts him in charge of recruiting at the wirehouse, which has close to 11,000 financial advisors across its various business channels.

“Carroll was a regional manager, and I thought he was very well-respected at the firm,” said one Wells Fargo insider who spoke anonymously.

Simmons was hired last June from J.P. Morgan Securities, a favorite place for the firm to hire senior executives as the CEO of Wells Fargo & Co. Inc., Charlie Scharf, continues to remodel the firm.

Scharf took over the lead role at the bank in 2019 with the mission of moving it past a series of scandals. The firm still has multiple outstanding regulatory issues, including a Fed-imposed asset cap limiting the firm to its size at the end of 2017.

In 2020, Wells Fargo hired Sommers from JPMorgan to lead its Wealth and Investment Management group, known internally as WIM. Then it hired Sol Gindi from JPMorgan as chief financial officer of WIM; two years later, Gindi was promoted to head of Wells Fargo Advisors.

Simmons and Craven report to Gindi.

“Since joining Wells Fargo last year, Barry has been pivotal in consistently and effectively bringing our broad capabilities to advisors, clients, and recruits,” Gindi said in an emailed statement. “I’m confident he’ll continue this strong momentum as he heads up the Northeast Division.

“James uniquely understands advisor and client needs and has been unwavering in his commitment to making this the best place for advisors to do business,” he added.

In February, Wells Fargo Advisors promoted firm veteran Erik Karanik to the position of head of independent solutions, a new position for the WIM business, which includes Wells Fargo Advisors.

Wells Fargo has seen a number of senior managers leave the past few years. For example, John Peluso, the head of its brokerage clearing operations, First Clearing, retired last September.

Last summer, a group of former Wells Fargo Advisors executive, led by David Kowach, a former head of the group, launched their own firm, &Partners, to compete against Wells Fargo.

“Wells Fargo Advisors has lost some good people internally, and now they’re relying on the people they’re trying to recruit in to manage things,” said a senior industry executive who also spoke anonymously about the matter. “That’s a result of the brain drain.”