More Wells Fargo execs follow Kowach to startup

David Kowach's new firm, &Partners, continues to add management talent from his former employer, Wells Fargo & Co., where he was head of the brokerage group until 2019.

In a little more than a month, &Partners has hired three Wells Fargo Advisors managing directors, Scott E. Drysch, Scott Spang and Nick Giordano, who combined had more than 50 years of experience at Wells Fargo Advisors and its predecessor firms.

Drysch and Spang were "market leaders" for Wells Fargo Advisors, in Austin, Texas, and Richmond, Virginia, respectively, while Spang was "market manager" in Columbia, South Carolina.

Launched over the summer, &Partners is replete with executives from Wells Fargo Advisors, which has seen extensive turnover at the top in the past few years. Kowach left Wells Fargo last year, when he said he was retiring, three years after he moved from the giant bank's wealth management group first to its retail bank and then to its affluent client group.

InvestmentNews reported in August that &Partners had 13 other founding partners, according to an investor presentation, and almost all of whom have extensive work and management experience at Wells Fargo. The new firm's goal is to hire 100 top-performing financial advisor teams.

Other large firms have seen financial advisors and senior managers leave and set up new shops to compete with their former employer, but perhaps not to the extent of &Partners, noted one industry executive, who asked to remain anonymous.

"The difference here is these are very senior people in a wealth management organization who have decided that Wells Fargo is not an accommodating home, particularly on the high-end, wealthier client side of the business," the executive said.

It's not just &Partners that has scooped up Wells Fargo senior leaders. The former top executive at Wells Fargo's private bank, Jack Ginter, left the firm in 2021 and the next year started Callan Family Office in suburban Philadelphia, which already has $3.5 billion in client assets, according to its Form ADV.

"Scott Drysch, Scott Spang, and Nicholas Giordano are no longer with Wells Fargo," a spokesperson wrote in an email. "We realigned our Texas and Virginia markets in July. The Austin area is now part of the West Texas Market, led by Ron Medaris, and the Eastern Virginia market is now part of the Virginia market, led by Thomas Fitchett."

John Alexander, co-president of &Partners, did not return a call on Monday morning to comment.

Industry news website AdvisorHub earlier reported on Drysch leaving Wells Fargo Advisors to work at &Partners.

Kowach and &Partners bought a broker-dealer in Nashville at the end of August and weeks later started hiring financial advisors, including at least one each from Edward Jones and Wells Fargo Advisors.