More turnover at top of Wells Fargo brokerage group

Last year, two former heads of Wells Fargo Advisors left the firm. The exodus of senior wealth management executives with decades of experience at Wells Fargo and its numerous predecessor firms continues, with John Peluso, the head of its brokerage clearing operations, First Clearing, retiring at the end of September.

A senior managing director, Peluso had been at the firm and its various predecessors for 35 years.

He is not alone. Warren Terry, managing director and head of the client relationship group branch infrastructure, had his final day at the firm last week, according to his BrokerCheck profile. Terry had worked at the firm since 2005.

And Rich Getzoff, head of the branch network since 2019, left the firm in June. He had worked at Wells Fargo and a predecessor, Prudential Securities, since 1998.

The changes at the top of Wells Fargo Advisors, with 12,000 financial advisors, and FiNet, appear to be in the same vein as last year. That's when David Kowach, who headed Wells Fargo Advisors until 2019, and Jim Hays, who replaced Kowach, both said they were retiring.

Wells Fargo Advisors has seen thousands of financial advisors leave the firm to join competitors or retire since 2016. That's when the parent bank, Wells Fargo & Co., first reported a wave of credit card and bank scandals that harmed the bank’s reputation and led to difficult conversations with some financial advisors’ clients.

In 2019, the bank hired Charlie Scharf, former CEO of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., to be its president and CEO.

"FiNet is changing up management on Peluso's retirement announcement to focus on the RIA channel more aggressively," said one well-placed industry source, who spoke confidentially to InvestmentNews about the changes in management at the giant bank. FiNet stands for Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, the independent broker and registered investment advisor platform for advisors.

“These were all wonderful people advisors enjoyed working with,” the source said. “But over the past decade they failed to bring Wells Fargo Advisors forward with technology and processes. New leadership has been making big strides.”

Wells Fargo & Co., the giant bank, has been overhauling its wealth management business for the past few years, consistently plucking talent from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

In 2020, Wells Fargo hired Barry Sommers from JPMorgan to lead its Wealth and Investment Management group, known internally as WIM. Then it hired Sol Gindi, also from JPMorgan, as chief financial officer of WIM; two years later, Gindi was promoted to be the head of Wells Fargo Advisors, which operates under the broad WIM umbrella at the bank.

In June, the bank said it hired Barry Simmons, another JPMorgan senior executive, to be the new head of national sales at Wells Fargo Advisors.

A Wells Fargo spokesperson confirmed that Peluso was retiring, and that Terry and Getzoff had left the firm.

"After 35 years of service, John Peluso plans to retire at the end of September," the spokesperson wrote in an email. "Al Caiazzo will assume the role as President of First Clearing and will report to John Tyers. He joined First Clearing in 2004."

"Kim Ta now leads the Client Relationship Group Branch Administration team, reporting to Sol Gindi," the spokesperson wrote. "She has been with the firm for 23 years and most recently led recruiting."