Revenue per rep rises but head count slips at Wells Fargo Advisors

Wells Fargo & Co.'s wealth and investment management group reported Thursday that its financial adviser head count continued to decline during the first three months of 2022, albeit at slower rate than previously, while its annualized revenue per adviser was up in a quarter when the broad stock market declined, with the S&P 500 dropping 4.9%.

Annualized revenue per adviser, a key industry metric, was $1.22 million at the end of March, up 4.3% from the end of last year and up 15% when compared to the same time last year, according to the company.

Wells Fargo has been trying to focus on recruiting larger advisers at a time when its wirehouse competitors have been shying away from bringing on experienced advisers, which is expensive.

Wells Fargo Advisors reported that it had 12,250 financial advisers at the end of last month, a drop of 117 or almost 1% from the prior quarter, when it had 12,367. The total at the end of March was down 1,027, or 7.7%, from the same time in 2021, when its head count was 13,277.

"Attrition is at the lowest in two years and our hiring momentum remains strong moving into the second quarter," a Wells Fargo spokesperson wrote in an email. "Our multi-channel model continues to be a differentiator as advisers have more choice in managing their careers at Wells Fargo Advisors than any other firm."

Wells Fargo hit its recent peak in total financial advisers in September 2016, when it reported employing more than 15,000 across its varied business lines. That was just as the bank's problems started as it was revealed that Wells Fargo bank employees had secretly created millions of unauthorized accounts in the names of customers without their consent.

More recently, when Wells Fargo Advisors rolled out its 2022 compensation plan to financial advisers in December, executives at the firm hoped it would be regarded as simpler and potentially more lucrative than pay plans in the past.