Wells Fargo Advisors offers financial advisors three affiliation models, from a traditional W2 structure to full RIA independence, without requiring them to leave behind institutional resources. Jeff Brown, independent solutions platform growth director at Wells Fargo Advisors, draws on experience growing an independent firm to over $2 billion in assets under management to help advisors evaluate which model fits their practice and how to move between them as goals change.
Wells Fargo Advisors is the only large wirehouse combining a full bank with a multi-channel affiliation structure under one roof. Jeff Brown, independent solutions platform growth director at Wells Fargo Advisors, returned to the firm after serving as president of Stratos Wealth Partners, where he grew assets under management to over $2 billion. Brown identifies that combination as a structural advantage no competitor can match. "Wells Fargo Advisors is the only large firm with both the bank and the multi-channel option," Brown says. Advisors across all three channels, Private Client Group, FiNet, and RIA Solutions, access the full balance sheet for client lending and complex transactions, regardless of which affiliation model they choose.
Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, known as FiNet, is a 1099 contractor model that Brown describes as "supported independence." Advisors in this channel control how they structure their entity, compensate staff, and approach mergers and acquisitions. The firm remains responsible for compliance and can handle billing and operational work on their behalf. "The firm handles compliance and can handle billing and operational work while still allowing advisors to build their own business," Brown says. FiNet advisors also retain access to the full Wells Fargo Advisors resource suite, from in-house investment research to private wealth services, that they and their clients already rely on day to day.
Movement between Wells Fargo Advisors' three channels is built into the model, with no penalty for advisors who progress from one to another as their goals change. Brown points to a former consulting client in Southern California who moved from Private Client Group to FiNet and later launched a full RIA. He frames FiNet as a practical testing ground for advisors weighing that final step toward full independence. "You can move to a supported independence model under FiNet, where you can own your own business. While you are there, you can do the research and decide if you want to go full RIA and build your business plan around that," Brown says.
Independent advisors affiliated with Wells Fargo Advisors can offer clients securities-based lending, mortgages, and preferred pricing on both through the bank, capabilities most standalone RIAs cannot replicate. For advisors working with executives at publicly traded companies, the firm's corporate and investment bank can assist with complex deal structuring. A dedicated Private Wealth team serves clients with roughly $10 million or more in assets, covering estate planning, family governance, philanthropic structuring, and business-sale advisory services. Brown is direct about what this means relative to the broader independent market: "These are services that not even the top RIAs have out there." That reach extends across all three affiliation channels.
FiNet has operated for 25 years, but Brown says the platform shifted significantly after Barry Sommers became CEO of Wealth and Investment Management roughly five years ago. "He came in and really put down the gauntlet saying, 'Look, the future is independence,'" Brown says. Under Sommers, FiNet expanded M&A capabilities, allowed advisors to customize entity structures, and opened access to third-party technology previously unavailable to employee advisors. Brown credits advisor feedback for sustaining that momentum. "Over the past ten years, we've fully embraced taking down barriers as a culture through advisor feedback and commitment. Now it's easier to feel independent at FiNet, without sacrificing support," Brown says.
The RIA Solutions channel grants practices full control over compliance, technology, and business structure, with Wells Fargo Advisors serving as a custody and clearing partner. Brown is candid about the operational demands that come with that level of control. "Within the RIA channel, you're responsible for everything, including compliance and technology. It provides an immense amount of freedom, but it's a lot of work, and it's not for everybody," he says. Two motivations typically drive advisors to this model: broader operating discretion, including unrestricted technology selection and wider access to alternative investments, and the ability to maximize enterprise value fully on their own terms.
Wells Fargo Advisors is developing a minority-stakes program that would give advisors a monetization path without selling to an outside firm. Brown is critical of the pattern he sees across the broader market, where advisors routinely sell externally and force long-term clients through unnecessary transitions. "This really isn't fair to the long-term clients who are going to stay there for years but have to move everything and then be transitioned to a new advisor. It ups your fiduciary duty to the client by staying at one firm," Brown says. The program is designed to preserve advisor-client relationships while still giving advisors access to liquidity on their own timeline.
Jeff Brown: independent solutions platform growth director, Wells Fargo Advisors; former financial advisor at Wells Fargo Advisors; former president of Stratos Wealth Partners, where he grew the firm to over $2 billion in assets under management through national expansion.