Traditionally there's no love lost between bankers and financial advisors, who sometimes compete for the same business.
Wells Fargo & Co. is working on thawing that ice by helping advisors in the company's brokerage arm get to know their local Wells Fargo community and private bankers, senior executives say.
"What we've tried to do is create a frictionless way for advisors to meet other needs their clients have without trying to remake the advisor into a banker," says David Carroll, head of Wells Fargo's wealth, brokerage division, a unit that includes the company's 15,000 financial advisors and the private bank.
With ongoing educational and social events, Wells advisors in test markets are getting more comfortable helping their clients tap into banking products. (Using parlance banks now tend to avoid: Wells is making it easier for its advisors to "cross-sell.")
Right now, it's the 2,700 Wells Fargo advisors whose offices are in the company's community and private bank locations who have the easiest access to private banking products, like customized loans or high-end advising.
The other advisors, most of whom came to Wells Fargo when it bought Wachovia Securities nearly three years ago, don't work in bank offices and have to refer clients to a centralized call center when they want bank products. That will change when the new private banking program is rolled out nationally, probably by the middle of next year, and a personal relationship between these advisors and bankers is established.
Once an advisor refers a client to a banker, that advisor will be able to stay involved in the process, says Jay Welker, head of Wells Fargo's private bank. Addressing a common concern of advisors, he says the procedure isn't meant to "supplant or cause anybody to transfer that client from one group to another."
Another program seeks to increase referrals by advisors to community banks for products like checking accounts or credit cards. In a pilot effort, 153 advisors in Washington, Oregon and Iowa are analyzing their books of business, identifying clients who could use these services and sending them letters referring them to a local Wells Fargo banker. As with the private banking initiative, the advisor stays involved in the process. The program, which is still evolving, could be extended nationally in the next year or two, says Kelly Kockos, head of the wealth, brokerage and retirement division's cross-selling programs.
Big brokerages, many of which are now owned by banks, like cross-selling because it establishes more and closer bonds to the client. A lot of advisors agree, and some like the monetary incentives that typically accompany cross-selling. Wells' incentives are "modest," Carroll says, and advisors interviewed for this story agreed with that description.
On the other hand, advisors don't want their carefully cultivated relationships with clients clouded by other people and other services they can't control. Some feel that bankers don't reciprocate with enough referrals of bank clients in need of brokerage services.
Wells Fargo likes to point out that it has been involved in coordinating brokerage and banking services longer than its competitors, and a half-dozen Wells Fargo advisors interviewed for this story said that, overall, they're relatively happy with the company's cross-selling strategy. They say they're encouraged, but not pressured, to cross-sell. "The best thing about this place is they don't put a gun to your head to do anything," says a Wells broker based in the Southeast.
