Wells Tells Most Producing Managers to Choose by Oct. 1

Most of the roughly 100 producing managers still at Wells have been told, a person familiar with the plan said, to go advisor-only or drop the book by October 1. Wells confirmed the shift to larger complexes and declined to discuss the date.

Wells Fargo Advisors wants most of its remaining producing managers off the dual job.

A person familiar with the changes told AdvisorHub that most of the roughly 100 producing managers still at the firm have to choose by October 1: step down to an advisor-only seat, or give up the client book and stay in management. That is almost two years after Wells first started cutting the role. Wells confirmed the latest move is part of a shift toward larger, higher-producing branch complexes. A spokesperson declined to comment on the October 1 date.

The same person said the change could lower management costs and give field leaders more time for recruiting. Wells described it as a leadership model, not a cost memo.

"Managers leading branch complexes is a well-established model," the spokesperson said. "By creating larger, higher-producing branch complexes, we're empowering experienced leaders to focus on advisor development, recruiting, and growth." The spokesperson added that the firm has "seen strong results when our best managers lead larger organizations, and advisors can stay focused on serving clients and growing their practices."

The first cut landed in October 2024. AdvisorHub reported then that many producing managers, branch leaders who also kept a book, were told to pick one role, and that the order applied in markets where Wells thought it should be taking share and recruiting faster. Sol Gindi, head of Wells Fargo Advisors, said the approach would affect only a "small portion" of managers across hundreds of the firm's brokerage offices. Producing managers in smaller rural branches, he said, could still do "a terrific job."

"We need to have our best people who have 100% of their time focused on growth in our biggest markets," Gindi said at the time. "You're not going to be successful doing two jobs that need to be full time."

If a producing manager went back to clients full time, complex managers were expected to cover the office in the interim, a person familiar with the 2024 plan told AdvisorHub. Wells would not say how many roles that round touched.

The new round reaches the managers who kept both jobs. AdvisorHub reported that Wells is also folding some branch responsibility into larger complexes. The complex-director chair is already how bigger offices are run. InvestmentNews in August identified Nathan Vandas as branch complex director for the Greenwood Village, Colorado, office, inside a Rocky Mountain market Matt Gnau oversees. A Wells branch complex director posting that closed in March, covering Florham Park, Mountain Lakes, and Bedminster, New Jersey, put the job in one line: "This is a non-producing role." The posting assigned recruiting, advisor development, risk, and the complex P&L to that seat, not a personal book. Neither Greenwood Village nor those New Jersey offices has been tied to the October 1 deadline.

The producing-manager job has been under pressure at the wirehouses for years. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley still use it in some offices. Regionals have been more open to keeping it, and Raymond James is the firm the trade press keeps naming. Phil Waxelbaum, a recruiter based in Scottsdale, Arizona, told AdvisorHub in October 2024 that the role had become a conflict. "Producing managers are a legacy that is more typical of small firms living in the past," he said then. "The business is too complex today for managers to have an inherent conflict in which is more important, their book of business or their advisors."

For advisors still inside a Wells branch, the practical question is who has time to run the office. The firm's line is that larger complexes let experienced leaders focus on development, recruiting, and growth. That is the same growth case Wells has been making while high-producing teams keep leaving, and while some advisors weigh the trade-offs of a move to FiNet when the employee channel feels tighter.

What Wells has not put on the record this week is the arithmetic. Not how many of the remaining producing managers will drop the book. Not how many will go back to production only. Not which markets sit inside the October 1 line. The rural exception Gindi described in 2024 has not been restated. The spokesperson would not discuss the deadline.

WirehouseHUB will watch which complexes take the offices, and whether the October 1 choice shows up in recruiting or in another round of managers leaving the chair.