Deals & People August 6, 2010

Independent Adviser Growth Spurs Wells Fargo Realignment

Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (WFAFN) says it “expanding and realigning” its Supervision Team in anticipation of continued growth in its independent financial advisor base.

 

Reported by

According to the announcement, the number of advisors affiliating with Wells Fargo’s independent broker-dealer has grown 24% over the past 18 months. In order to address the needs of these additional business owners – including training, monitoring the execution of trades and ensuring the maintenance of professional standards and compliance issues – WFAFN has both expanded its Supervision Team and realigned the group to more efficiently support advisors in their local markets, according to the firm.

“We believe that our unprecedented growth is a direct result of the way we deliver full-service investment services through advisors who help meet the financial needs of their clients in their markets,” said John Peluso, president of Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network. “To sustain that rate of growth, it’s important for us to deliver personal service to each practice while providing easy access to Wells Fargo’s technology and comprehensive product platform,” he said.

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The Supervision Team comprises a director and three team leads who manage the firm’s network of Regional Supervisors who, in turn, serve as points of contact for WFAFN business owners concerning sales supervision topics.

Since 2001, when the independent arm of the firm was established, client assets have increased 600% to $40 billion, according to the firm.

Wells Fargo’s brokerage businesses comprise 15,100 full-service financial advisors and 5,000 licensed bankers as of June 30, 2010. Wells Fargo Advisors is the trade name used by two separate registered broker-dealers and non-bank affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company: Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC.  Statistics include other broker-dealers of Wells Fargo & Company.  

More information is available at http://www.wfafinet.com

The Markets August 5, 2010

June Fund Flows Reported at $25B

Stock and bond funds experienced June net inflows of $25.5 billion according to new Financial Research Corporation (FRC) data. 
Reported by

FRC said the Corporate Bond objective led the net inflow category with $12.5 billion, followed by the Government Bond objective with $4.2 billion, International/Global Fixed Income with $3.9 billion, Tax Free Bond funds at $3.8 billion, and International/Global Equity at $1.6 billion. Equity funds in June showed a $546-million outflow.

Classified by Morningstar category, Intermediate-Term Bond led the way with a $4.9-billion June inflows followed by Diversified Emerging Markets ($4.52 billion), Short-term Bond ($4.5 billion), Large Blend ($3.2 billion), and Equity Precious Metals ($2.8 billion).

FRC data showed that PIMCO’s Total Return fund attracted $2.4 billion to lead the fund sales chart, followed by State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR Gold Shares ($2.3 billion), BlackRock’s iShares MSCI Emerging Market fund ($1.7 billion), State Street’s SPDR S&P 500 ETF ($1.6 billion), and The Vanguard Group’s Total Stock Index ($1.5 billion).

Finally, The Vanguard Group ($1.14 trillion) and American Funds ($834 million) led the way in fund family asset size in June. Following them were Fidelity Investments ($727 million), BlackRock ($475 million), and PIMCO Funds ($373 million).

More information about FRC is at http://www.frcnet.com/.

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