Deals & People September 12, 2007

El-Erian Leaves Harvard and Returns to PIMCO

Newport Beach, California–based PIMCO announced Tuesday that the former head of Harvard University’s endowment is returning to help run the Golden State money manager.
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A PIMCO news release said Mohamed El-Erian, its former Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager, will return in January 2008 in a newly created position as Managing Director and Co-CEO and Co-CIO.

In his new position, El-Erian will join CEO Bill Thompson and Chief Investment Officer and company founder Bill Gross, as a member of PIMCO’s senior management team.

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El-Erian, 49, comes back to the firm from the Harvard Management Company (HMC), where he has been President and CEO since October 2005. Before joining HMC, El-Erian had worked at PIMCO for seven years, the company said.

“The demands and complexities of our current positions suggest that the addition of a unique talent such as Mohamed’s will enhance both of our contributions going forward.” Thompson said of himself and Gross.

Products September 12, 2007

Wachovia Securities Offers Practice Valuations to Adviser Firms

Wachovia Securities Financial Network (WSFN) has announced it will provide comprehensive practice valuations (a 60+ page analysis of the firms) to the top 20% of its affiliated independent practices.
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In addition, WSFN is providing the owners of each of these businesses with the opportunity to implement both a short-term continuity/disaster plan and a separate, long-term succession plan to protect the value of their practices, a company announcement said.

WSFN has contracted with FP Transitions to provide and deliver the package of succession planning services. Each participating adviser will receive a custom, hard-bound, comprehensive report detailing their practice value, as well as an extensive succession planning workshop designed to implement a continuity and long-term succession plan.

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WSFN is covering 100% of the cost of the comprehensive business valuations and comprehensive succession planning workshops for the participating advisers, as well as discounts to its entire adviser network.

The comprehensive practice valuations will provide WSFN advisers with a benchmarking analysis of their cash flow quality, marketplace demand, and transition risk, utilizing FP Transitions’ valuation models and database of comparable financial practice sales. Each adviser will receive their practice valuation at a WSFN Succession Management Program seminar in January 2008.

WSFN is an independent broker-dealer with more than 550 financial advisers and 305 practices nationwide.

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