BROKER-DEALER BEAT
Wells Fargo Advisors’ current headcount is down by 2,178 advisors, or 14%,from Sept. 30, 2016, when news of itsfake-accounts scandal broke widely.
The bank’s Wealth & InvestmentManagement unit had a 64% drop innet income from last year to $463 million. Its asset level was flat at $1.9trillion. The bank overall had a 56%year-over-year slump in profits to$2.04 billion. Earnings per share sank55% to $0.42.
UBS
UBS Group AG reported a roughly100%year-over-year jump in net incometo $2.1 billion, or $0.56 per share, in itslatest quarterly results. Recently, CEOSergio Ermotti stepped down and wasreplaced by Ralph Hamers.
For the third quarter of 2020, UBSGlobal Wealth Management had pretax profits of $1.06 billion, up 18%from last year and ahead of analysts’estimates of $912 million. Net newclient loans at the UBS wealth business were $10.5 billion worldwideand $5.2 billion in the Americas in thelatest quarter.
Total client assets worldwide were$3.1 trillion as of Sept. 30. Of this figure,$2.8 trillion are invested assets — ofwhich $1.4 trillion are tied to accountsin the Americas. Client loans worldwidewere $201 billion.
Globally, the advisor headcount atUBS stood at 9,688 in Q3’ 20, down 989advisors from 10,677 a year ago and 202from 9,786 in the prior quarter.
In the Americas, UBS had 6,353 advisors as of Sept. 30, a drop of 274 from6,627 in Q3’ 19 and a decline of 57 from6,410 in Q2’ 20. For instance, this quarter UBS lost a $1.6 billion team withfour advisors to Wells Fargo AdvisorsFinancial Network, the rival bank’sindependent channel.
Janet Levaux is editor-in-chief of InvestmentAdvisor. She can be reached at jlevaux@alm.com.
New Training Programs Rolled Out at Raymond James
Raymond James says it is starting a new 20-week coaching program that aims
to help advisors boost their ability to find, attract and serve “more affluent and
higher net worth clients.”
“Industry studies reinforce clients’ growing need for services beyond just invest-
ment management, particularly among [these client segments], and the desire
to work with one trusted advisor on all aspects of their wealth,” according to Liz
Stiles, director of practice management coaching at Raymond James.
“This provides an opportunity for advisors to really enhance their offering andvalue proposition,” Stiles explained.
In particular, veteran advisors who’ve been more focused on investments, orthose new to the business, will be taught “actionable strategies to engage moredeeply with clients and integrate wealth planning resources and expertise fromRaymond James into their practices.” she added.
The program is being offered in partnership with the Investment & WealthInstitute (formerly IMCA) and includes experts on Raymond James’ wealth planning, alternative investments, RJ Trust, and longevity planning teams.
Advisors who participate in it complete 14. 5 hours of coaching, most of whichis done with a group. At the end, program participants receive a Private WealthEssentials (PWE) designation and Continuing Education credits.
The announcement comes only about two months after Raymond Jamesintroduced an enhanced client experience coaching program for affiliatedadvisors and support teams to help them comply with Regulation BestInterest and embrace other best practices as they worked remotely duringthe pandemic.
Also in September, the firm rolled out a new coaching resource for financial advisors and branch professionals affiliated with the firm’s Black FinancialAdvisors Network (BFAN). The BFAN curriculum is focused on areas like businessdevelopment, deep client engagement, refining core client-facing functions, andorganizing and streamlining a practice.
“It’s important to us to continually enhance our support for our AdvisorInclusion Networks and build new programming to help them navigatechallenging times and continue to grow their businesses,” said Renée Baker,head of Private Client Group Advisor Inclusion Networks at Raymond James, ina statement.
“Building on our continued support for our Black Financial Advisors Network
and the firm’s pledge to the Black community, we are thrilled to bring this
resource to our BFAN advisors and support teams,” Baker explained
The pilot program was developed with Practice Management Consultants,
LLC, as well as with the firm’s Advisor Inclusion Networks and its PCG
Education and Practice Management group. PMC-LLC’s culturally diverse con-
sultants have an average 20 years of industry experience each, according to
Raymond James.
Raymond James reported a jump in its advisor headcount to 8,239 advisors asof Sept. 30 — up 228 from a year ago and 84 from June 30. Its total Private ClientGroup asset level was $883.3 billion, up 11% over September 2019. Fee-basedassets grew 16% from a year ago to $475.3 billion.
—Jeff Berman contributed to this report
