Wells Fargo Consolidates Research Services Under One Roof

By Cyril Tuohy
InsuranceNewsNet

Wells Fargo’s Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement (WBR) division is consolidating WBR’s investment research, strategy, manager research and publications units into the Wells Fargo Investment Institute (WFII), WBR has announced.

Darrell Cronk, former deputy chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank, was appointed chief investment officer of WBR and president of WFII, the company also said.

Investment research and publications are distributed to the company’s financial and wealth advisors, and to advisors’ clients. Wells Fargo Advisors, the trade name used by separate broker-dealers — Wells Fargo Advisors, Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network and First Clearing — is one of the largest brokerage companies in the U.S.

Wells Fargo said WFII will be comprised of the manager research, alternative investment and national investment strategy teams that were previously part of Abbot Downing, Institutional Retirement and Trust, Wells Fargo Advisors and Wells Fargo Private Bank.

Abbot Downing serves the ultrahigh-net-worth segment.

In a news release, David Carroll, head of Wells Fargo WBR, said WFII structures the investment team to “deliver our best thinking, our best ideas and our best solutions for the benefit of our clients.”

Cronk, who has been part of the Wells Fargo investment management team for more than 20 years, takes over the duties of chief investment officer at WBR from Dean Junkans who is retiring at the end of the year, the company also said.

“WFII bring together a tremendous amount of investment expertise, talent and experience,” said Cronk in a news release.

WBR, with $1.6 trillion in client assets, is one of the largest wealth managers in the U.S. and generates mountains of research, white papers and policy documents every year in the broker-dealer, retirement and private bank arenas of the financial services universe.

Headquartered in St. Louis, Wells Fargo Advisors is built on a “multichannel business model,” offering services through branch offices, Wells Fargo bank stores and independent representatives, the company said.

Wells Fargo Advisors provides advisory services, asset management, brokerage services, estate planning strategies, retirement planning advice and portfolio analysis and monitoring through more than 18,000 registered representatives, the company said.

On the institutional retirement side, Wells Fargo Retirement manages $314 billion in employer-sponsored retirement plans assets for 3.7 million Americans.

In the private wealth world, Wells Fargo Private Bank serves high net worth individuals and families, and Abbot Downing serves ultrahigh net worth individuals and families.

Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. Cyril may be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.

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