Wells Fargo Advisors combining wealth management sales regions – AdvisorHub

Wells Fargo Advisors is merging the 12 regions of its wealth management business into eight, AdvisorHub reported.

The plan was revealed to managers and brokers on March 4, according to the report.

The leadership structure of roughly 12,000 brokers across the company's private client group and in-bank branches and of the private banking and family office groups being combined more closely into the brokerage unit will be affected, a spokesperson confirmed, according to AdvisorHub.

The event has the same purpose as Wells Fargo & Co.'s previously announced decision to sell its asset management operations, which is to streamline businesses and cut costs as the bank overcomes regulatory restraints and fines in relation to an "overaggressive" sales culture made by previous senior executives, AdvisorHub reported.

With the shift, sales regions within Wells Fargo Advisors will be renamed divisions. The head of each region will reportedly no longer have the title of regional president but will be called division leader instead. They will also have a wider geographic and organizational mandate.

Rich Getzoff, currently head of Wells Fargo Advisors' branch network, will lead the Eastern division, while Kent Caldwell-Meeks, currently national practice leader of trust sales through advisors, will lead the Midwest.

The Northeast and Northern divisions will be led by Mike Carroll, currently Metro Northeast regional president, and Susan Mayo, currently head of the private bank's southwest region, respectively.

Kevin Kitchin, current West private wealth region president, will become the leader of the Pacific North division, and Dave Altshuler, currently president of the Pacific South region, will lead the Pacific South division.

The Southeast and Southern divisions will be led by Keith Vanderveen, currently president of the Florida region, and Alberto Gonzalez Saint Geours, currently president of the international client segment, respectively.

Four private regional presidents who worked outside Wells Fargo Advisors and three presidents of the private wealth unit within the company will reportedly have their positions eliminated.

Presidents who are losing their positions would have to look for other roles within or outside the company, AdvisorHub reported, citing a person familiar with the change.

The source also mentioned that Wells Fargo Advisors will adjust the number of markets or complexes it utilizes to manage the field later this year, and the process has been started through attrition and not by filling vacant seats, according to the report.