Wells Fargo FINet Grabs 5 Triad Advisors

A veteran team of five advisors with $120 million in assets under management has jumped to Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network from Triad Advisors.

"Being affiliated with a large bank, some people say it's negative. It's very helpful for us," says Thomas Gray, one of the principals of Retirement Protection Group in Redondo Beach, Calif., which is slated to rebrand itself as Riviera Wealth Management.

"They have a large institutional trustee department that will be there for 100 years. That was very attractive for our super high-net-worth clients, but as we kept going, it got even better," Gray explains. "For our clients of $5 million and up, we can go back to the home office of Wells Fargo in St. Louis, Mo and [Wells Fargo] will work with them and comment upon their family and estate for the better part of the day, for free. That's like a complimentary service."

Gray's partners in the practice include Christina Jesperson, Kevin Terao, Albert Scudder and Judy Tapia.

Though Gray acknowledged the cost of client visits to St. Louis will be covered in their fees and commissions, he says such a service was not available when his firm was with Triad.

"We had no problems with Triad," he added. "They are a great company. We had a great 10-year run with them."

However, Gray says he believes Wells Fargo will help him and his partners grow their business to $250 million in AUM over the next five years.

"They've got charitable giving, advanced estate planning, different wealth management divisions, a full bond trading desk," he says. "Just going down the line, [they've got] voluminous assets that a wealth management firm like ours can tap into, so the support is tremendous."

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