Six advisors bolted from Wells Fargo for regional broker-dealers.
The departures come after wirehouse recently reported its 12th straight quarter of declining headcount. The firm had 13,723 advisors at the end of the third quarter, down 2% from 14,226 for the same period a year ago, according to the company’s earnings report.
Advisors Christopher Ozazewski, Elizabeth Plunkett and Eric Decker left the wirehouse after a decade to join Janney Montgomery Scott in Bel Air, Maryland earlier this month. Moving with them is Janet Desmond, private client associate.
Financial advisors Roper Fields, Thomas Fields and senior vice president of investments B.V. Lawson also split form Wells Fargo in August, joining Raymond James in Cool Springs, Tennessee at its employee broker-dealer, Raymond James & Associates.
Combined the two teams managed approximately $530 million in client assets, according to their new employers.
Ozazewski and Plunkett are both industry veterans with 25 and 36 years of experience respectively, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. Before his time at Wells Fargo Ozazewski spent three years at Smith Barney while Plunkett spent 13 years at A.G. Edwards, which was acquired by Wells Fargo in 2008.
Decker has 18 years of experience according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. He spent three years at Smith Barney before joining Wells Fargo.
Roper and Thomas Fields have 23 and 18 years of industry experience respectively, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. The pair joined Wells Fargo when the firm acquired A.G. Edwards in 2008, where they’d both worked nearly a decade before spending another 11 years with the firm.
A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo declined to comment on the departures.
