Wells Fargo's indie channel pulls Merrill teams managing $1.4B

Wells Fargo has continued on its hot streak of picking up advisory groups with more than $1 billion in assets by recruiting and combining two separate teams from Merrill.

Twin Harbors Private Wealth is joining Wells Fargo in Melville, New York, where its members had previously overseen more than $1.4 billion as part of two teams at Merrill. Twin Harbors is joining Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, or FiNet, where advisors work as independent contractors.

The team is led by the private wealth advisors Jeff Wang, Joseph Ilg, John Rizzo, Corey Streim, Kyle Napolitano and Daniel Sporn, and also includes three support staff members.

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The advisors' career paths

Wang started his career at Smith Barney in 1994, moved his registration in 2008 to Morgan Stanley (which partially acquired Smith Barney the following year) and went to Merrill in 2016. Ilg started in 2012 at NYLife Securities, changed to Spartan Capital Securities the following year and went to Merrill in 2014. Rizzo began his career at Merrill in 2019.

Streim began in 2005 at Smith Barney, also switched to Morgan Stanley registration in 2008 and moved to Merrill in 2016. Napolitano started at Merrill in 2019, and Sporn started there in 2023.

Among the other big teams Wells Fargo has recruited this month are:

• The Taylor Group, a 19-person team that had managed $5.94 billion at Morgan Stanley in New York;
• AGT Private Wealth Group, a 14-person team that had managed $1.6 billion at UBS in Frisco, Texas; and
• Bartoli Private Wealth Management Group, an 8-person team that had managed $1.5 billion in client assets at Morgan Stanley in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania.