Wells Fargo lost another big team to a Dynasty-backed registered investment advisor founded last year by its own ex-employees.
RIA DayMark Wealth Partners in Cincinnati, which is affiliated with Dynasty Financial Partners,
The incoming team, Compass Group, is led by managing partners and financial advisors T. Rodney Twells, Andrew Sikorovsky, and Joseph Schmidt, according to a
The move comes as the
"My team and I believe that the client-advisor relationship is sacrosanct," Twells said in an interview. "We came to believe over time that the culture at, generally, the wirehouses had migrated a bit away from that."
Preserving a 'sacrosanct' relationship
Twells had never moved before as an advisor, spending nearly 26 years at Wells Fargo — he joined in 1997 at Everen Securities, a firm that was later acquired by Wells. But in 2021, his team finally decided to leave. They considered regional firms, which offered appealing culture, but felt that independence would allow more certainty of future control over their practice, he said.
"We only are doing this once, and we had to do it right," he said, referring to their move.
In spring 2022, the team settled on Dynasty as their new platform provider and Fidelity as the custodian, citing the "breadth and the depth of the technology that's available to us" at Dynasty. Compass then looked for a Dynasty RIA to join, settling at last on DayMark.
The Compass team specializes in working with ultrahigh net worth multigenerational families, as well as 401k retirement plans, endowments, and institutions, and also does "interface with some family offices," a Dynasty spokesperson said in an email.
Compass will operate as a full fiduciary, shedding its brokerage registration with Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments, Twells said, adding that the brokerage part of the practice had been "very small."
"We did spend some time thinking about the consequences of leaving it behind. But it was also a very good opportunity to move solely into the fiduciary world," said Twells, who is a chartered financial analyst. "That was very important to us. We always acted in that capacity in our minds."
'Wow, finally you did it'
Despite some recent improvements in its offering to advisors — such as the
"I really believe that out of all the big firms, Wells is at the bottom — I mean, certainly when it comes to recruiting, when it comes to reputation," Michael Terrana, the president and CEO of advisor recruiting firm Terrana Group in
Terrana, who did not advise on this move, said he had frequently moved advisors out of the firm's employee channel, Private Client Group, although he acknowledged the independent channel FiNet might hold up better with talent and said some advisors in PCG had moved there. A frequent complaint among those he moved was being asked to open a certain number of bank accounts in order — which some advisors did not feel comfortable pushing onto clients.
"The clients of the people that we take out of Wells, they tell their advisor: 'Wow, finally you did it. I was wondering when you were going to move. I wasn't happy with Wells, but I wanted to stay with you.' And they say that over and over and over and over again," Terrana said.
For Twells, it's been a similar tune from clients so far.
"It's been busy," he laughed. "Frankly, the client response has been really, overwhelmingly positive. And we've had just comments, like: 'I couldn't imagine if you and your team weren't in our lives … and how can we get all of this accomplished as quickly as possible?'"
On the bright side for Wells, it has seen some success in
"I think that advisors that would leave any firm to go to Wells, they're going there for the money, period," Terrana said. Several other recruiters in the industry also told Financial Planning that they perceived Wells to generally pay the highest transition deals on the recruiting market.
An RIA magnet for ex-Wells Ohio advisors
Meanwhile, DayMark — where founder Mike Quin had been responsible for the Ohio region at Wells — is on a roll as it continues bringing on more local ex-colleagues from the wirehouse.
At the time DayMark broke away from Wells
Three months later, DayMark said in the Compass
It was through Quin's role overseeing Ohio that Twells' team had first come into contact with him around four years ago.
"We gelled from the start," Twells recalled. Later, when Compass was looking at options, it reconnected with Quin after he had left to found DayMark. "It was fortuitous that we were able to link back up, and in this new environment."
Dynasty credited the move in part to Quin's appeal with advisors seeking more customized services for their clients and his ability to connect with wirehouse veterans. Quin himself has
"The model that Mike Quin and his team are building clearly resonates with billion-dollar breakaway advisors and we look forward to continuing supporting them in their growth," Dynasty CEO Shirl Penney said in the
Quin said in an interview that by the time new teams made contact with DayMark, their mind had been already made up to leave Wells.
"By the time we engage with them, typically it's them reaching out. They've done due diligence, reaching out to so many other groups," he said.
DayMark's in-house counsel, Steven Satter, is in a
Asked about that lawsuit and if DayMark was concerned that Wells might pursue additional litigation for poaching more talent away, Quin declined to comment.
Wells Fargo declined to comment on the move.
