Wells Fargo recruiting head leaves after less than a year

Less than a year on the job, the head of advisor recruiting at Wells Fargo is out the door.

Brendan Krebs, who took on advisor recruiting at the wirehouse in January, resigned this week. A spokesperson for Wells Fargo confirmed that Krebs was leaving the firm but shed no light on his reasons or where he is going next.

The spokesperson said that Krebs' recruiting duties will temporarily fall to James Craven, head of national sales, until a replacement is found. Sol Gindi, the head of Wells Fargo Advisors, said recruiting remains a priority for the firm.

"Year over year, our financial advisor hiring is up more than 50%, and directly tied to the strength of our leaders across our markets," Gindi said in a statement. "I believe we have the best leaders in the business who are spreading the word about why Wells Fargo is the right place for advisors to build their practices. I'm looking forward to our continued momentum with James at the helm."

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Krebs became head of advisor recruiting after spending five years as Wells' managing director and market leader for its New England and Upstate New York region. That previous position had him overseeing roughly 600 advisors, client associates and other staffers in six states. He started his career in 1998 at Merrill Lynch.

As head of advisor recruiting, Krebs was in charge of hiring advisors for Wells' three distinct wealth management channels. Advisors can join the firm as direct employees of the traditional wirehouse. They can sit in one of its more than 4,500 bank branches, putting them more in line to receive client referrals from bankers. Or they sign on as contractors with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, or FiNet, the firm's independent channel.

Krebs, whose departure was first reported by AdvisorHub, did not respond to requests for comment sent by LinkedIn. In an interview with Financial Planning in February, Krebs had stressed his desire to make sure advisors are supported throughout their entire careers at Wells Fargo.

"So when you think about advisors joining us, it's with goals around teaming and succession, practice management, looking to potentially bring in the next generation of advisors through our new advisor development program, looking for strategic growth opportunities, perhaps through external book acquisition," he said. "All of that now falls under my scope and my team's scope."

Krebs had also called FiNet "the only independent broker-dealer that can offer the full spectrum of solutions from both a brokerage and lending capability of a major wealth management firm."

Wells has not reported an advisor headcount for all three of its channels since early 2023, when it said the total stood at 12,000. Chief Financial Officer Michael Santomassimo confirmed at a Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in New York in September of this year that the figure remains largely unchanged since then.

"The tide has turned," he said. "We're seeing good recruiting. We went from industry-leading in attrition to what we think is industry-leading in retention."

Wells has been a big player in the frequent give-and-take often seen in recruiting deals. The Wells spokesperson noted that the firm's bank channel last week recruited a pair of advisors, Jason Lee and Ron Fetsch, who had formerly managed $400 million for Morgan Stanley in San Jose, California. In September, Wells hired a team of advisors formerly managing $2 billion for J.P. Morgan in New York.

The deals have also gone the other way. In August, a 12-person advisory team managing $535 million in Manasquan, New Jersey, announced it was returning to LPL Financial after spending eight years in Wells' independent channel. Wells has also recently lost several big teams to the Nashville, Tennessee-based broker-dealer Ampersand Partners, as reported by various media outlets.