Wells Fargo is increasing the monthly revenue hurdle in its core compensation grid for financial advisors for the first time since 2022. The move reflects increasing advisor profitability as Wells Fargo is re-emerging as a destination for wealth managers following years of reputational damage from a series of high-profile scandals.
Starting next year, the monthly hurdle for Wells Fargo's advisors will be $16,000, up from $13,500. Advisors will earn 22% of revenue they generate up to the hurdle threshold, and 50% on revenue above that level.
The move reflects rising productivity among the firm's advisors, according to Sol Gindi, head of Wells Fargo Advisors. Since the last time Wells Fargo boosted the hurdle in its core compensation grid, the average advisor's revenue production has increased 57%.
"We've accomplished a ton in this business in the last five years," Gindi says. "We now have a healthy business, a growing business. We have larger financial advisors -- much larger on average. Our advisors have everything they need now to win based on the investments we've been making in the business."
Wells Fargo is drawing a bright line in its deferred-compensation structure between advisors whose businesses are growing and those who are losing assets. The firm is tweaking its deferred-compensation grid to increase rates by one percentage point for advisors with increasing asset flows, while cutting it by two percentage points for advisors losing assets.
In 2026, advisors generating annual revenue in the range of $714,000 to $995,000, for instance, are on track to receive deferred compensation of 5% of that revenue. Next year, advisors in that revenue tier whose asset flows are increasing will receive 6% deferred compensation, and those whose flows are declining will receive 3%. Gindi says he expects that the "vast majority" of Wells Fargo's advisors should be in the net-positive side of the ledger for asset flows.
"Advisors that grow will have the opportunity to earn more than last year -- 1% across the board more -- and advisors that are shrinking will earn less," he says. "I want them focused on it more, and I want the incentives aligned with that."
Another change in Wells Fargo's compensation structure aims to connect wealth management clients with more services offered by the banking enterprise. This year, Wells Fargo began offering advisors bonuses if clients held personal deposit accounts, offering 0.15% of those balances if the client held only a bank account, and 0.25% if the client also had a securities-based lending feature.
Next year, Wells Fargo will include business checking accounts in that incentive structure. "It'll be across the entire relationship, particularly for business owners, which is something our advisors told us they thought was important," Gindi says.
Wells Fargo is also expanding the deferred compensation it has historically offered advisors based on lending revenue to include revenue from high-yield, liquid cash-management deposits in client brokerage accounts, as well as new checking accounts.
The company is the last of the four so-called wirehouses, or large national brokerage firms, to disclose its 2027 advisor compensation plan. Morgan Stanley unveiled its plan in September, as did UBS. Bank of America's Merrill unit revealed its plan last week.
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