With Wells Fargo Advisors, independent doesn’t mean going alone
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How advisors can embrace true independence without foregoing support
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WHAT IF independence didn’t require giving up institutional support or building resources and infrastructure from scratch? That’s a question Jeff Brown, independent solutions platform growth director at Wells Fargo Advisors, is uniquely qualified to answer.
Brown worked as a financial advisor at Wells Fargo Advisors before leaving to serve as president at Stratos Wealth Partners, where he grew the firm to over $2 billion in assets under management through national expansion. Now he’s returned to Wells Fargo Advisors, where he works directly with advisors who are enjoying true independence without losing access to the resources and support they and their clients rely on.
“I can be a voice inside the room and offer my knowledge to assist practices in growing their enterprise value,” he says,
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“You can move to a supported independence model under FiNet, where you can own your own business. While you are there, you can do the research and decide if you want to go full RIA and build your business plan around that”
Jeff Brown,
Wells Fargo
pointing to what he views as a structural advantage no competitor can match. “Wells Fargo Advisors is the only large firm with both the bank and the multi-channel option.”
Finding the right channel for today, and tomorrow
By offering a full range of channel options, Wells Fargo Advisors equips advisors to choose their desired level of independence and evolve over time without repapering. Brown frames the firm’s affiliation models as a scale rather than a menu, defined by the extent of operational responsibility an advisor wants to take on.
The firm’s W2 channel, Private Client Group (or PCG), retains responsibility for compensation, infrastructure, compliance, and operations. “You don’t need to build a lot of infrastructure,” Brown says. “You don’t need to worry about how to build a business when you build your client base.” In contrast, Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, also known as FiNet, offers what he calls “supported independence,” where advisors control how they structure their entity, how they compensate staff, and how they approach mergers and acquisitions. “The firm handles compliance and can handle billing and operational work while still allowing advisors to build their own business.” FiNet advisors enjoy true independence and all the opportunities that come with it, but they don’t have to leave behind the resources they and their clients expect.
The firm’s new RIA Solutions channel grants practices full control over their business with Wells Fargo leaning in as a custody and clearing partner. “Within the RIA channel, you’re responsible for everything, including compliance and technology. It provides an immense amount of freedom, but it’s a lot of work, and it’s not for everybody.”
Movement between the channels is part of the design. Brown describes a former consulting client in Southern California who moved from PCG to FiNet and, after several years, launched an RIA. Two motivations tend to drive the final step: operating discretion, including unrestricted technology selection and broader latitude on alternative investments, and enterprise value.
Brown stresses that the firm’s optionality is a good testing ground for breakaway advisors. “You can move to a supported independence model under FiNet, where you can own your own business. While you are there, you can do the research and decide if you want to go full RIA and build your business plan around that, seeing what that would entail, and there’s no penalty to do it.”
When needed, FiNet advisors can also tap into Wells Fargo Advisors’ support infrastructure to offload back-office demands, allowing them to stay focused on client relationships and business growth. “Hiring is expensive. Having the option of gaining support from FiNet can be a game-changer, since you can offload a lot of extra work that takes away from your core goals.”
Brown says growth inside FiNet now resembles the broader independent landscape, where scale is increasingly driven by M&A. “Unless you have a full-blown organic machine, you’re doing it through M&A, and that usually wasn’t something you could do at scale within Wells Fargo years ago. It’s completely changed.”
Wells Fargo is also developing a minority-stakes program that would give advisors a monetization path without selling externally. Brown is direct about the trade-off he sees in the broader market, where advisors are routinely selling to outside firms to monetize the businesses they built. “This really isn’t fair to the long-term clients who are going to stay there for years but have to move everything and then be transitioned to a new advisor. It ups your fiduciary duty to the client by staying at one firm.”
More opportunities through the balance sheet
When considering why independent advisors find Wells Fargo Advisors appealing, Brown frequently cites the firm’s balance sheet, which is accessible across all its business channels.
Securities-based lending and mortgages are baseline offerings for Wells Fargo Advisors. Having a bank allows clients to receive preferred pricing on both lending options. In addition, “We can help provide loans for very, very large deals. If your client is an executive at a publicly traded company, we have our corporate and investment bank that can help them navigate a deal.” Wells also has a Private Wealth team that provides estate planning, family governance, philanthropic structuring, and business-sale advisory services for clients with roughly $10 million or more in assets.
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“Within the RIA channel, you’re responsible for everything, including compliance and technology. It provides an immense amount of freedom, but it’s a lot of work, and it’s not for everybody”
Jeff Brown,
Wells Fargo
Access to corporate and investment banking capabilities for complex client needs
Private wealth resources for ultra-high-net-worth families
In-house investment research through Wells Fargo Investment Institute
Practice consulting to help advisors evaluate profitability, financing, and growth opportunities
Private Client Group (PCG)
Traditional broker-dealer model as a W2 employee. The firm is responsible for operations, infrastructure, compliance, and compensation.
Wells Fargo Advisors: Business model choice
Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network (FiNet)
Supported independence as a 1099 contractor. Advisors control structuring, business development, and compensation; the firm is responsible for compliance.
RIA Solutions
Fully independent fee-only and hybrid RIAs. Practices have full control over business; the firm leans in as a custody and clearing partner.
FiNet’s evolution
The assumption that wirehouse infrastructure and genuine independence cannot coexist is dispelled by FiNet’s evolution throughout 25 years of serving independent advisors. “Over the past ten years, we’ve fully embraced taking down barriers as a culture through advisor feedback and commitment. Now it’s easier to feel independent at FiNet, without sacrificing support.”
Much of today’s momentum started roughly five years ago, when Barry Sommers became CEO of Wealth and Investment Management. “He came in and really put down the gauntlet saying, ‘Look, the future is independence.’” Under Sommers, FiNet expanded advisors’ ability to pursue M&A, customize entity structures, and access third-party technology that was previously unavailable to employee advisors.
Published August 10, 2026
Independent advisors can also draw on the firm’s research resources. Wells Fargo Investment Institute provides research and investment strategy advice for advisors at a cost below what an independent firm would typically pay to build the equivalent.
At his prior firm, Brown was actively assembling those internal capabilities himself: “These are services that not even the top RIAs have out there.” Ultimately, he takes pride in how his role is helping to correct one of the industry’s biggest market misperceptions: that Wells Fargo is a bank with an attached investment arm.
“Wells Fargo Advisors works with some of the highest-profile people in the financial markets because we can help them across the full balance sheet. At my old firm, we were trying to build an all-in-one business, where we could offer everything to the client. But Wells Fargo Advisors already has that offering and then some. In addition, we have the resources to offer a holistic approach for building and monetizing a practice. We can help break it down for you, soup to nuts, to show where you’re profitable, where your opportunities are, what lending options you have – there’s so much there.”
Investment products and services are offered through Wells Fargo Advisors, a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, Members SIPC, separate registered broker-dealers and non-bank affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company. [PM]-12252027-5584966