✅ Wells Fargo Hires BofA/Merrill Digital Planning Specialist Varner

For our first digest, we take a look at how Wells Fargo & Co has made an interesting new hire — a Bank of America strategist. With this latest hire, Wells Fargo looks to add tools to help financial advisors have more planning conversations with customers. The digital planning specialist, Evelyn Varner, worked for Bank of America and Merrill Lynch before making the switch. Varner officially started on April 26 and now manages a team of approximately 20 people. She notes that the goal of this team is to give more relevant advice to customers about setting and meeting financial goals. “It’s about enabling a connection for our clients with tools and capabilities of the advice framework” Varner said of her work. Interestingly, Varner now reports to a fellow Merril planning strategist, Michael Liersch and notes that their teaming up together was not a coincidence. Varner attributes this to their shared philosophies and thoughts about goals-based approach for advice. This trend comes as brokerage firms look to migrate customers to more fee-based accounts. At least in the immediate future for banks like Wells — this trend is showing no signs of slowing down.

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✅ The Future Of Robo Advice