<BreadWithSpam[at]fractious.net> wrote in message
news:yobiqs4wjm5.fsf[at]panix1.panix.com...

- quote -

Wells Fargo has two different brokerage services. The one that everyone
seems to be writing about is WellsTrade. This is the DIY brokerage, with
no physical presence.
https://www.wellsfargo.com/investing/styles/wt/

Wells Fargo also offers a full service account, with brokers in various bank
branches that you can talk to. (These brokers refuse to talk to WellsTrade
customers - I checked.)
https://www.wellsfargo.com/investing...ccts/standard/

To make matters more complicated,Wells Fargo has variants of its full
service account - one that charges a wrap fee rather than a la carte
commissions, and one that is more like Fidelity's Porfolio Advisory
Services. Here's the full list:
https://www.wellsfargo.com/investing/styles/comparison

Wachovia Securities (or at least the portion I've had experience with) is a
full service brokerage, so I would expect it to be rolled into WellsFargo's
full service division, and not into Wells Trade.

Mark Freeland
nNeEwTs[at]nyc.rr.com

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On Oct 7, 8:50*am, BreadWithS...[at]fractious.net wrote:
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Good point! Makes good sense: it's just a change of registry. I had
never thought about it.


- quote -

Actually, I am the one who manages the assets for her (POA). She
prefers it that way. And yes, I prefer a brick-and-mortar place and a
real person (broker) that I can get to know and work with.

But I like online services so that I can do my homework: compare
available products as well as account balances; and I like to be able
to make simple trades (rarely) online, although I usually let the
broker do it (at rebalancing time), as long as there is no extra fee.

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BreadWithSpam[at]fractious.net wrote:

- quote -

For anyone with a moderate portfolio, that is > $25K combined in all
accounts, the deal is a lot better than that basic one.



Brian

--
If televison's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who
won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)

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curiousgeorge408[at]hotmail.com wrote:
- quote -


Trivia: Wells Fargo created the first index mutual fund, in a division
that was later sold to Barclay's and became BGI.

Last I heard Wells had various tie-ins between banking and brokerage,
such as better mortgage rates if you have a brokerage account, free
trades in brokerage if you meet some other requirement, etc. Wells is
big on "multiple relationships with every customer" - I think they shoot
for five or something like that. It's worth investigating what benefits
they're currently offering...a broker is basically a parking lot and if
you get a free car wash for the same price and level of convenience...

-Tad

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curiousgeorge408[at]hotmail.com wrote:

- quote -


I use Wells Fargo as my primary brokerage. A lot depends on what you
want or need from a brokerage. I went with them because of their "PMA
deal". If you open a PMA checking account in in conjunction with the
brokerage accounts, you get 100 transactions per year, per account.
That includes equity trades and mutual funds. If you have more than
$25K in qualifying assets (includes 10% of mortgage if it's with them)
all account fees are waived except transfer out I believe.





Brian

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curiousgeorge408[at]hotmail.com writes:

- quote -

Have you looked at their web page? They have $19.95
commissions and a pretty broad array of NTF no-load funds.
Not great, but it may be adequate.
- quote -

You have two separate issues here - don't get them confused.

1) the investments themselves - just because you may be moving
the account (or it may be being moved for you) doesn't mean
that you can't keep the investments themselves (with very
few exceptions - ie. if the current brokerage has some
proprietary product that they can't send over).

2) rebalancing and retstructuring her portfolio - which you
whould review and decide about regardless of where the
account ends up.

I've got no experience with Wells' Investments subsidiary,
but at a glance, I'd probably not bother with it - there
are others which have much broader collections of no-load,
no-transaction-fee funds available, and lower commissions
for those time when one might want to buy an individual
stock or ETF.

I've been mostly very happy with Fidelity and E*Trade, both
of which are less expensive and have many more NTF funds
available (though lately I've been shifting some parts of
the portfolios into ETFs). FWIW.

Your mother may prefer to have a place where she can
physically visit and talk to someone. It doesn't actually
mean much, but a lot of people find that reassuring. Do
not discount the value of that reassurance. She's the
one who has to live with this.


--
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No HTML in E-Mail! -- http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
Are you posting responses that are easy for others to follow?
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2000/06/14/quoting

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My mother has investments held at Wachovia Securities. It is unclear
what might happen with those if the Wells Fargo deal goes forward.

The Citicorp deal was just for Wachovia Bank. But I believe the Wells
Fargo deal includes Wachoia Sec.

I did not think that Wells Fargo had an investment subsidiary. But I
just went to their web site and discovered that they do.

(I have been a customer of Wells Fargo Bank since the 1970s or 1980s.
I guess I've had my head in the sand.)

Okay, so the Wachovia Sec investments would simply change hands.

But what is Wells Fargo Investments like as a brokerage?

And regardless which deal goes through, is it unreasonable for me to
be considering pulling my mother's investments out of Wachovia, even
if the timing is not the best.

I have been considering changing the structure of her investments
anyway, since her time horizon and risk tolerance is small.

And I have not been all that happy with Wachovia Sec because of the
dearth of self-management tools that they offer.

So perhaps I am just looking for a "reasonable" excuse to cut the
umbilical cord now. Is this the "right" impetus?

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