Wells Fargo Advisors was previously the retail brokerage of
Wachovia Securities, which was rebranded after the Wells Fargo purchase of the failing Wachovia Bank late December 2008. Wachovia Securities' main predecessors were Prudential Securities and First Union Securities, both of which were large nationwide brokerages that had grown from mergers and acquisitions beginning as far back as 1897 and 1934, respectively.
From Leopold Cahn & Co. to Bache & Co. to Prudential Securities The brokerage firm
Leopold Cahn & Co. was founded in New York in 1879. Cahn's nephew,
Jules Semon Bache, began working there as a cashier in 1880. and in 1965 incorporated the firm
From J.C. Wheat & Co. to First Union Securities One of Wachovia Securities' main predecessor companies was founded in 1934 in
Richmond, Virginia as the investment firm of J.C. Wheat & Co. Wheat fostered growth through mergers, including the 1971 merger with First Securities that created Wheat First Securities, Inc. and its 1988 acquisition of Butcher & Singer, a successful Philadelphia-based securities firm; In 1998, the privately held Wheat First Butcher Singer was acquired by the Charlotte, North Carolina–based
First Union bank. The brokerage firm changed its name to Wheat First Union, reflecting its newly acquired status. creating a coast-to-coast brokerage firm still headquartered in Richmond, which it renamed First Union Securities, In 2000, First Union Securities acquired First Albany Cos. Inc., a regional brokerage and investment-banking business based in Albany, New York. and changed the name of the brokerage to IJL Wachovia. In 2001, First Union Corporation acquired Wachovia Corporation, and assumed the Wachovia name. In 2007, Wachovia acquired the financial services firm
A. G. Edwards, based in
St Louis, Missouri, and combined it with Wachovia Securities, which made it the second-largest brokerage firm after Merrill Lynch. The combined brokerage, operating as Wachovia Securities, moved its headquarters from Richmond to St. Louis.
Wachovia Bank fails and is purchased by Wells Fargo After Wachovia Bank experienced heavy losses during the
subprime mortgage crisis, it was purchased by
Wells Fargo; the deal closed on December 31, 2008. Wachovia Securities became Wells Fargo Advisors, effective May 1, 2009. In May 2022, Sol Gindi was appointed head of Wells Fargo Advisors. Gindi replaced the retiring Jim Hayes, who had headed the subdivision since July 2019. ==References==