It was time Wells Fargo got out of insurance due to all their issues. Now, they can focus on trying to stay in the banking business. It will be a hard row to hoe.
Wells Fargo a banking business, tried running an insurance brokerage under the guides of bank CEOs. Financial institutions and insurance operations should be operated as separate entities. It was a good decision for WFB to exit the insurance industry and focus in their banking business.
If USI is one of the most dysfunctional national brokerages around like Some Guy says, then it’s a match made in heaven. Most of the good brokerage talent at WFIS has long since departed. Seems they did not like being treated like bankers.
It sounds as if SOME GUY worked at USI and failed. It also sounds like he needs to learn to spell dysfunctional correctly. No matter. It really does not matter where you work–if you win business and book premium, you will haul in the paychecks. If not, you can always go where SOME GUY went and try it there.
The problem was always that Wells had no clue what a “healthy” profit is in a services business. Wells always wanted 16%-20% profits, which is insane in a service intensive business. Every year the same: “what do we have to cut, or what do we have to do, to get to 20% profit”? Well, guess what, there’s nothing anybody can do to make those returns in and insurance brokerage business. So every year, everybody failed to meet expectations. No office int he country. No year. And that’s the problem with Wells, they always want more performance than is reasonable to expect. All those bankers who fudged product sales in the retail bank — the bankers weren’t the problem, the culture of unreasonable expectation forced otherwise ethical people to fudge numbers to keep their jobs.
Wells is a case study in terrible management. One day a Harvard Business School case study will be published that shows what happens when an entire company culture is based on unrealistic expectations.
Wells Fargo Insurance Services failed because of leadership and experience issues. I worked for Sedgwick and Marsh (17 years) before our office was acquired by Wells (then Accorida). Within 2 years after acquisition, Wells Banking inserted itself into the insurance subsidiary and the lack of insurance expertise at the top became apparent. First leader retired in short order, the second leader came from a bank insurance call center for personal lines and was clueless about commercial, benefits,risk management services etc.Our office led our area in profitability three years in a row and they closed our doors to move our income to an office with 300 employees running a 5% under budget P&L, in an area whose potential revenue could support 150 employees at best. They went from 4th largest to 11th largest broker in a matter of 3 years. It was as if they were trying to fail and eliminate quality employees along the way. Best they are out of a business that requires integrity and brains, both were absent in Wells at that time.
It was time Wells Fargo got out of insurance due to all their issues. Now, they can focus on trying to stay in the banking business. It will be a hard row to hoe.
Wells Fargo a banking business, tried running an insurance brokerage under the guides of bank CEOs. Financial institutions and insurance operations should be operated as separate entities. It was a good decision for WFB to exit the insurance industry and focus in their banking business.
I bet they change the name tomorrow.
USI is one of the most disfuinctional national brokerages around
If USI is one of the most dysfunctional national brokerages around like Some Guy says, then it’s a match made in heaven. Most of the good brokerage talent at WFIS has long since departed. Seems they did not like being treated like bankers.
Most of the good brokerage talent has already left WFIS.
It sounds as if SOME GUY worked at USI and failed. It also sounds like he needs to learn to spell dysfunctional correctly. No matter. It really does not matter where you work–if you win business and book premium, you will haul in the paychecks. If not, you can always go where SOME GUY went and try it there.
The problem was always that Wells had no clue what a “healthy” profit is in a services business. Wells always wanted 16%-20% profits, which is insane in a service intensive business. Every year the same: “what do we have to cut, or what do we have to do, to get to 20% profit”? Well, guess what, there’s nothing anybody can do to make those returns in and insurance brokerage business. So every year, everybody failed to meet expectations. No office int he country. No year. And that’s the problem with Wells, they always want more performance than is reasonable to expect. All those bankers who fudged product sales in the retail bank — the bankers weren’t the problem, the culture of unreasonable expectation forced otherwise ethical people to fudge numbers to keep their jobs.
Wells is a case study in terrible management. One day a Harvard Business School case study will be published that shows what happens when an entire company culture is based on unrealistic expectations.
Wells Fargo Insurance Services failed because of leadership and experience issues. I worked for Sedgwick and Marsh (17 years) before our office was acquired by Wells (then Accorida). Within 2 years after acquisition, Wells Banking inserted itself into the insurance subsidiary and the lack of insurance expertise at the top became apparent. First leader retired in short order, the second leader came from a bank insurance call center for personal lines and was clueless about commercial, benefits,risk management services etc.Our office led our area in profitability three years in a row and they closed our doors to move our income to an office with 300 employees running a 5% under budget P&L, in an area whose potential revenue could support 150 employees at best. They went from 4th largest to 11th largest broker in a matter of 3 years. It was as if they were trying to fail and eliminate quality employees along the way. Best they are out of a business that requires integrity and brains, both were absent in Wells at that time.