Supervise your practice

The sales supervision and risk teams do a lot of the heavy lifting for advisors that are part of WFAFN. They are responsible for knowing the policies of Wells Fargo. They are also in charge of knowing, understanding, and being able to explain to advisors what’s happening in the regulatory sector. They train them on how WFAFN interprets these regulations and how they can apply it to their business. This allows advisors to focus on their clients.

“We are another layer of protection for the financial advisor and the practices,” said LeShae Tyson, Divisional Supervisory Manager and Senior Vice President at WFAFN. “In addition to being that layer of protection, we also partner with, train, and help them in managing the compliance and supervisory components of their business.”

Many independent firms offer remote supervision, as opposed to having supervision on site. What makes WFAFN unique in the supervision world is the number of regional supervisors and regional risk supervisors that they employ, approximately 45. Keeping supervisors from being spread too thin can help lead to a supervisor having a great working relationship with each of their practices.

“An advisor’s relationships with their regional supervisor and regional risk supervisor are probably some of the strongest relationships they will have at WFAFN,” Tyson said. “Many times, depending on the amount of business and the type of practice that they have, they will talk to their regional supervisor or regional risk supervisor by phone or email multiple times a week. They will discuss a number of topics, including transactions, approvals and guidance on how to handle a certain situation from a supervisory standpoint, among other things.”

The sales supervision and risk teams review everything that applies to an advisor’s trading, account maintenance, money movement, and overall supervision.

“If it has to do with a trade or an annuity that they submit, they would contact someone from my team,” Tyson explains. “So, any type of transaction that they make would come across the desk of someone from supervision to review.”

With regional supervisors overseeing branches throughout multiple states, they spend a lot of time on the road with practices. WFAFN does not want this to keep practices from moving forward with their business. To keep this from effecting the daily work of advisors, WFAFN has non-travel regional supervisors in the home office available to help ensure there is no gap in supervision and contact with the practice while their typical supervisor is out.

WFAFN and teams like Tyson’s want to make sure communication between the practices and the home office is always constant as they work together to keep business on the straight and narrow.

“An advisor’s relationships with their regional supervisor and regional risk supervisor are probably some of the strongest relationships they will have at WFAFN.”

Investment products and services are offered through Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (WFAFN).