wells fargo ’s wealth management unit lost 173 advisors in the third quarter bringing headcount in the division down to just above 12000 client assets in the advisor channel dropped to 756 billion in the third quarter amid a sharp market downturn falling from 800 billion in the second quarter and well below the 920 billion the firm reported in the third quarter of 2021 wells fargo reported a headcount of 12011 advisors in the third quarter down 14 from 12184 in the second quarter and 43 from 12552 in the third quarter of 2021 wells fargo has seen multiple highproducing teams defect to rival brokerages or leave the wirehouse to go independent but the company insists that hiring is strong wells fargo spokeswoman shea leordeanu said the company has hired twice as many 1 million producers so far this year compared with the same period last year while hiring in the banking channel is “up significantly as wells fargo pairs premier bankers with wells fargo advisors to serve the investing needs of affluent bank customers” in an email leordeanu said “almost all of the net change in headcount this quarter is driven by retirements and those who left the industry with our strong succession program wfa retains the majority of client assets when an advisor retires” overall wells fargo reported results that came in below analysts’ expectations thirdquarter earnings came in at 74 cents a share on 17 billion in revenue missing the 80 cents per share and 175 billion wall street was expecting wells fargo’s advisor headcount may be declining but advisor productivity has improved from last year the company reported annualized revenue per advisor of 12 million in the third quarter down a sliver from the second quarter but up from the 11 million from the yearearlier period but the advisor defections keep coming just today rbc wealth management announced it had hired a sixperson 600 million team from wells fargo wells fargo reported brokerage assets in the third quarter of 1 trillion down from 117 trillion in the same period last year overall client assets checked in at 176 trillion down from 183 trillion in the second quarter and off from 209 trillion in the yearearlier period