Wells Fargo Drops from Forbes Best-Advisor Lists
Wells Fargo Advisors has suspended its participation in Forbes advisor rankings and conferences, according to a memo sent to the firm’s financial advisors on Tuesday. This follows Morgan Stanley’s announcement that it pulled out of the rankings last week.
The move comes after news reported by The New York Times last week that Randall Lane, a top editor at Forbes, was fired over an undisclosed $6 million payment he received from RJ Shook, the founder of Shook Research. Shook has partnered with Forbes for the past decade on various wealth advisor lists, including its “Best-In-State Wealth Management Teams” and “Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisors.”
“We know many advisors have earned Forbes | Shook Research recognition and used them to highlight commitment to clients, celebrate professional achievements, and support marketing efforts,” said James Craven, head of national sales, in the memo to advisors. “While we are pausing participation in these programs, our commitment to recognizing advisor excellence remains unchanged. We will continue to participate in other industry recognition programs.”
Craven went on to say that the firm will share more information with advisors who have been on Forbes’ rankings regarding the use of marketing materials.
J.P. Morgan Wealth Management and Merrill Lynch both declined to comment on the Forbes lists. Other firms that have appeared in the rankings did not respond to requests for comment, including Edward Jones, Hightower, Raymond James, Stifel Financial and UBS.
Morgan Stanley suspended its participation on Friday, as first reported by AdvisorHub.
Louis Diamond, CEO of Diamond Consultants, said that if firms continue to decline to participate, he could “see a world where the rankings implode.”
“If two or three or more of them decide to drop out, then what is the purpose of the rankings?” Diamond said.
The wealth management recruiting expert noted that there has always been some skepticism about these and other lists, but that overall, they are valued by the industry.
“The firms use them for recruiting purposes, the advisors put them in their signatures, and they’re useful for a few social media posts and marketing,” he said. “It also shows up in searches when people are looking for advisors.”
Joe Anthony, co-owner and president of PR agency Gregory, said the lists have a “supportive role in organic growth for firms with a real strategy around them.” He also noted that the lists like Forbes and Barron’s “feed” the large language model outputs that produce results in AI queries. Anthony also sees viable alternatives, such as client testimonials and homegrown marketing.
“RIAs are always looking to accumulate social proof, and we should expect to see more firms accelerating adoption of client testimonials and reviews (less than 15% adoption so far),” he said. “Testimonials offer more relevant social proof on an advisor’s credibility than an industry list does, but they need to be promoted and published using the firm’s own channels versus benefiting from the distribution that a Forbes or Barron’s has.”
As Wealth Management reported last week, the payment controversy has shaken some advisors’ faith in the rankings, even though they had leveraged their placement on them over the years.
Diamond said if the Forbes list is no longer in use, firms will turn to other outlet rankings. However, he noted, Forbes produces a number of lists and is the most extensive in the space—so he could see wirehouses and firms returning “after a year or two” if the controversy is cleared up.
“At the moment, they’re probably thinking that they gained by being on this list, but there’s more reputational harm to be a part of it,” he said. “The industry will continue, but there will be a void if Forbes’ rankings disappear.”
Additional reporting by Alex Ortolani.
(Disclosure: Wealth Management creates an in-house annual list, the RIA Edge 100, based exclusively on research and metrics compiled with publicly available data in a firm’s Form ADV. There is no business relationship with firms on the RIA Edge 100.)
