Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the
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Speaker 2: Alex Deal, Paul Sweeney. We are live here at our
Speaker 2: Bloomberg and Active.
Speaker 1: You know where we are.
Speaker 2: No, we're not, Yeah, yeah, we are messaging. We're broadcasting
Speaker 2: live from the Wells Fargo Women in Leadership Summit at
Speaker 2: Kea Island, South Carolina, where they've gathered prominent women in
Speaker 2: leadership to engage in meaningful conversations. So we've had the
Speaker 2: benefit of chatting with a lot of those leaders here,
Speaker 2: both Wells Fargan from some of the other organizations gathered here.
Speaker 2: So we have some good conversations. I'll tell you. The
Speaker 2: other story of the day here from stock perspective is
Speaker 2: Morgan Stanley's John Tucker was just reporting some really strong numbers.
Speaker 2: I was looking at the results. I mean it was
Speaker 2: like the advisory business did well, the capital markets business
Speaker 2: did well. The wealth management business, which is such a
Speaker 2: part of that company, that did well. So the stock's
Speaker 2: up seven percent of fifty two week high. How about that,
Speaker 2: Alison Williams, she joins us She's covered Morgan Stanley forever.
Speaker 2: She used to work there back in the day, so
Speaker 2: she knows this company better than anybody. Allison. Was it
Speaker 2: as good as it appeared just reading through the you
Speaker 2: know kind of the report. It was good.
Speaker 3: But I think the real, uh, the real number that's
Speaker 3: giving investors confidence in our opinion, you know, is the
Speaker 3: wealth flows. So we've had some some uneven flows. Last
Speaker 3: quarter was was relatively weak, and I think the rebound
Speaker 3: this quarter maybe instilling a little bit of confidence. As
Speaker 3: you know, they are strong institutionally, but they have shifted
Speaker 3: their business over time to this, uh more towards the
Speaker 3: wealth business. Gorman had sort of put some aggressive targets
Speaker 3: out there before handing over the rains hits head pick and.
Speaker 2: So and so.
Speaker 3: To be clear, they really, you know, beat the numbers
Speaker 3: across the board. It was led by the institutional business.
Speaker 3: The equities trading business, in which they're relatively more skewed,
Speaker 3: did very well, partly because they are skewed to that business,
Speaker 3: and they did outperform. They had the best growth in
Speaker 3: trading and fees across the big sixties US banks, so
Speaker 3: upset across the board, benefiting from their mix, benefiting from
Speaker 3: their performance. But the wealth flows are really what the
Speaker 3: focus is for investors also because stocks are aiding their
Speaker 3: asset values, aiding fees and so that pre tax margin
Speaker 3: in the business. The other key metrics also doing better.
Speaker 4: Allison, how much can we expect the wealth assets to
Speaker 4: keep growing?
Speaker 3: So, you know, that is the multiple trillion dollar question.
Speaker 3: That is one of the aggressive targets that was put
Speaker 3: out there was to you know, sort of aggressively grow
Speaker 3: those assets, and it did seem like there were some
Speaker 3: pretty healthy market gains priced in. So the markets are
Speaker 3: delivering on those gains certainly this year, and the flows
Speaker 3: are also helping. But you know, we would want to
Speaker 3: see a couple more quarters of evidence that you know,
Speaker 3: they've really built the momentum there. We would expect mortgage
Speaker 3: family to have a strong quarter in wealth this quarter,
Speaker 3: just where stocks are. I mean, the global market cap
Speaker 3: reached a record high according to Bloomberg data at the
Speaker 3: end of the third quarter. And I would keep in
Speaker 3: mind that the pricing of those wealth fees really relates
Speaker 3: to the beginning of quarter value. So that's helpful for
Speaker 3: the bank for the fourth quarter as well. But you know,
Speaker 3: to your question, Alex, when we're thinking about the overall
Speaker 3: franchise and we're thinking about the growth, we should keep
Speaker 3: in mind that there is a big talent to the
Speaker 3: business this year from markets, and to some extent, the
Speaker 3: future growth is sowhat dependent on that.
Speaker 2: It just seems Alison, as I kind of read your
Speaker 2: research and yeah, I know, you guys have great data
Speaker 2: on market share across all business lines, it just seems
Speaker 2: like Morgan, Stanley, Goldman, Sachs, JP, Morgan, they're just kind
Speaker 2: of running away from everybody else on the planet. I mean,
Speaker 2: is that in fact the case they have been?
Speaker 3: And you know, whenever we expect you know that like okay,
Speaker 3: who's gonna who's left that can you know, blow up
Speaker 3: that's a technical term, if you will, and see some
Speaker 3: more share to these banks who are kind of running
Speaker 3: out of names. But if you think about, for example,
Speaker 3: what's happening in prime brokerage, right, so a lot of
Speaker 3: these larger institutional hedge funds that have you know, sort
Speaker 3: of these multipod shops, et cetera. To the extent that
Speaker 3: those bigger firms are gaining assets and doing better. That's
Speaker 3: benefiting you know, the leaders Morgan, Stanley, Goldman and JP Morgan,
Speaker 3: And so as the bigger clients get bigger, that's helping
Speaker 3: those firms as well. Within the trading business. The other
Speaker 3: thing I would point to is, you know, the investments
Speaker 3: in technology. These companies have made the investments in technology,
Speaker 3: and that's also helping them to win share in the
Speaker 3: trading businesses.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna steal Paul's comment slash question from earlier in
Speaker 4: the show saying, what does this all mean about the
Speaker 4: European banks? And are the US banks eating their lunch
Speaker 4: or is the lunch being spread around?
Speaker 3: So I think for this quarter the pie is getting bigger.
Speaker 3: So you know, in terms of whether eating lunch or pie,
Speaker 3: you know, the US banks have been gaining share against
Speaker 3: the Europeans for many many years. We think that does continue,
Speaker 3: but we think the pie is also bigger this quarter.
Speaker 3: And what we heard specifically was, you know, for example,
Speaker 3: JP Morgan, strength across regions, and what we heard from
Speaker 3: these banks was strength across derivative, prime and cash equity.
Speaker 3: So it is really broad based. The other thing that
Speaker 3: we think is notable for for UBS in particular is
Speaker 3: the strength in Asia. So not surprisingly we saw a
Speaker 3: pickup in activity in Asia that really benefited the banks,
Speaker 3: specifically called out by JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. We
Speaker 3: think that that is really going to be a help
Speaker 3: to ubs.
Speaker 2: So how about on the cost side, Alison, was there
Speaker 2: any discussion about compensation? I feel like that's been less
Speaker 2: of a discussion. Point is I guess Wall Street compensation
Speaker 2: has become a little skewed, a little bit more towards
Speaker 2: the fixed and a little bit less on the variable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's that element of it.
Speaker 2: Paul.
Speaker 3: You know, the two things I would point to is
Speaker 3: keep in mind compensation is a cruel, a cruel through
Speaker 3: the first three quarters, So to some extent it represents
Speaker 3: the business trends, and to some extent it represents how
Speaker 3: they think the full year we'll shake out. Secondly, you know,
Speaker 3: compensation for the investment banking fee side of things sort
Speaker 3: of was stickier than we would have expected on the downside,
Speaker 3: and I think that's because there was such a scramble
Speaker 3: to higher town in twenty twenty one, and investment banks
Speaker 3: have been talking about a recovery in that fee business
Speaker 3: for several quarters now, and so I think they that
Speaker 3: that COMP didn't come down as much, so there might
Speaker 3: not be as much of a search to the upside.
Speaker 3: But if we looked at costs, if we looked at COMP,
Speaker 3: you know, in general the profitability was good just because
Speaker 3: the upside to revenue was so much. Now, is that
Speaker 3: because the investment banks are keeping conservative and going to
Speaker 3: see how the fourth quarter shakes out in terms of
Speaker 3: the accrual basis?
Speaker 2: Is part of it because of the.
Speaker 3: Stickiness as I mentioned, But you did see COMP coming
Speaker 3: in sort of above estimates, just not as much as
Speaker 3: the revenue upside.
Speaker 2: All right, that's another good news for investors in these
Speaker 2: big investment banks. Alison Williams, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: taking the time even so helpful today and then really
Speaker 2: are the last week or so as she always is
Speaker 2: a record on these big banks report because our viewers,
Speaker 2: our listeners really want to get the latest on what's
Speaker 2: happened with the global of Wall Street, and Allison is
Speaker 2: the best out there. Alison Williams and Bloomberg Intelligence senior Aniold.
Speaker 2: She covers the global banks and SAM managers giving us
Speaker 2: the delay of the land on lorg Sally again a
Speaker 2: blowout quarter in the stock, hitting a fifty two week high.
Speaker 2: And you know in these big banks, investment banks report
Speaker 2: earnings the next day, what do they do? They go
Speaker 2: sell investment grade debt in the parkplace. And that is happening.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
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Speaker 2: All right, we're broadcasting live from the Bolls Fargo Women
Speaker 2: in Leadership something in Kiwa Islands, South Carolina.
Speaker 5: You know me?
Speaker 2: Well done here? Interesting? Oh yeah, I've been here once?
Speaker 6: Is that why?
Speaker 4: Yesterday so Wells we traveled.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly what happens. That's HAPs when you don't fly private.
Speaker 4: Ah bummer, Yes, exactly, Paul's private was not working there.
Speaker 2: Daniel Squier's joint sess Managing Director and head of Diverse
Speaker 2: Segments at Wells Fargo, and Maria Menendez, a chief financial
Speaker 2: officer at g L Homes of Florida, down in Sunrise.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having us here. We appreciate it. Danielle, talk
Speaker 2: to us about what you guys are trying to accomplish
Speaker 2: here at this conference. I see, you know, a couple
Speaker 2: of conference rooms full of people. You guys are engaged
Speaker 2: in some big conversation. What are you trying to accomplish
Speaker 2: here at your conference here in Cuba?
Speaker 7: Awesome?
Speaker 8: Well, first, i'd say, Paul and Alex, thank you so
Speaker 8: much for joining us here and for having Marie and
Speaker 8: I on this show this morning. And two quick things, Paul,
Speaker 8: just from what you said before. One, I'd like you
Speaker 8: to know that I would also take the journey in
Speaker 8: that truck.
Speaker 6: I think that sounds really awesome.
Speaker 8: And two, I know First Union wheat first very well,
Speaker 8: having been with the company for twenty five years. So
Speaker 8: but with that, it's just such a wonderful event here
Speaker 8: are women in leadership sum. It is really a chance
Speaker 8: for all these women here today that come from various
Speaker 8: industry across the financial and the economic and the business
Speaker 8: space to really connect, to learn and to grow right.
Speaker 8: Come here, get great content, make connections that they otherwise
Speaker 8: wouldn't make with each other, meet people in different spaces
Speaker 8: and circles, and really go out and come back to
Speaker 8: their companies, come back to their communities and say, this
Speaker 8: is what we can all do together, so promote them
Speaker 8: as leaders and then also have Wells Fargo play their
Speaker 8: part in making that happen.
Speaker 4: So, Mario, what have you gotten out of it so far?
Speaker 4: We are you looking forward to get out of it?
Speaker 9: Well, I've really enjoyed meeting people outside of the industry
Speaker 9: we have. The circle of home building is very tight,
Speaker 9: so I've met people in other aspects of real estate
Speaker 9: as well as other functional departments and areas that are
Speaker 9: not just in the finance area. So that's been great,
Speaker 9: and I'm just looking forward to the next couple of
Speaker 9: days and getting to meet everybody else that I didn't
Speaker 9: get to meet at last night to great dinner.
Speaker 6: It was lovely, great weather, yeah.
Speaker 2: Exactly beautiful down here, folks. And if you haven't been
Speaker 2: to Kiwa, it is And if you kind of like
Speaker 2: the game of golf, it's fun. But it's the low
Speaker 2: country down here. Love it, this whole South Carolina kind
Speaker 2: of North Georgia. It's awesome. There's unlike any place else.
Speaker 2: They're deer here everywhere, dear like deer, and there are
Speaker 2: property humongous bugs. I'm just saying I or may have
Speaker 2: seen a few of them this morning in the hotel room. Mari,
Speaker 2: you talk to us about your business, talked us about
Speaker 2: the home building business. It's we hear so much about
Speaker 2: a housing shortage and housing affordability problem in this country.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure necessarily how we got here, but boy,
Speaker 2: you were here. How do you guys think about your business?
Speaker 2: Tell us about your business.
Speaker 9: Well, you can debate how many million, but the truth
Speaker 9: is there is a housing shortage, whether it's two million
Speaker 9: or four million. We are a very niche builder. We
Speaker 9: build only in Florida. We've just been through Hurricane Helene
Speaker 9: and Hurricane Milton, and we've come through it beautifully. Unlike
Speaker 9: what you see in the news new construction away from
Speaker 9: you know, the coastal era is very different when you're
Speaker 9: ten fifteen miles in and the home building industry, you know,
Speaker 9: like Wells Fargo has been with us through when we
Speaker 9: were a couple hundred million dollar company to being a
Speaker 9: two billion dollar company. So home building has gone through,
Speaker 9: you know, periods of normal growth. We survived the Great
Speaker 9: Recession and the frenzy that it was, the pandemic and
Speaker 9: post pandemic, and now we're hitting kind of a normalization
Speaker 9: period again. Interest rates have finally made the FED has
Speaker 9: made the first cut. Of course, that cut impacted bed
Speaker 9: funds rate. It's not the third year thirty year mortgage
Speaker 9: rates because people keep on making that connection. And of
Speaker 9: course that runs off the ten year treasury because that's
Speaker 9: kind of the normal life of somebody in a home.
Speaker 9: But what it did do is psychologically it's set the
Speaker 9: stage interest rates are coming down. We don't know the
Speaker 9: pace or the how quickly that if those are going
Speaker 9: to be twenty five basis point fifty, But what it
Speaker 9: does do for the home building industry is it says
Speaker 9: at some point that spread between the ten year treasury
Speaker 9: and the thirty year mortgage rates should normalize from being
Speaker 9: instead of being a one and a half percent to
Speaker 9: two percent, now that it's almost two point seven two
Speaker 9: point nine. So as demand comes down, the certainty around
Speaker 9: rates comes down, we'll see interest rates come down on
Speaker 9: the mortgage rates, and I think that'll be a period
Speaker 9: where we'll be able to see affordability come back a
Speaker 9: little bit. And it'll also take those people that are
Speaker 9: in that three percent golden handcuffs kind of mortgage and
Speaker 9: let them start thinking about Okay, maybe if rates are
Speaker 9: five and a quarter, five and a half, five point
Speaker 9: seventy five, I finally start making that move and they
Speaker 9: puts more houses into the market.
Speaker 4: So talk to us a little bit, Danielle about the
Speaker 4: relationship that you guys may have, you know, taking a
Speaker 4: company from you know, two hundred million dollars the two
Speaker 4: billion dollars, Like, what does that relationship look like?
Speaker 6: How do you support it?
Speaker 4: How do you have like the faith that it's gonna
Speaker 4: work in that relationship?
Speaker 8: Oh, I just appreciate that question so much. For first
Speaker 8: of all, working with Gil Homes and somebody like Marie,
Speaker 8: it's easy to have the faith because in addition to faith,
Speaker 8: you've seen the execution, You've seen the impact that they
Speaker 8: can have, and it's a fabulous business. I think also
Speaker 8: if we take a little step back, think about just
Speaker 8: what the role of women in business today, it is
Speaker 8: certainly grown, it continues to grow.
Speaker 6: It is our future.
Speaker 8: And I think some of what we look at is
Speaker 8: if you looked at between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three,
Speaker 8: women own businesses, we're growing at more than double of
Speaker 8: other businesses that we're starting, and that number has just
Speaker 8: continued to grow and to expand.
Speaker 6: Over t Why is that what? Why do you think
Speaker 6: that happens?
Speaker 8: Well, I think the power of the purse is changing,
Speaker 8: and I think it's one of those things where we
Speaker 8: take a look at and say, these are amazing people
Speaker 8: who are now in the right spaces, in the right places,
Speaker 8: with the right support, right talent and prowess and engenuity.
Speaker 6: We're never lacking.
Speaker 8: It was opportunity, and so now that there is a
Speaker 8: focus on opportunity, there is a focus on how we
Speaker 8: as a firm and many financial firms can support these
Speaker 8: businesses and growth from the first inkling of an idea
Speaker 8: right in our small business space and our ingenuity and
Speaker 8: our accelerated programs all the way through how we work
Speaker 8: with them. In our commercial real estate. We are fortunate
Speaker 8: at Wells Fargo to be the number one platform in
Speaker 8: commercial real estate, and as such we have the ability
Speaker 8: to look in each and every one of our markets
Speaker 8: and say, where can we do more, where can we better,
Speaker 8: how can we push the system, and how can we
Speaker 8: be responsible around that. Maria and her company are just
Speaker 8: a gem of the companies that we work with. Looking
Speaker 8: at being value. Add having the right people seeing trends
Speaker 8: just I think it's constant communication with.
Speaker 9: Right I think what's one of the things that Wells
Speaker 9: Fargo's done really well is we are a family owned business,
Speaker 9: so they know not only the finance team, but the ownership.
Speaker 9: They know our CEO, who's a woman, and they know
Speaker 9: our chief marketing officers and women. They make it a
Speaker 9: point to go out to our communities and meet the
Speaker 9: people that are actually excavating lakes and doing the construction
Speaker 9: and viewing the product and viewing our clubhouses. So it's
Speaker 9: a it's a very collaborative kind of growth. So they've
Speaker 9: seen our growth and they have been really into our
Speaker 9: culture as well as our business model, which is very
Speaker 9: different from a large national homebuilder. So that kind of
Speaker 9: collaboration is what made it. It's great for two and
Speaker 9: a half decades.
Speaker 2: Two and a half decades interesting Daniel's and Dukeratz and
Speaker 2: that's one another reason. But that's it. I think for
Speaker 2: the rest of the day, they're Carolina people coming through.
Speaker 6: Oh, I'm so happy you said that.
Speaker 2: Carolina people will far I get the whole Carolina thing.
Speaker 2: It's tough stuff going the real estate business. Is tough
Speaker 2: enough Florida. I mean, every time I turn on the news,
Speaker 2: you guys are rebuilding in How do you deal with that.
Speaker 6: Risk day to day?
Speaker 9: Well, one of the things, I mean, Florida's hadmendous growth.
Speaker 9: You know, during the pandemic, We've had so many people
Speaker 9: come into Florida. But the fact is new communities aren't
Speaker 9: really like our communities that are single family home communities
Speaker 9: a couple hundred acres. They are not built on the coast,
Speaker 9: so you're ten to fifteen miles inland. Some storm surge,
Speaker 9: it's in an issue. On top of that, you know,
Speaker 9: finished floors are eight to twelve feet in Tampa, they're
Speaker 9: sixty feet above sea level, so flooding is not an issue.
Speaker 9: Then you've got concrete block construction, the latest Florida kind
Speaker 9: of building code. It's impact glass and tremendous amount of
Speaker 9: focus around water intrusion. So my heart goes out to
Speaker 9: everybody impacted by Helene and by Milton, and you know,
Speaker 9: the devastation, it's super scary and the preparations are important.
Speaker 9: But what you see in the news of the coast
Speaker 9: and older construction, it really shows that where you live
Speaker 9: and how the home build is different, and I think
Speaker 9: what we'll see in home building is people moving to
Speaker 9: new construction.
Speaker 4: Because of that, Danielle, I wanted to talk to you
Speaker 4: more about how the relationship that you may have with
Speaker 4: women business owners changes as the business grows. Right, So
Speaker 4: Maria was talking about how they went from a couple
Speaker 4: hundred million dollar business to a two billion dollar business.
Speaker 4: What does that mean that they ask of you?
Speaker 6: That's different?
Speaker 8: So you know, we're really fortunate as a company to
Speaker 8: have such talented people who work with all types of companies,
Speaker 8: different shape, sizes and industries. And so we have actually
Speaker 8: a platform where we have a head of diverse segments
Speaker 8: both for our consumer and small business banking, for our
Speaker 8: commercial business banking, for home lending businesses. So think of
Speaker 8: the mortgages that we do for a wealth and investment
Speaker 8: management platform as well as corporate and investment banking.
Speaker 6: And really what we want to see folks is.
Speaker 8: Sort of their ability to travel and swim throughout all
Speaker 8: of the offerings that we have at Wells Fargo and
Speaker 8: wherever their need is, we can meet them. So if
Speaker 8: we have a client who's looking for their first credit
Speaker 8: line ever, right, we can work with the small business administration. Well,
Speaker 8: I love to say that small businesses become big, great businesses,
Speaker 8: and so the needs are different at that point in time, Right,
Speaker 8: the facility sizes get larger, the way in which they
Speaker 8: issued at might get larger. And then imagine the founder
Speaker 8: of a company after six, seven, ten years has.
Speaker 6: The ability to IPO.
Speaker 8: What I really love is that one we can meet
Speaker 8: all those needs too, we can advise along the way.
Speaker 8: And three to watch generational wealth grow. That has to
Speaker 8: be one of the most rewarding things to see, especially
Speaker 8: women in business, as they learn, as they grow, as
Speaker 8: they execute and achieve. It's actually an honor to be
Speaker 8: part of that. And I think we can along the way. Yeah,
Speaker 8: that's nae Eryria at.
Speaker 2: Your company gl homes here he talks about it. I
Speaker 2: mean the growth you guys must be dealing with it.
Speaker 2: We think about South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas being these
Speaker 2: great growth markets, which they've always been quite frankly for
Speaker 2: the forty years I've been in investment bank business. That's
Speaker 2: where the growth has been. Then comes pandemic and then
Speaker 2: it takes to another level.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it explodes.
Speaker 2: Talk to us about the last four to five years
Speaker 2: for you guys, How is your business change, How is
Speaker 2: your planning change? How is maybe your banking needs changed?
Speaker 9: Our business has changed dramatically. We went through some really
Speaker 9: difficult times. Getting a house built during the pandemic used
Speaker 9: to took six to twelve months before and it could
Speaker 9: go from nine to eighteen months. And now we're seeing
Speaker 9: it kind of come back to normal. You know, supply
Speaker 9: chain issues have kind of normalized. But during that time
Speaker 9: it was kind of all hands out deck. We reached
Speaker 9: out to like Wells Fargo when the market was struggling
Speaker 9: in Florida. You're you're building a million dollar homes, So
Speaker 9: we reached out to Wells Fargo and said, we need
Speaker 9: help on the mortgage side of the equation, particularly for
Speaker 9: jumbo loans. So we reached out to all of our contacts.
Speaker 9: We actually grew our facility from being you know, we
Speaker 9: were in bilateral agreements. We have now a corporate facility
Speaker 9: and Wells Fargo helped us with that. Grew three hundred
Speaker 9: million dollars during the pandemic, and it's just, you know,
Speaker 9: a very different business. Also, demand is really different and
Speaker 9: trends changed a lot. We went through a period of
Speaker 9: time kind of pre pandemic that everybody wanted a media room,
Speaker 9: designated spaces. During the pandemic, they was like, I need
Speaker 9: flex space. I need to use it for yoga one day.
Speaker 9: I need to use it for an office for a
Speaker 9: different day. People were home more, laundry rooms got bigger,
Speaker 9: kitchens got bigger, and now they're kind of coming back
Speaker 9: to like maybe even formal dining is coming back a
Speaker 9: little bit. So the product changed a great deal and
Speaker 9: what people wanted in the communities. The pools had to
Speaker 9: be bigger, the dining had to be bigger, the outdoor
Speaker 9: had been you know sports. We went one community as
Speaker 9: thirty seven pickleball course.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and they're building fifteen more and Padel's coming on.
Speaker 9: So the activities that had to be provided are completely different.
Speaker 9: So it's about knowing your customer and what they want.
Speaker 4: So when you have to grow that fast, Maria, what's
Speaker 4: the biggest struggle in growing that fast and having to
Speaker 4: pivot that quickly.
Speaker 9: It's getting people trained and inculcated in your culture or
Speaker 9: a very detailed oriented company privately held. One of the
Speaker 9: great things about Wells Fargo, Danielle talked about an IPO.
Speaker 9: If you also say I want to own this in
Speaker 9: my family for next ten generations, Okay, we're there for that,
Speaker 9: and let's let us help you with that. So it's
Speaker 9: really getting people trained. There's such a shortage of plumbers
Speaker 9: and electricians and getting out to people, getting the trades
Speaker 9: kind of up and going and getting the training done.
Speaker 9: Those would be really great women owned businesses. I'd love
Speaker 9: to see more women owning them because they're kind of
Speaker 9: detail oriented to scheduling the details of what the work
Speaker 9: needs to like reaching out to the customers afterwards. So
Speaker 9: it's just getting all the trades up, people internally trained
Speaker 9: to do higher volume because you went from maybe had
Speaker 9: to help start four houses a week to happening start
Speaker 9: twelve a week to meet demand. So it's just the
Speaker 9: ramping up is just an immense effort.
Speaker 2: Danielle, I've been in the financial services career all my life.
Speaker 2: In diversity has always been, i would say, challenge on
Speaker 2: Global Wall Street. What happens I've seen in managing businesses.
Speaker 2: The incoming analyst class, the incoming associate class is diverse.
Speaker 2: Every box is ticked, every boxing tick, every year at
Speaker 2: every firm. Seven years, eight years later, it comes to
Speaker 2: the managing director of partnership discussion, it ain't so diverse anymore.
Speaker 2: What happens.
Speaker 8: You know, It's interesting because they used to talk about
Speaker 8: sort of the off ramps and on ramps that people
Speaker 8: see both because of what's in their lives and potentially
Speaker 8: as people grow and the opportunities that are afforded to them.
Speaker 8: And I can say what I'm really proud of at
Speaker 8: Wells Fargo is that we actually focus very well, very
Speaker 8: specifically in on that how do we keep people excited, energized,
Speaker 8: and growing. And it's equally as important to how do
Speaker 8: we keep you doing exactly what you want to be
Speaker 8: doing and what you're good at doing, and sometimes that
Speaker 8: means moving within. So some of the programs that we
Speaker 8: have from a D and I perspective are some of
Speaker 8: our sponsorship program, some of our you know, our Building
Speaker 8: Organizational Leadership Diversity or BOLD program, which really takes different
Speaker 8: leaders across all of our bank and puts them in
Speaker 8: a development program and something that we've been running the
Speaker 8: last few years with a great success from a promotion perspective.
Speaker 8: But what I've also say, I'm really proud that we've
Speaker 8: also been successful in a lot of ways. And so
Speaker 8: if you look at and we were talking about our
Speaker 8: real estate business again being number one, Karen McShane is
Speaker 8: a phenomenal woman also a Duke grad to throw it
Speaker 8: out there, who actually runs that business right, And so
Speaker 8: that's a powerful platform. Our co head of Equities who
Speaker 8: is moderating a panel with our women in leadership today
Speaker 8: at Wells Fargo, Judith Barry. We have the co head
Speaker 8: of our equity capital Markets is chill Ford. Fifty one
Speaker 8: percent of our employees our women. Our board is made
Speaker 8: up of thirty percent of our Board of Directors or women,
Speaker 8: and twenty seven percent of our operating committee. These are
Speaker 8: the people who report directly to our CEO. And then
Speaker 8: forty one percent of all executives at Wells Fargo are women.
Speaker 8: So Paul, I'm happy to say that trend is moving
Speaker 8: in exactly the right direction.
Speaker 4: To then Mary, but both of you guys, when it
Speaker 4: comes to diversity, how do you on Wells Fargo, how
Speaker 4: do you help housing affordabilities? Danielli's start with you and
Speaker 4: then Rio, I'd love to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker 8: So housing affordability is obviously a great one concern of
Speaker 8: ours and a great focus of ours.
Speaker 4: Especially how you build well like that's a really it's
Speaker 4: a huge way to.
Speaker 8: Do the single largest component and it's it's something we
Speaker 8: focus on both from the foundation perspective and we do
Speaker 8: it actually in the whole ecosystem, so both for people
Speaker 8: to afford it, right, the ability to understand what a
Speaker 8: credit score is, the ability to understand how we grow
Speaker 8: the credit score, to the ability to understand the mortgage process.
Speaker 6: So that's all at one stage.
Speaker 8: What we've also done is actually work with diverse housing developers, right,
Speaker 8: So how do we get more diversity in the housing
Speaker 8: development space? How do we get more diversity in the
Speaker 8: housing appraisal space? So think of a giant circle in
Speaker 8: an ecosystem. We actually have to attack every single piece
Speaker 8: of it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 8: How do we support the consumers as they grow for
Speaker 8: the wealth. How do we help build more affordable housing.
Speaker 8: We have an amazing Vanessa Rodriquez as a woman who
Speaker 8: runs our affordable housing and community lending and investment. How
Speaker 8: do we get more money into the cities, into the
Speaker 8: states where affordable housing needs to be built. How do
Speaker 8: we get the hands and loans and financing into those
Speaker 8: of the diverse developers and then how do we have
Speaker 8: summits like this that connect people Because what we can
Speaker 8: do is a lot, but what we can all do
Speaker 8: together is far greater, and that's the real answer, And
Speaker 8: so how do we get everybody together? Affording affordable housing
Speaker 8: is something we're actually one of the leading lenders on
Speaker 8: and that's something we're going to continue to focus on.
Speaker 9: Yeah, when you think of affordability, it comes with a
Speaker 9: lot of different shades. There's workforce housing, there's affordable housing,
Speaker 9: and there's market housing that's on the lower scale and
Speaker 9: affordable to people that are a nurse and a firefighter.
Speaker 9: And that's about having to design product that we can
Speaker 9: actually build at the right cost. So that might mean
Speaker 9: that flex space becomes very important to them, the design
Speaker 9: might have a little less few windows than the four
Speaker 9: thousand square foot house someplace else. So coming to design
Speaker 9: product that works at a price point, because we all
Speaker 9: can't be an affordable housing or workforce housing, there's market
Speaker 9: rate pricing that can be available at a price point.
Speaker 9: So that means that there's going to be more duplexes
Speaker 9: and villas and the whole world kind of needs to
Speaker 9: get a kind of a adjustment around density because that
Speaker 9: is one of the biggest issues that we have today.
Speaker 9: We can build more affordable housing and things that people
Speaker 9: have afford, but we need a little bit more density,
Speaker 9: and with the price of land and how hard it
Speaker 9: is to get entitled, we really have to work toward
Speaker 9: that to find the right mix and then put the
Speaker 9: right product on it.
Speaker 2: Guys, thank you very much for joining us. Really appreciate
Speaker 2: getting some of your time. Danielle Squire's managing director ahead
Speaker 2: of Diverse Segments at Wells Fargo and Maria Merenendez, chief
Speaker 2: financial officer at g L. Holmes of Florida Holding Corporation
Speaker 2: Sunrise Florida. So good conversation on real estate, affordable housing, banking, diversity,
Speaker 2: all kind of intertwining in there as well. So in
Speaker 2: depth conversation with good stuff there.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
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Speaker 2: We are broadcasting Alex Steel and myself. You're broadcasting line
Speaker 2: from the Wells Fargo Women in Leadership Summit at Kiwa
Speaker 2: Island in South Carolina, where they've gathered prominent women in
Speaker 2: leadership to engage in meaningful conversation, and we were fortunate
Speaker 2: to have two more of those guests here joining the
Speaker 2: stage whether us here this morning, Susanne Marson, head of
Speaker 2: Commercial Banking and Wealth Partnerships and Executive VP at Wells Fargo,
Speaker 2: and Jessica Murphy, Managing director for the Southeast Division, Executive
Speaker 2: Commercial Banking at Wells Fargo Commercial Banking. Tommy, when I
Speaker 2: think of Wells Fargo, I think of the strength of
Speaker 2: the commercial and the corporate bank I kind of envisioned
Speaker 2: you guys talking to everybody from big multi corp multi
Speaker 2: international corporates all the way down to the small business here.
Speaker 2: So let's just start with you, Jessica, just give me
Speaker 2: a sense of I could be a successful banker down
Speaker 2: here in the Southeast. I mean, come on, this market
Speaker 2: is growing like crazy. It has for thirty or forty years.
Speaker 2: Talk to us about the market today when we've had
Speaker 2: this influx of people even more than the usual post pandemic,
Speaker 2: We've got rates coming down. How is business? Yeah?
Speaker 7: So I've been in my role just over six months now,
Speaker 7: and when I have the opportunity to move into the Southeast.
Speaker 7: I've thought about it exactly like you outlined, Paul, how
Speaker 7: can you not get excited about the demographics, the economic
Speaker 7: trajectory of the Southeast. Of the eight states that I'm responsible,
Speaker 7: everyone except one is growing above the national GDP level.
Speaker 7: That employment statistics are fantastic, and the business environment is
Speaker 7: very productive. We have a lot of swing states here.
Speaker 7: We just got out of a real time political panel,
Speaker 7: a very dynamic and vibrant part of the economy. And
Speaker 7: then to where you started. With Wells Fargo Commercial Bank,
Speaker 7: it is an critical and thriving part of our franchise.
Speaker 7: We intersect businesses about twenty five million in sales or
Speaker 7: revenue all the way up to two to five billion,
Speaker 7: So one of the most exciting parts of the US
Speaker 7: economy and something we do very well at Wells Fargo.
Speaker 4: What's the biggest question that they have, Like they call
Speaker 4: you up and be like, look, I need you to
Speaker 4: answer this. Suzia is actually and nodding, so clearly you
Speaker 4: want to get into that too.
Speaker 6: Well, I'll tell you.
Speaker 5: I think our clients have just a massive range, Paul,
Speaker 5: you said it. We're working with companies between twenty five
Speaker 5: million and multiple billion. They're mostly privately owned, we have
Speaker 5: an election coming up, we have potential, you know, changing
Speaker 5: economic landscapes, and so really they come to us and
Speaker 5: we just try to listen to what are they trying
Speaker 5: to achieve to grow the business, and think about their
Speaker 5: family dynamics and then try to match off no matter
Speaker 5: what this scenario is. But uncertainty, it is hard for
Speaker 5: businesses to think about those decisions. And I think we're
Speaker 5: always trying to be really dynamic with them on how
Speaker 5: do we help them navigate that? And I think that's
Speaker 5: it's top of mind for a lot of business owners.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I've noticed just in
Speaker 2: my career is when you've got these privately owned companies
Speaker 2: and they've created a lot of asset, that a lot
Speaker 2: of wealth, and then they have a liquidity event, whether
Speaker 2: they sell the company or sell a portion of the company,
Speaker 2: then they don't know what to do with the money.
Speaker 2: How do you guys? Like that's a wealth management discussion,
Speaker 2: And that's what we.
Speaker 4: Go to you, right, is that's why you straddle both areas.
Speaker 5: We do, and we work really closely together in this
Speaker 5: in this way at Wells Fargo, and we think about
Speaker 5: clients on a life cycle, so they have a personal
Speaker 5: life cycle as they're building that business and the value
Speaker 5: and their business life cycle, and we're really focused on
Speaker 5: how do they stay ready no matter what they want
Speaker 5: to do, right, so they're prepared if it's a generational
Speaker 5: change inside in generational ownership and leadership change, or preparing
Speaker 5: for the liquidity event. So hopefully we're having really good
Speaker 5: conversations Paul before they get to that event so that
Speaker 5: they can really lay the found work of all the planning,
Speaker 5: filmthropic trust, and a state type of dynamics that they
Speaker 5: need to think about to maximize that value for their family.
Speaker 5: So it's a whole range of decisions that they make
Speaker 5: on those events and what they do depending on their
Speaker 5: values and priorities.
Speaker 4: And that's obviously the longer term. In the short term, Jessica,
Speaker 4: we're talking about that uncertainty, right, and the two that's
Speaker 4: going to affect small businesses are going to be tariffs
Speaker 4: and taxes. So when they call you up and they're like,
Speaker 4: I don't know what to do. How do I understand
Speaker 4: where I should be investing my money in the next
Speaker 4: twelve months?
Speaker 7: What do you say to them, well, I think Suzanne
Speaker 7: answered it really well. It's very specific to what are
Speaker 7: the capital needs you have in your term? What are
Speaker 7: you trying to do with this business. Are you just
Speaker 7: trying to survive because you've been very impacted by say
Speaker 7: a hurricane or something, or are you thinking strategically for
Speaker 7: the future in trying to scale at a rapid rate.
Speaker 7: And the vice will be different. But you touched on taxes,
Speaker 7: touched on the election, but certainly economics is highly relevant
Speaker 7: and rates has been the theme. So most of our
Speaker 7: clients were surprised, even though I think the fud was
Speaker 7: very clear with rates rising as fast as they did,
Speaker 7: and now turn around we've had a fifty bass point cut.
Speaker 7: Our clients are wondering is that going to continue? And
Speaker 7: how do we take advantage? And Wells Fargo we're not
Speaker 7: really in the business of predicting. We have a few
Speaker 7: people on our business that are traders, et cetera, and
Speaker 7: they try to anticipate that. But what Susanna and I
Speaker 7: do is help people be prepared regardless, So no matter
Speaker 7: what the policy is, we want to make sure your
Speaker 7: business is successful throughout those cycles.
Speaker 2: When I think Wells Fargo I think North Carolina, I
Speaker 2: think Charlotte, but I also think of now our good
Speaker 2: friends in the western part of the state, devastation. Devastation,
Speaker 2: I mean people moved there from all over the country
Speaker 2: because there weren't earthquakes, there weren't far as fire.
Speaker 7: It was a climate haven.
Speaker 2: It was a climate haven. Then they got just crushed.
Speaker 2: How did your bank respond to that, because again, when
Speaker 2: I think of North Carolina, I think of Wells Fargo.
Speaker 7: Well, I think there's probably two ways. I'll start with
Speaker 7: just the charitable and outpouring of time and resources into
Speaker 7: the region. We have, like you said, deep connectivity. We
Speaker 7: have bankers in that community, we have people that represent it,
Speaker 7: and then we also have many people that spend vacation
Speaker 7: and other family time there. So whilst Fargo Foundation donated
Speaker 7: over a million dollars almost immediately, we have a WEE
Speaker 7: Care Foundation where employees that were directly impacted can receive
Speaker 7: resources to combat like just the personal devastation that they've
Speaker 7: reacted to. Our ATMs have a safe and secure and
Speaker 7: no service fees donation to the Red Cross, and so
Speaker 7: I think that's you know, expected and immediate and appreciated.
Speaker 7: But at a business level. One of the first things
Speaker 7: that happens when you have a natural disaster is you
Speaker 7: lose power, you don't have your cell service, and you
Speaker 7: immediately moved to a cash economy. And so we had
Speaker 7: a very important role in getting our own branches and
Speaker 7: employees they are safe and up and running, so that
Speaker 7: we could support the economy. We had to get cash
Speaker 7: in to have people make payroll and meet their basic needs.
Speaker 7: But then we also have clients that are convenience stores,
Speaker 7: grocery stores, and they need a safe place to move
Speaker 7: their cash so that they can get it back into
Speaker 7: the system and account for things. So we play a
Speaker 7: really critical role in that in the communities that were impacted,
Speaker 7: both both in West Florida and the western part of
Speaker 7: North Carolina.
Speaker 4: How long do you think it's going to take for
Speaker 4: everything to sort itself out.
Speaker 7: Well, I'm told most of Tampa will have power by Thursday.
Speaker 7: I am not an expert. And then on the western
Speaker 7: part of the state, I mean, this is a massive rebuild,
Speaker 7: the destruction of the infrastructure of the water system. I'm
Speaker 7: not an expert here, but what I will say is
Speaker 7: there's a meaningful role for banks to play in the
Speaker 7: rebuild and to rebuild in a more resilient way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how do you talk to clients about how to
Speaker 4: build up their business and then monetize that wealth at
Speaker 4: the same time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's a fantastic conversation. So most of
Speaker 5: our clients are private or privately controlled public companies. Half
Speaker 5: of their mindset is absolutely focused on growing the business,
Speaker 5: and half of their mindset is thinking about growing that
Speaker 5: business and the value for a legacy for some reason,
Speaker 5: generational transition or otherwise. And I think we just our
Speaker 5: teams deliver in an excellent passion. So when it's business growth,
Speaker 5: we're talking about growing through acquisitions or growing organically or
Speaker 5: all of the things we'd naturally talk about with our
Speaker 5: executive teams. And then what we're translating that back into
Speaker 5: for their business is preparing for that event, right, and
Speaker 5: so what do you want to do with this great
Speaker 5: business that you have built? And we have teams oriented
Speaker 5: just around that conversation, So we don't we're indifferent if
Speaker 5: it's an exit or a generational change. We just want
Speaker 5: them to be ready and it matches against what their
Speaker 5: personal objectives and values are to do it, and so
Speaker 5: we deliver that through great teams on our commercial bank
Speaker 5: and our great teams in the wealth platform as well.
Speaker 2: And Jessica, when I banked the Southeast way back in
Speaker 2: the day and week for securities, again the source of
Speaker 2: your broker dealer light license. Thank you, You're welcome. We
Speaker 2: banked trucking companies, furniture companies, broadcasting companies. I think it's
Speaker 2: probably changed a lot since then. Talk to us about
Speaker 2: kind of the companies, the areas of opportunity that you
Speaker 2: guys see in the Southeast.
Speaker 7: Well, it's changed, and it hasn't. I mean, those companies
Speaker 7: are still the backbone of the economy here. But what
Speaker 7: we have seen is our end Tree expertise in the
Speaker 7: tech sector, in healthcare, in some of our kind of
Speaker 7: other verticals have been exploding. And what we've done is
Speaker 7: try to pull all those threads together to support the economy.
Speaker 7: But certainly women led businesses, obviously this would be an
Speaker 7: example of an event like that. In twenty twenty three,
Speaker 7: women started two point seven or created two point seven
Speaker 7: trillion dollars in revenue from businesses that they lead. So
Speaker 7: that's just that's not just in the Southeast though, but
Speaker 7: we recently I'll just highlight a cool event. We sponsored
Speaker 7: a film called Show Her the Money, and it shines
Speaker 7: light on the fact that female entrepreneurs receive significantly less
Speaker 7: venture capital than their male counterparts, despite their very successful
Speaker 7: track record and according to a BCG study, better return
Speaker 7: on investment. And so we show the film in a
Speaker 7: community we are in Raleigh, and we had centers of influence,
Speaker 7: clients and other important leaders in the community talk about
Speaker 7: how to address that, not just because it's a good idea,
Speaker 7: but because of the great investment.
Speaker 4: Right exactly, it's not just like support it because it's nice,
Speaker 4: do it because it makes money. And we're going to
Speaker 4: put that out there. Suzanne, are you talking to businesses
Speaker 4: right now in terms of their long term trajectory? I
Speaker 4: know it's a curated process, but is it more private
Speaker 4: for longer?
Speaker 6: Is it?
Speaker 4: Is it conversation IPO? How has that type of conversation changed?
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think over the last decade, you know,
Speaker 5: the evolution of private equity and private capital has changed
Speaker 5: the landscape on alternatives for private business owners. But I
Speaker 5: also think even in the last five years, if someone
Speaker 5: wants to stay private for longer, you know, partnerships between
Speaker 5: family offices and investors that might have a longer time horizon.
Speaker 5: The landscape has changed for alternatives for exits or continuation
Speaker 5: of involvement and minority fashion. So I think what we
Speaker 5: have tried to do is continue to adapt, again being
Speaker 5: very indifferent to how they want to exit, but making
Speaker 5: sure that they know their alternatives, and I think the
Speaker 5: size of the company, the industry that they're in, you know,
Speaker 5: we try to just deliver it into that conversation. There's
Speaker 5: absolutely continues to be a lot of great streamategic activity too,
Speaker 5: and so somebody's best client may be their best acquirer
Speaker 5: down the road. And so I think the opportunity to
Speaker 5: just continue to open up for private business owners in
Speaker 5: that conversation.
Speaker 7: Maybe just to add in because it ties to the
Speaker 7: question that you are asking. Ultimately, building a business or
Speaker 7: leading a meaningful business is still one of them to
Speaker 7: create wealth. And when women do that successfully, it changes
Speaker 7: their famili's financial trajectory, but it also gives them a
Speaker 7: platform for impact. And so we're constantly thinking of those things.
Speaker 7: And people just because they build a successful business, the
Speaker 7: families we talk to are very keen to think about that.
Speaker 7: It's part of the family in many cases, but they
Speaker 7: want it like a child to grow up, stand on
Speaker 7: its own, have a board, these kinds of things. So
Speaker 7: that those are some of the discussions we get into.
Speaker 2: Susan, it's head of a business here. How do you
Speaker 2: think about talent, tracting and retaining talent? Every business owner,
Speaker 2: every manager I talk to, when almost every industry that
Speaker 2: alex Line talked to, they say that as a challenge.
Speaker 2: It's not just a pandemic, it's just in general sourcing
Speaker 2: and retaining talent. How do you guys approach that.
Speaker 5: We are a people business still. We just had a
Speaker 5: really great conversation about AI, but we also talked about
Speaker 5: the whole human element to delivering what we do across
Speaker 5: the board. Wells Fargo is invested all the way from
Speaker 5: sophomores in college where we start to take them at
Speaker 5: a very very early stage and help them evolve through
Speaker 5: their career. And we look at that, we think about
Speaker 5: all the investment in our people, because if we're investing
Speaker 5: in them, they're investing in our clients and caring for
Speaker 5: our clients. So there's a lot of robust training programs
Speaker 5: and development that we have still continued to invest in
Speaker 5: a great deal. And then I think Wells Fargo also
Speaker 5: is really supportive of like bringing in talent from a
Speaker 5: lot of other directions, traditional and non traditional. I think
Speaker 5: that makes up and then we all kind of come
Speaker 5: together under a culture that's very very client centric and
Speaker 5: team oriented team members, so helping people grow and develop.
Speaker 5: But I couldn't agree with you more. Our clients are
Speaker 5: focused on the same challenge on how do we grow
Speaker 5: and develop? Being in the Southeast. We have a really
Speaker 5: great presence in the Carolinas in Charlotte, North Carolina, as
Speaker 5: well as other major hub cities around the country. But
Speaker 5: not only is there a great economic region for our
Speaker 5: company to you, we're investing a tremendous amount here in
Speaker 5: people on talent in the Southeast.
Speaker 4: We thank you both so much. It was a really
Speaker 4: great conversation. Thank you very very much, Susanne Morrison, Executive
Speaker 4: vice president, head of Commercial and well Partnership and Jessica Murphy,
Speaker 4: Managing director of Southeast Division executives for talking through that
Speaker 4: relationship with commercial banking and private wealth and how to
Speaker 4: help small businesses really grow.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live
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Speaker 4: Well after you've been saying, We are here in South Carolina,
Speaker 4: a Kiwa Island at the Wells Fargo Women Leadership Summit,
Speaker 4: where we gather lots of different people in Wells Fargo
Speaker 4: who helped build up women leaders and then the women
Speaker 4: leaders themselves. And we're very pleased to welcome the filmthraffic
Speaker 4: arm of this. Kwansa Jones is CEO and a philanthropist.
Speaker 4: She joins us, let me just get the name here
Speaker 4: real quick for you.
Speaker 2: There we go found of Kwanza.
Speaker 4: Jones and jose Fliciano Initiative. I wanted to make sure
Speaker 4: I got that whole title. And Julie Caperton, head of
Speaker 4: the private bank in Wells Fargo Partnership for Wealth and
Speaker 4: Investment Management. Now, apparently Juliet was on stage and we
Speaker 4: had Kwansa come in and was sitting and then when
Speaker 4: Julie came running to the set, they hugged and they
Speaker 4: were chatting and they like seriously love each other.
Speaker 2: What is your relationship.
Speaker 6: Well, you want to start, Julie, Absolutely so.
Speaker 10: Kwansa is one of our clients and a good friend
Speaker 10: and an inspiration to me and to really our entire team.
Speaker 4: Did the relationship start first or did this close relationship
Speaker 4: happen over time as you were building a business once?
Speaker 11: The latter is what it did, and you know, it's
Speaker 11: just been I'm incredibly just overjoyed to be here with
Speaker 11: Wells and to be here with you, Alex as well
Speaker 11: as Paul. And the thing that's amazing is that that's
Speaker 11: what this Woman in Leadership conference is about. It's about connecting,
Speaker 11: it's about community, and that's what having partners and really
Speaker 11: strong partners does, really really well. So thank you all.
Speaker 2: Quanta. Talk to us about your initiative, the Kwansa Jones
Speaker 2: and jose Feliciano initiative.
Speaker 11: Tell us about that, Okay, I'll tell you a little
Speaker 11: bit about it. There are four key pillars, and it's education, entrepreneurship, equity,
Speaker 11: and empowerment. And I like to say that those are
Speaker 11: the common denominator of things that help elevate humanity and
Speaker 11: elevate society. When you have people more educated, when there
Speaker 11: are more equitable opportunities when people are entrepreneurial, which means
Speaker 11: innovative ideas, and I say, you can do those three things.
Speaker 11: But if you're not empowered, if you don't get off
Speaker 11: your tush and do something, then nothing happens. So that's
Speaker 11: what the initiative does. It really invests in those four
Speaker 11: key areas. And by investment, it's not just for profit investment.
Speaker 11: It's actually not for profit investment too. And that's where
Speaker 11: a lot of the things comes into play with some
Speaker 11: of the partnership that we have.
Speaker 4: So how did this relationship want it's working out. So
Speaker 4: you started a foundation and you're like, hey, I want
Speaker 4: to grow it. This is what I want to do.
Speaker 4: Quansa talk to me about that.
Speaker 11: Okay, well I have to go really really really really
Speaker 11: really far back.
Speaker 6: We got time.
Speaker 11: Okay, here it is, We've got But do you have
Speaker 11: decades because what I like to say is, okay, decades
Speaker 11: and nine minutes ago. I like to say that I
Speaker 11: dream in decades, and I've always dreamed in decades. Undergraduate,
Speaker 11: I went to Princeton and there at school it's always
Speaker 11: about service and Princeton being in the nation service and
Speaker 11: in the service of all nations. And for me, being
Speaker 11: a longtime client of Wells, and I mean a long, long,
Speaker 11: long time client back when I was in high school
Speaker 11: and then it's just followed me throughout all my endeavors
Speaker 11: in pursuits and that's what's been really great. So I
Speaker 11: think it wasn't about starting the foundation and then finding
Speaker 11: the partners. It was about dreaming and having the vision
Speaker 11: and knowing what it was it wanted to be accomplished,
Speaker 11: and then finding the partners along the way and Wells
Speaker 11: and just happened to be a partner along the way.
Speaker 2: Julie, talk to us about your side of the what's
Speaker 2: a typical client for you? What types of services do
Speaker 2: you try to bring to them.
Speaker 10: So, as the head of the private bank, I work
Speaker 10: with our high net worth client segment, but that really spans,
Speaker 10: you know, from people who have investable assets around ten
Speaker 10: million dollars, you know, all the way up to the
Speaker 10: multi multi billionaires that we work with and really our
Speaker 10: mantra and what I like to say is we like
Speaker 10: to meet our clients where they are. We have every
Speaker 10: product and service that you could ever need as a
Speaker 10: large financial institution. But the reality is that's not what
Speaker 10: it's all about. It's about the personal relationships. It's about listening.
Speaker 10: It's about understanding what your clients need and bringing those
Speaker 10: products and services to help them achieve their goals. Lots
Speaker 10: of people have products and services. The reality is that
Speaker 10: piece of the business has really been commoditized over time,
Speaker 10: and what the business is about is understanding our clients,
Speaker 10: understanding their goals and needs, helping them achieve them in
Speaker 10: a way that feels comfortable for them, and then a
Speaker 10: way that adds value to them. The most important and
Speaker 10: precious commodity is time. It's the one thing that you
Speaker 10: can't replace. So when I think about what we can
Speaker 10: do for our clients, it's really how can they leverage
Speaker 10: us so that they can have more time to do
Speaker 10: the things that they want to do.
Speaker 4: So, what are some of the typical questions that you're
Speaker 4: getting right now from your clients at Kwanso or the
Speaker 4: or high networth individuals. What are they asking you?
Speaker 10: Yeah, so a lot of focus right now on tax
Speaker 10: planning and estate planning, particularly as it relates to the
Speaker 10: estate tax. You know, we have a sunset, you know,
Speaker 10: coming at the end of the year, regardless of what
Speaker 10: happens with the election, you can you know sort of
Speaker 10: prognosticate on where that's going to go. But a lot
Speaker 10: of people are thinking about philanthropy as a way to
Speaker 10: think decades forward, right, Like I love the way Kwanza
Speaker 10: talks about dreaming in decades when when she and jose
Speaker 10: are thinking about their foundation, they're not necessarily thinking about
Speaker 10: ten years from now, they're thinking about one hundred years. Correct,
Speaker 10: And we have a lot of clients that really are
Speaker 10: thinking about that paying it forward.
Speaker 2: So, Quanta, what's a typical effort that you guys get
Speaker 2: involved with at your initiative. If it's a typical company
Speaker 2: or typical client.
Speaker 11: Grant, oh, my goodness, all of the above. Where's the boxer?
Speaker 11: You check all of the above, because it is. But
Speaker 11: I would like to say that it's a it's in
Speaker 11: a really focused way, and it's not only at times.
Speaker 11: And I'm going to say this, and I don't want
Speaker 11: to be dismissive of anyone's place in space at all,
Speaker 11: is that money can be the easy part. And when
Speaker 11: Julie is talking about, hey, certain things have been commoditized
Speaker 11: for all, say and I it can be the easy part,
Speaker 11: but it's not the most impactful part. What can be
Speaker 11: done is there, but it's actually doing programming along with
Speaker 11: doing the money and the financial and the capital support.
Speaker 11: So what we do and we're getting involved in something,
Speaker 11: it could be businesses like diverse businesses, and I'd like
Speaker 11: to say that we invest intentionally but not exclusively and
Speaker 11: underrepresented businesses. So being here at a women's event that
Speaker 11: could look like we are investing in women's sports businesses.
Speaker 11: It could be look like we're investing. For example, at Princeton,
Speaker 11: there was a pretty significant gift that we did a
Speaker 11: number of years ago and they're actually dorms named after
Speaker 11: Julse as well as named after me, because it's representation
Speaker 11: also matters. So we do a lot of things, but
Speaker 11: the programming element is what we're really excited about, as
Speaker 11: well as the philanthropic gunderwriting financial capital element.
Speaker 4: How has that vision or donation or grants where businesses
Speaker 4: changed throughout the decades that you've been working on us.
Speaker 11: Oh my goodness. I will say it's interesting because how
Speaker 11: we go about doing some of those things, and Welles
Speaker 11: has been a great partner in this is there are
Speaker 11: many ways you can give. You can say, Okay, I'm
Speaker 11: going to send a wire, Okay, I'm going to or
Speaker 11: write a check or oh, I'm going to do stocks
Speaker 11: and do things in that way. So it really is
Speaker 11: how do we go in and try to be strategic
Speaker 11: because again, as I say, dreaming in decades, we're not
Speaker 11: thinking about just our generation, We're thinking about centuries from now.
Speaker 11: How are we going in and changing things so that
Speaker 11: one hundred years from now, when we know our organization
Speaker 11: is still going to be around, two hundred years from now,
Speaker 11: when it's still going to be around. How do you
Speaker 11: set things up a state planning? We just had an
Speaker 11: estate planning various meeting last week with some of our lawyers.
Speaker 11: But how do we do it? We do it by
Speaker 11: carefully partnering with people and thinking beyond the here and
Speaker 11: the now. So I think it's important for us to
Speaker 11: just again highlight who we're partnering with and focused on
Speaker 11: those sorts of things.
Speaker 2: Julie, Alex and I talked to a lot of investors
Speaker 2: on our program, and a lot of folks just recently
Speaker 2: are saying, you know what, there's a lot of uncertainty
Speaker 2: out there, the election coming up, we don't know how
Speaker 2: things are going to play out. We've got geopolitical risk overseas,
Speaker 2: We're gonna take a little risk off the table. Are
Speaker 2: you seeing that in the private bank as well?
Speaker 10: Absolutely, saying yeah, absolutely so. I think we've seen risk
Speaker 10: off really for q some time. I think in some ways,
Speaker 10: you know, people have missed a lot of opportunities because
Speaker 10: they've been a little too risk off.
Speaker 6: Definitely right now, everyone right.
Speaker 4: I raised my hand for that because I'm just sitting
Speaker 4: in a fund.
Speaker 10: Exactly exactly exactly, But the reality is right now, I
Speaker 10: would say, starting about two months ago, you're really seeing
Speaker 10: everyone just hit the pause button, right, so not make
Speaker 10: any major moves, get you know, into a really risk
Speaker 10: off position, and just wait and see what happens. I
Speaker 10: think even more than other election cycles that I've seen,
Speaker 10: people are much more nervous now, and there's so much uncertainty,
Speaker 10: not just because it's so close, but because it's such
Speaker 10: you know, we're we're in such a polarized environment right
Speaker 10: now that it's that it's you know, there's a lot
Speaker 10: at stake.
Speaker 4: What do you think, Julie, the role of cash and
Speaker 4: liquidity kind of short term is going to be so.
Speaker 6: I think it's incredibly important.
Speaker 10: I think I think in every way cash and liquidity
Speaker 10: is more important than it's been in many, many years.
Speaker 10: Right when you think about the confluence of events that's
Speaker 10: happening geopolitically as well as environmentally, right, like when we're
Speaker 10: seeing hurricanes devastating parts of the country that have never
Speaker 10: had to worry about hurricanes before. Having liquidity, having cash
Speaker 10: on hand is so important when you're thinking about cybersecurity,
Speaker 10: when you're thinking about AI like the you know, we
Speaker 10: are in such a digital world now that all of
Speaker 10: our access to cash and liquidity is so tied up
Speaker 10: in systems that can be hacked. You know, you see
Speaker 10: things all the time that just make you really want
Speaker 10: to make sure that you have adequate liquidity in an
Speaker 10: uncertain world.
Speaker 2: Quanta, you mentioned earlier women in sports, and boy, it's
Speaker 2: I've just sensed a real increased level of excitement and
Speaker 2: attention to women's sports in the last several years. And
Speaker 2: maybe the most recent round might have been Kaitlin Clark
Speaker 2: that that kind of thing. Yeah, great ratings, basketball, soccer,
Speaker 2: all kinds of stuff. How do you guys look at
Speaker 2: that part of the world.
Speaker 11: Oh wow, So you know the four pillars I was
Speaker 11: talking about, one of them being equity. Women's sports fits
Speaker 11: under that umbrella, and when I look at it, and
Speaker 11: we've all heard the news throughout the years about women
Speaker 11: not having equitable compensation in terms of the sports world,
Speaker 11: when we look at now the rise and interest, and
Speaker 11: I would argue that the interest has been there, it's
Speaker 11: now just there's more attention. Like you all, the media
Speaker 11: is now casting more of a lens there, and we
Speaker 11: look at it as it's important, which is why the
Speaker 11: program and element for us is still do sorts of
Speaker 11: things like this to continue to be able to bring
Speaker 11: greater light to it and invest not just with our
Speaker 11: mouths and not just lip service, but our dollars into
Speaker 11: these areas, and not only in the for profit scene,
Speaker 11: but also in the not for profit scene.
Speaker 7: So those are some of the things.
Speaker 6: We look at.
Speaker 4: So it's a big deal to create an organization like
Speaker 4: you guys did. How did that start? Is it like
Speaker 4: a pen and paper thing? And then like you go
Speaker 4: and you go to Wellsborg, You're like, hey, I have
Speaker 4: this idea, here's my pen and paper.
Speaker 6: Tell to me about it.
Speaker 11: Okay, I'll give you a little bit about how it started. Again,
Speaker 11: both I'll say and I met at Princeton and he
Speaker 11: went to Wall Street I went to become a lawyer.
Speaker 11: You know, we just figured you got to have a
Speaker 11: family with some lawyers in there. And both my parents
Speaker 11: were lawyers too. But I remember we did a day
Speaker 11: off in Central Park and that was a day to dream,
Speaker 11: and he was like, why are we doing this? And
Speaker 11: just go with me, just to just go with it,
Speaker 11: and literally, instead of asking questions, which is what I
Speaker 11: was asking about, Oh what does your next one year
Speaker 11: look like, five years, ten years, I said what does
Speaker 11: impact look like? What's the impact that you want to make.
Speaker 11: And again, if you sell yourself short by saying, oh,
Speaker 11: well I want to make I don't know, a million dollars,
Speaker 11: well you could be leaving money on the table, as
Speaker 11: opposed to I want to be able to create homes
Speaker 11: for one hundred people, or I want to be able
Speaker 11: to create an organization that can help underwrite and fund
Speaker 11: some of these other smaller organizations that are already in communities.
Speaker 6: So that's what it.
Speaker 11: Looked like a bit of a pen and paper, but
Speaker 11: actually it was a sketchbook because I said, let's draw it,
Speaker 11: let's draw it out. What does it look like? In
Speaker 11: that way and then asking the question again, an impact
Speaker 11: not dollars and then did.
Speaker 6: You take it to Julie.
Speaker 11: Ah, Well, at that point, Julie well Wells Fargo had
Speaker 11: been around at that point because again I had been
Speaker 11: a long term client of Wells Fargo, and again as
Speaker 11: our networth increased and our means continued to increase and
Speaker 11: we gained in a lot more zeros behind our bank account,
Speaker 11: they were able to partner with us with a number
Speaker 11: of different things. So it did then one point shift
Speaker 11: to Okay, hey, here are these other lines of businesses
Speaker 11: you all have. We're curious about this what is able
Speaker 11: to be done?
Speaker 6: So that's how it.
Speaker 2: Came a Julie. One of the issues I think are
Speaker 2: one of the challenges and opportunities in private wealth management
Speaker 2: is this whole transition of wealth from the baby boomers
Speaker 2: to like my kids. And I know that's a huge
Speaker 2: opportunity for private wealth managers and view that because the
Speaker 2: numbers I'm hearing is just amazingly large.
Speaker 6: It is.
Speaker 10: It's an amazing opportunity, and we think about it in
Speaker 10: a couple of different ways. One is the way the
Speaker 10: client likes to be served and the way the client
Speaker 10: likes to be reached, and more and more you know
Speaker 10: that's in a digital format and it's in a self
Speaker 10: serve format, and it's just you know, the different generations
Speaker 10: think differently. A baby boomer is distrustful sometimes of you know,
Speaker 10: online accounting. You know, our next generation doesn't know anything
Speaker 10: other than that. So really investing in technology and having
Speaker 10: that digitization is one thing that we spend a lot
Speaker 10: of time on and think about. The other is just
Speaker 10: the ways in which we add value because again, you know,
Speaker 10: I was talking about products getting commoditized, so much of
Speaker 10: the investment advice is.
Speaker 6: Available to all.
Speaker 10: We really like to think about the fact that you know,
Speaker 10: we can provide help in so many different ways, whether
Speaker 10: it's on the financing side. It could be you know,
Speaker 10: starting your career with a mortgage or with a loan
Speaker 10: that's going to allow for you to invest in your
Speaker 10: business moving all the way through to you know, even
Speaker 10: if you're not in a position to have a foundation
Speaker 10: like Kwanza, you know, having a donor advised fund and
Speaker 10: making your impact in that way.
Speaker 6: You know, we really think about things in the ways.
Speaker 10: That we can add value to the client as opposed
Speaker 10: to a product specific kind of thing.
Speaker 11: And I'd actually like to add and you can do both. Yes,
Speaker 11: and that's what's great about all of that too.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 4: We really appreciate it, both of you. This was a
Speaker 4: great conversation. I learned so much. Thank you so much,
Speaker 4: and good luck. Kwanza Jones, CEO and co founder of
Speaker 4: the Quanta Jones and Jose Finiciano Initiative. And Julie Kaperton
Speaker 4: ahead of a private bank and Wells Fargo Partnerships for
Speaker 4: Wealth and Investment Management.
Speaker 2: Great stuff.
Speaker 4: We love being here on the ground in South Carolina
Speaker 4: for the Wells Fargo Women's Leadership Conference.
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