The bank was the world's 28th-biggest asset manager at the end of 2010, according to research by Pensions & Investments magazine and consultant Towers Watson & Co. JPMorgan ranked ninth and Bank of America was 21st. BlackRock Inc. is the world's largest, overseeing $3.68 trillion, while Pacific Investment Management Co. holds $258.7 billion in a single pool, Bill Gross' Total Return Fund.

Wells Fargo, the fourth-biggest bank by assets in the U.S., will have to overcome a perception that bank- and insurance-owned mutual funds are among the most expensive, said Harry Milling, a Morningstar analyst. The company has "found religion" more than others, yet still has work to do, he said.

"When you talk to board members of bank-owned funds you hear they want to be competitive as far as fees," Milling said. "You don't hear them wanting to be the lowest in the industry. That's not their game."

Expense Ratio

The Advantage Growth Fund, with about $10 billion in assets, has an expense ratio of 1.31 percent for the primary share class, Milling said, compared with a median of 0.77 percent for similar funds. It has gained 10 percent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Most client assets are invested by 36 teams, including 25 at Wells Capital Management, and 11 others that follow less traditional strategies, such as European Credit Management Ltd. and Galliard Capital Management, the unit's website shows.

Those teams may have more to do as investors return to the stock and bond markets after the financial crisis erased $27.9 trillion from global equity indexes in 2008 and led Bank of America to sell its Columbia Management Group fund business in 2009. Morgan Stanley sold its retail-funds unit to Invesco Ltd. a year later.

Investors moved $109.1 billion into U.S.-based mutual funds this year through March 31, according to the Investment Company Institute. About $6.8 billion was moved into international stock funds while $15.4 billion was withdrawn from U.S. domestic stock funds, ICI said on its website. Bond funds added $94.5 billion.

Retail Brokerage

The move into international markets represents one of Wells Fargo's "key growth areas," Niedermeyer said. Eight of the investment teams focus on non-U.S. markets, a shortcoming the bank addressed Dec. 15 when it said it would acquire EverKey Global Partners, which invests in global-equity strategies.