The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has suspended a former Wells Fargo advisor who sidestepped the firms’ written supervisory procedures by accepting bequests totaling more than $600,000 from the estate of an elderly customer who followed him from another firm.

Gary Len Wells was ordered to refrain from associating with any Finra member in all capacities for 15 months. He also was fined $20,000 for violating Finra Rule 2010, which “requires associated persons to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade.”

According to Finra's letter of acceptance, waiver and consent, the elderly woman was a long-time customer of Wells who followed him to Wells Fargo Advisors in 2008 from a prior firm. That firm, according to Finra’s BrokerCheck, is A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., where Wells spent 11 years. Finra said at some point before 2012, the customer named Wells as a beneficiary and fiduciary in her will.

Finra said a brother of the customer alerted WFA's compliance personnel about Wells’ fiduciary and beneficiary designations in the customer’s will, and Wells was instructed to remove himself from the will. He was further instructed that if the client refused to remove him that he should decline the appointments, Finra said.

But following the death of the customer in December 2014 at age 92, Finra said Wells received a bequest in the form of a wire transfer from the customer’s estate to his WFA brokerage account. The firm reversed the transfer of funds and Wells was informed in writing that he is not permitted to receive assets as a bequest from a non-family member.

Wells, however, bypassed the written policy and proceeded to accept three separate bequests—$93,968.18 on Dec. 31, 2014; $521,805 on Jan.12, 2016; and $5,864.40 on Jan. 22, 2016—and deposited the checks into a personal savings account at an unaffiliated bank.

Finra said Wells became associated with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (WFAFN) in 2015, and in 2016, he lied on the firm’s compliance questionnaire that he was the beneficiary and had received bequests from the customer's estate.

Finra said it became aware of the matter from the Uniform Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration (Form U5) filed by WFAFN in January 2020.

In addition to Wells Fargo and AG. Edwards, Wells worked at Dean Witter Reynolds where he began his career in June 1983. He left in August 1996, according to his BrokerCheck profile. Most recently, he was with American Wealth Management Inc. in Tacoma, Wash., from March 2020 through April 16, 2021.

Wells accepted the suspension and fine without admitting to or denying Finra's findings.