After the switches were discovered, the firms took several steps to improve their supervision of switches involving variable annuities, including developing a switch alert to identify when the proceeds from a variable annuity liquidation are used to purchase an investment company product, the regulator said.
St. Louis-based Wells Fargo Clearing Services is the successor to several broker-dealers including Wells Fargo Advisors. The firm has about 25,900 registered individuals and about 6,230 branch offices.