Wells Fargo to pay $35M civil penalty to settle SEC charges over excess fees

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network LLC, collectively, Wells Fargo, for overcharging more than 10,900 investment advisory accounts more than $26.8M in advisory fees. Wells Fargo agreed to pay a $35M civil penalty to settle the SEC’s charges. According to the SEC’s order, certain financial advisers from Wells Fargo and its predecessor firms agreed to reduce the firms’ standard, pre-set advisory fees for certain clients and made handwritten or typed changes on the clients’ investment advisory agreements that reflected the reduced fees at the time their accounts were opened. However, in certain instances, the account processing employees at Wells Fargo and its predecessor firms failed to enter the agreed-upon reduced advisory fee rates into the firms’ billing systems when setting up the clients’ accounts.