Reviewed June 3, 2026
Wells Fargo's brokerage account opening process has been one of the most frustrating customer service experiences I have ever had. For more than three weeks, I have been trying to open a brokerage account. I have called multiple times, submitted the required paperwork multiple times, and spent countless hours following up. Each time I contact customer service, I am transferred to someone who appears unfamiliar with the issue and unable to explain what is preventing the account from being opened.
The standard response has been to start over and submit another set of forms. After each submission, the paperwork is rejected, yet no one can clearly identify the problem or provide instructions on how to fix it. I have repeatedly asked for clarification and received little more than vague answers and requests to resubmit documents.
What is most troubling is not the delay itself, but the apparent lack of accountability and expertise. No one seems empowered to investigate the issue, provide a definitive answer, or take ownership of resolving it. After three weeks of wasted time, repeated paperwork, and no meaningful progress, I am left wondering whether Wells Fargo values its customers at all. For a large financial institution, this level of inefficiency and poor communication is unacceptable. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Wells Fargo to anyone considering opening a brokerage account.
Reviewed May 12, 2026
At one time, I had a significant amount of assets managed by Wells. Over the years, my account manager never called me. Not even once. Then I started getting billed for assets under management. I have been a customer for over 40 years and never paid any fees until a couple of years ago. I called him after I received a letter saying that these fees are negotiable. He told me it was a form letter, and my fees will continue as before. He then told me that it would be best if I moved the balance of my assets to the new company. I then started moving my assets. When the last asset was moved, I noticed another fee was taken. I was told that this fee was for closing my account.
Extremely poor customer service. The new company does not charge any of these fees. So much for every asset manager charge fees. Fees are significant (way too high). My account manager failed to mention when I close my account, another fee will be charged. I have never been asked to move an account before. I will never ever do business with Wells Fargo Advisors again....
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Reviewed May 7, 2026
Tried to close an account and have the funds sent to me. The Docusign form WF uses would not keep the distribution selection checked when submitted. I have worked with 5 different representatives over 2 weeks, and no one can get it corrected. I cannot get a call from a supervisor and even with a case opened there is no response or correction.
Reviewed Nov. 3, 2025
Jerry Rouleau Wells Advisor turned Continuity Group which still under Wells Advisor supervision. No doubt for the bad rep change names, let’s face it. You can change the color of the building but you can not remove the stench inside. Both companies from the top down have had questionable behaviors. Check with the Secc and then check out all the fees and frankly the results. Worse the impunity they govern themselves with. Goes for Larry and Andrew in the office in Oregon as well. Move your money before they take away your access.
Reviewed Oct. 30, 2025
Using the mobile app, I accidentally transferred a small amount of funds from my Wells Fargo checking account into my Roth IRA. I called Wells Fargo Advisors and they were unable to reverse it, requiring that I complete a form to have the funds returned to my checking account. No problem at all, I understand and will do this. However, this call could have taken a couple of minutes, but ended up taking over 30 minutes because the rep has zero listening skills and was very agitated.
WFA obviously outsources their customer service overseas, and it is unfortunately a nightmare to communicate with some of these folks. They get angry easily, they repeat the same information even after acknowledging that you heard it the first three times, and then they get agitated for no reason whatsoever. It would be great to have stateside support for important accounts, like IRA's since even small mistakes can cause tax issues. Even an AI agent can do better than some of their reps. The rep with whom I spoke today's name is Jasmine, but I have had this experience before and other I know have as well.
Reviewed May 26, 2025
I opened a Brokerage account and provided all necessary documents and started buying stocks. After one month they sent me an email stating that they could not identify me and I should re-submit the documents. Long story short, I re-submitted 3 times and spoke to them on the phone 3 times. The end result is that they froze my account, I am unable to close my account or even transfer my stocks to another account. I had been a Wells Fargo customer for over 30 years and they made a ton of money off me. My last effort will be to go to a branch office and have them close the account and transfer all my funds. Once received, I will close all of my 8 accounts with Wells Fargo. No more business from me. Shame on you!
Reviewed April 29, 2025
I went to the Gilbert and Ocotillo Branch. I had with several needs and was assisted promptly. Andrew ** provided efficient and courteous service, addressing all of my concerns with professionalism and excellent customer care.
Reviewed April 27, 2025
Terrible service, I wanted to roll over my 401k, Wells Fargo denied my application, they said it was a business decision, I asked for the reasoning why and all they could tell me was it was a business decision.
Reviewed April 25, 2025
I would like to thank John and Joe for the outstanding job they did in making my day. After leaving the bank in my area after being told they couldn't cash a check that was to be cashed at their bank but, was told they didn't have enough cash and would have to come back next week. The transaction would have taken place on the 25th of this month but I would have had to wait till the 28th. When I arrived at the branch in which these two great guys worked, I was greeted with a friendly smile and never once was I told my check could not be cashed. It was the branch in Cocoa, FL.
If I ever need anything else, I will return to this branch even though it is 45 minutes away but well worth the drive. I hope they will be given spotlight or something to show how much they are appreciated for such great service. Also, there were three other guys, but I forgot to ask for their names. They were the ones in the office when you first come through the front door to the right. When a customer came in acting a little suspicious, they made sure all customers felt safe. Thank you to a great staff.
Reviewed April 17, 2025
This has been my worst banking experience ever. I have been attempting to get restrictions lifted on my account so that I can conclude my business, and though I have been quickly responding to their documents request, they continue to make additional requests by bits and pieces. If they could get it together I’d be happy to comply to whatever they need on my end but it seems as no one really knows what they want from me and it’s always, "This will be resolved in 24/48," which has meant, "We will ask for something else. Don’t you worry!" Terrible experience!
Reviewed March 28, 2025
Worst customer service I've ever encountered. Ritchie M, who works out of one of their Salt Lake City offices, is incompetent. When calling the office, they transfer you to his cellphone and his voicemail greeting sounds like he's drunk. Trust me, find another advisor. They don't respond to emails, they don't call back. You can get better returns investing yourself.
Reviewed March 8, 2025
I cannot concisely articulate how consistently HORRIBLE the service and arcane business practices of Wells Fargo Advisors and Estate Processing. AVOID WELLS FARGO!!! After my Mom passed in Oct 2024 I started the process with Wells and three other Financial firms to transfer her assets, all covered by a tight Revocable Trust. With the three other firms, the process was easy, the service was great, and all easily completed before the end of 2024 even though these accounts contained multiple mutual funds, stocks, and IRAs.
With Wells, my Mom had one checking account with ~50K. It took until the end of February (5 months!) required at least 30 hours of phone time, countless hours of printing completing, scanning and uploading forms (many multiple times because I was sent the wrong forms). To make things easy (I thought) I opened a Wells account in my name to transfer the assets because there was no way for them to transfer to an "outside" account. The Wells "expert" titled this new account U/W instead of U/A, and this could not be edited. More time lost closing and opening accounts. After the money was finally in my account, I tried to e-transfer to another account. I was able to do this on my own, but hit transfer limits.
When I asked their reps to it, they couldn't!! I literally had to drive 800 miles to the nearest branch to get a check but they couldn't write a check for the entire my amount and had to keep $0.08 in and it took weeks longer to close the account. The bank managers could not explain why they couldn't transfer it all and I witnessed them deal with the same horrible support I received. I actually "wrote off" the $0.08 to stop dealing with this horrible company.
Some of this stuff is related to horrible business practices of an arcane bank (no DocuSign, mailed not emailed notices only) but what was consistent was the ~30 reps I spoke too were all a horrible combination of rude, not knowledgeable and not empowered to do the most pedestrian activities. As I type this, I am still waiting on the "2-3 business days: (every three days I call to wait on hold to start the process over) to have a manager review my authorization to receive my Mom's 1099. Oh yeah, don't get me started on their horrible website. I dealt with three other firms for my Mom's assets and routinely use three others for my personal accounts. One start is way too generous. Fidelity Investments is about 1,000,000x better.
Reviewed March 3, 2025
Unhelpful, condescending, and constantly sends you around in circles. I have been on the phone with them once a week for the past 3 weeks anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours at a time. To get them to CHANGE A PHONE NUMBER. And it STILL IS WRONG. I am fed up with them and will be moving my money!
Reviewed Feb. 22, 2025
Was a customer with their brokerage. In over ten years I was at the same or lower than what I had invested in. The broker refusted to invest in what I wanted and proceeded to convince my husband and I to invest in what he recommended. In 2024 we removed our investment from WF and went elsewhere. It is now tax time and I need the required tax form from WF. On 2/22/2025, I tried to contact customer service or anyone with my request. Started at 3:00 pm and it wasn't until 3:45 pm I finally got thru the many menus of the many numbers I dialed only to find they were closed. I truly would like paid for my time and frustration dealing with what should be a simple issue to take care of..
Reviewed Feb. 22, 2025
I have traded online with Wells for 8 years. Have had a margin balance on my 2 trading accounts of around 10k for years. A month ago wells makes changes on margin requirements and I get hit with 8500 dollars in margin calls no margin call in morning even had buying power. My account goes up following day but somehow I get hit with another 1k margin call. I went to Wells Fargo to borrow money to pay margin call and they turn me and my wife down even though we have over 800 credit score. We have been customers for 33 years have 2 mortgages that we have never been late, paid off a car with them, make over 100k a year, have 2 other houses that are paid off. We went to another bank. They gave us the loan. Now I only owe 213 dollars on margin but I now have a 714 dollar margin call. I should of left wells years ago. I got hit with a big margin call because they decided to make a stock I own blackberry cash only. Took it off as marginable because it was going up too fast. I never should of left Ameriprise and I am going back.
Reviewed Feb. 6, 2025
Wells Fargo brokerage has the worst customer service ever. After 1 month of trying to transfer an inherited IRA and numerous calls and rejected forms I decided to stop the process and switched to Charles Schwab. They were able to transfer my inherited IRA in less than 24 hours in a smooth and efficient process. Wells Fargo does not care about their customers and I would rate them as a zero (0) if that option was available!!! Consumer beware!!!
Reviewed Jan. 27, 2025
Wells Fargo online, up until recently, was always easy when it came to transferring stock to a charitable institution. However, we recently attempted to transfer 50 shares of stock to each of our adult children. First request was Dec 30, and then we heard nothing after a week and no transfer happened, we began calling. First were told the form changed (why didn't they call to tell us the on-line downloaded form was changed). Re-submitted request. No response.
Called again 1/10/25; 1/16/25 and 1/22/25. At this point, I have now made 4 to 5 more follow up calls, re-signed forms, re-sent forms, actually could hear the phone conversation between the customer service person and the processor, and at this date 1/27/25, the transfer has still not been made. I submitted an official complaint, for which I was promised a return phone call from a processor, and have not heard a thing. We do all our banking with Wells Fargo. I am about to take all out money and find a local bank where we can talk to a person, face to face.
Reviewed Jan. 26, 2025
A relative recently passed away and left her brokerage account with Wells Fargo in equal amounts to myself and siblings. The executor recommended that I set up a WF brokerage account to facilitate the “transfer on death”. I did so with my advisor “K” and received my portion of the estate in my account after receiving and returning a claim form that had to be signed and notarized.
While waiting on the form turnaround I set up my bank transfer connections. When I went to sell some assets I couldn’t find the “buy” and “sell” options. I spent an hour with the app and they just didn’t exist. I’ve never seen a brokerage app without buy and sell options. I reached out to “K” by email and she replied that I would have to call “B” to place an order. I replied that I hated that requirement, but I called “B”. I told him that I wanted to trade online at any time, not with a broker by phone during limited working hours, and he told he’d have to call “K” because “no one ever wanted that option”.
After about 15 minutes he called me back and told me that he would submit a request to have those options added to my account, but it might take about 3 days. He re-iterated that no one ever wanted that option. While I had him on the phone I told him to sell everything, immediately! Liquidate all of it! I’m in the process of transferring all the cash out of WF as fast as it appears in my brokerage cash, though the “buy” and “sell” options appeared in my app shortly after my last conversation with “B”. Way too many red flags with this company, though my “advisors” complied with my firmly worded instructions when I persisted. I’m glad I haven’t (yet) experienced the scenarios I’ve read in other reviews, but I still have a trust distribution coming to me in the next few weeks, so they still have an opportunity to mess that up. I think I have the tools now to handle that liquidation myself.
Reviewed Jan. 10, 2025
I am writing to formally express my dissatisfaction with the handling of my grandfather’s IRA account by Wells Fargo and the Wells Fargo Advisory Department. The entire process has been frustrating, unprofessional, and demonstrates a complete lack of regard for the customer, particularly seniors. On December 23, 2024, my grandfather contacted Wells Fargo to liquidate his assets in the Advisory Department. His IRA has not earned any interest in years, and no one from Wells Fargo ever reached out to discuss alternative options or strategies to improve the account’s performance. Despite this, the bank continued to profit off his assets while he saw no growth.
During the December 23 call, my grandfather was informed that liquidating his assets would require approval and would take 24 hours. He was also told to visit a Wells Fargo branch to verify his identity. When he went to the bank as instructed, he was told he needed to make the call from home instead—completely wasting his time and causing unnecessary stress.
After waiting for over a week with no follow-up from Wells Fargo, my grandfather called again on January 3, 2025, to check on the status of his account. He spoke with MJ **, a Senior Financial Advisor whose supervisor is Andy **. Unfortunately, this interaction was even worse. MJ put my grandfather on hold several times for 7–10 minutes each time and spoke to him in a rude and dismissive manner.
It became so bad that I had to step in and take over the call. MJ falsely claimed that multiple calls had been made to my grandfather and that a letter was sent to an address he no longer lives at. He also reiterated that the liquidation process required permission—despite the fact that this was supposed to have been initiated on December 23, 2024. MJ’s tone and conduct were completely unprofessional, showing no respect for an elderly customer trying to manage his finances.
This experience has been incredibly disappointing. It is clear that Wells Fargo prioritizes its own profits over its customers’ financial well-being. They demonstrated no proactive effort to help my grandfather grow his investment and created unnecessary obstacles when he decided to withdraw his funds. If you are considering investing with Wells Fargo, particularly if you have an elderly family member, I strongly advise looking elsewhere. Wells Fargo has shown that they do not value their customers, only the money they can generate from them. I expect a full review of this matter and accountability for the poor treatment my grandfather received. Your customers deserve better.
Sincerely,B **
Reviewed Jan. 1, 2025
WF has to be the worst institution to deal with! Three of us are trying to simply take out required RMDs from an inherited IRA account. We all started Oct 24th. And worked individually, but were met with different representative roadblocks to selling mutual funds and release cash! Such lame excuses that required us to resubmit and start the whole process (5 to 7 business days) over and over again. Finally 2 of us were cleared at the wire, Dec 31st. The 3rd is still fighting. It is no coincidence that all 3 of us had issues. You only know just how horrible they are when you have something to compare it to, and Fidelity, Vanguard and Mass Mutual were so easy and helpful, within 1 week start to finish.