Why We LEFT

                In recent days I have felt compelled to explain the reasons why I decided to leave WELLS and start my own company. As much as I appreciate most of the recent articles written about me, (observe that I said most), I feel that the writers chose to focus too much attention on my deciding to acquire a company (BIG BLUE TRADING), which was located in the same building as my former branch of WELLS Fargo — the same location where I served as a managing director and top producer for around 15 years. I guess some people would find that mildly interesting, I find it purely coincidental. I guess I should have never mentioned it, but since I have no experience talking to the press, since WELLS prohibited it, I am truly a novice. And, since those people who know me, know that I rarely restrain myself from speaking my mind, I’m bound to say things that I will wish I didn’t say. I also am reluctant to say anything that focuses attention on me, since this business doesn’t exist for me, but for the many people who have allowed us the immense privilege to assist them in managing, what took some, a lifetime to accumulate. However, more and more of you want to know why, after achieving success, would I walk away from the “mighty Bank” and start this boutique Wealth Management firm? Why, in the midst of what I would characterize as a secular bear market and the largest financial reform bill ever introduced being passed, possibly causing costs associated with running a company to greatly increase, would I venture into the unknown when I have so much to lose? On May 28, 2010, the day SICA Wealth management was born; I recalled the day I walked into the offices of my first investment firm, Ryan Beck. That was almost twenty years ago, and it was that memory that justified the risk I was taking and the security I was leaving behind. On that day, John Klausner the sales manager, looked me in the eye and said, “I believe in you so I’m going to give you a shot in our training class — just don’t let me down”. The week prior to that, I was fired from an insurance company for not making quota — which translated to my not being able to coerce enough family members into buying insurance, for them to justify my occupying a desk. The day before, while I sat in the Merrill Lynch lobby for hours waiting to interview, I overheard the manager tell his assistant that something came up and he couldn’t meet with me. I went home devastated. I was even too embarrassed to tell my wife, so I told her the interview went OK and never mentioned it again until years later. One question John Klausner asked me brought tears to my eyes and still does today — he leaned forward and said “you really need this don’t you?” My answer was “yes” — not just that I needed the money, which was true, since I was completely broke, but I needed to finally find something that made me feel like my life had value. I wanted to feel I was capable of being somebody, instead of the nobody I felt like when I walked into that interview. It was on that day that I committed myself to giving everything I had to achieving the success that I so much desired. I remember John told me that the people who invest with you worked very hard for that money, “so don’t blow it”. I’ve never forgotten those words and I never will. Every single time someone invested with me I was overwhelmed with a sense of awe to be given such an important job and I worked night and day to give them everything I had. Most of their investments went well, some of them clearly didn’t, but I never failed to give them everything.

                In both Ryan Beck and Later AG Edwards it was clear that the leadership of those companies valued their clients as individuals, and everything they represented was in line with how important their clients were to them. The meetings were filled with discussions of what clients were talking about and developing ways that we could be better advisors to them. Ryan Beck changed as a company when they merged with a bank, so I decided to leave and be a part of the beginning of a great firm – AG EDWARDS, which was opening a branch in Morristown, New Jersey. I knew of the historic foundations of AG EDWARDS and was very excited to work for one of the great CEOs of our time, Ben Edwards, who was a leading advocate of the client centered relationship. He valued his advisors who always put the needs of the client above their own personal needs and the needs of the company. I knew him well in his tenure at Edwards and most of us loved, admired, and miss him since he passed away. AG Edwards was never the same when he left.

                I remember one morning getting ready for work and my wife knocked on the door to tell me that she just heard on CNBC that Wachovia had just taken over AG EDWARDS. I felt like someone just hit me with a sledgehammer. Remembering the words of Ben Edwards saying that banks should never get in the investment business — “a recipe for failure” he called it. The first thing that my wife said after she told me the news and saw my disappointment was remember what you always said, “you would never work for a bank”. I stayed at the “big Bank” for reasons too complicated to discuss and witnessed what I would call the destruction of the client centered model in favor of the big bank centered model. I witnessed the Wachovia CEO lie on national television and say that they had very little exposure to Sub Prime mortgages, only to see the company implode and have to be rescued by the government and the commercial banking giant “WELLS FARGO” — who by the way, choose to stay away from the investment management business since their founding more than a hundred years ago. I witnessed the AG Edwards stock which I faithfully accumulated through the years, be swapped for Wachovia stock and loose 90% of its value as the higher level people in the company assured us that things would turn around. As far as my clients were concerned, I tried repeatedly to give them the level of care they deserved, only to have constant and repeated lack of care on the part of Wells Fargo. While at the same time, advertising how important the relationship with the client was. The research was for the most part outdated and unsophisticated, as were most of the products that they were encouraging us to recommend. In some cases, the leadership was incompetent and dishonest — ethics took a back seat to what was good for the company. To quote a high level executive at Wells Fargo, “we have 50 million clients, what difference does one client make?” It was that comment made directly to me that made me realize that spending one more day with this bank would undermine everything I had worked my entire life to achieve. I believed that to that one client we were more important than just about anyone they had ever done business with. I am in awe of that one client, and the privilege it is to be given such a responsibility. That obligation still drives me morning, noon and night to be the best advisor they ever wanted or hoped for.

                WELLS as well as the other big banks and brokers are trying to convince people that they should consider it a privilege to have such a big name company managing their money. An unethical former manager called to convince a client to stay in Wells Fargo rather than move her account to the small startup by saying that she should stay because “Wells Fargo was ranked number one in some survey”. The client responded by saying “Jeff and his team helped me manage my finances through the terminal illness of my husband which went on for years. He passed away a few years ago, and I have never had to worry for one second about my finances because they were by my side through it all. They are my friends, please lose my number and never call me again.” So the answer to the question of “why we left” is because of YOU — we left because you are everything to us. The commitment I made almost twenty years ago to give everything I have to being the very best advisor I can be is alive and well in SICA WEALTH MANAGEMENT — so thank you for believing in me.

 Thank You,

Jeffrey C. Sica
President
Sica Wealth Management, LLC
67 East Park Place, 1st Floor | Morristown, NJ. 07960
Tel. 973-975-0730 | Main 973-975-0750 | Fax 973-889-1010
www.sicawealthmgt.com