Wells Fargo fined $35 million for overpricing consulting clients – Twin Cities

Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay a $35 million penalty to resolve allegations that the company overinflated more than 10,900 investment advisory accounts, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

The inflated fees for two Wells Fargo units totaled more than $26.8 million in advisory fees, the SEC said in a statement Friday.

Certain financial advisors “agreed to lower the firms’ standard, pre-determined advisory fees for certain clients and made handwritten or typed changes to clients’ investment advisory agreements that reflected the reduced fees at the time of account opening,” the regulator said on his behalf .

“We are pleased to be able to resolve this matter,” Caroline Szyperski, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, said in a statement. “The process that caused this problem was fixed almost a decade ago. And as noted in the settlement documents, Wells Fargo Advisors conducted a thorough review of the accounts and reimbursed affected customers in full.”

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is Minnesota’s second-largest bank by deposit market share.