(Richmond) Dalal Maria Salomon, ranked among the top female financial advisers in the United States, has been affiliated with Wells Fargo and its predecessor financial brokerages for more than 30 years.
But Salomon, the CEO and founding partner of Salomon & Ludwin LLC independent brokerage practice in Henrico County, has parted ways with Wells Fargo. Her firm, which she and partner Daniel Ludwin founded in 2009, is no longer affiliated with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network.
Instead, Salomon & Ludwin is now an independent registered investment adviser through TD Ameritrade Institutional.
“Some people thought it was because they have had all of this bad press, and that certainly played a role in it,” Salomon said about how Wells Fargo remains under federal probes and regulatory restrictions two years after a 2016 scandal accusing the company’s employees of creating millions of unauthorized customer accounts to meet aggressive sales goals.
“The biggest reason is what we do for our clients is not cookie-cutter,” she said.
“We are so customized and sophisticated that the tools and the systems in a big brokerage, whether it is Wells Fargo or any other big institution, use platforms for the masses,” she said. “We are not like that. We really need to continue being avant-garde in what we offer and how we service our clients and communicate to our clients. That is the biggest reason for the change.”
As part of the switch, the firm went from a broker-dealer representation to an independent registered investment adviser. The mission of broker-dealer representatives is to make sure investment advice is suitable to the clients, while independent registered investment advisers follow fiduciary rules that the investment advice is considered in the best interest of the client.
The wording may be subtle, she said, but it is a big difference. “A registered investment adviser is much more stringent and more inclusive. You are putting yourself in the client’s shoes and coming up with a plan that always has their best interest,” she said.
Salomon began working for Wheat First Securities in 1984 in its private client group, working directly with clients, and stayed with the firm, which became Wachovia Securities and later Wells Fargo Advisors.
She and Ludwin left Wells Fargo Advisors in 2009 to be part of the Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, the company’s independent brokerage channel, to form Salomon & Ludwin. The firm transitioned to operate as a registered investment adviser with TD Ameritrade in April. It announced the switch Friday.
Her firm now has about $1 billion in client assets under management.
Salomon is among 16 advisers who have been on the Barron’s America’s Top Women Advisors list every year since its inception in 2006. The firm also has been named to the weekly financial newspaper’s Top 1,200 Wealth Advisors in the United States list every year since 2009.
