A.G. Edwards, Inc. was an American financial services holding company; its principal wholly owned subsidiary was A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., which operated as a full-service securities broker-dealer in the United States and Europe. The firm was acquired by

Wachovia Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asset ...

to be folded into

Wachovia Securities Wachovia Securities was the trade name of Wachovia's retail brokerage and institutional capital markets and investment banking subsidiaries. Following Wachovia's merger with Wells Fargo and Company on December 31, 2008, the retail brokerage beca ...

; Wachovia was subsequently acquired by Wells Fargo, and the securities division was folded into Wells Fargo Advisors. The firm provided securities and commodities brokerage, investment banking, trust services, asset management, financial and retirement planning, private client services, investment management, and other related financial services to individual, governmental, and institutional clients. A.G. Edwards was a member of the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

and other major stock and commodities exchanges. The firm's global headquarters were located in the Downtown West area of St. Louis, Missouri. The company traded on the NYSE under the

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. In short, ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols or characters (generally Latin letters ...

AGE.

History

The company was founded in 1887 when Albert Gallatin Edwards and his son opened for business in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. It was the first St. Louis brokerage to handle transactions on the New York Stock Exchange, buying a seat on the NYSE in 1898. Due to increased capital needs for its branch system, A.G. Edwards was among the first brokerage firms to go public. In November 1971, 445,000 shares of stock were offered to the public at $12 a share. As of March 29, 2007, the company had over 740 locations in 50 states, the District of Columbia, London, and Geneva. The company served its clients through its branch-office networks staffed with 6,618 financial consultants, managing $374 billion in total client assets, and $44 billion in fee based accounts. During its fiscal year 2007, ending February 28, A.G. Edwards had net revenues of $3,110,500,000 and net earnings of $331,400,000. On May 31, 2007, the company announced that it would be acquired by

Wachovia Corporation Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asse ...

in a $6.8 billion deal. On September 28, 2007, the company's shareholders voted in favor of the merger with Wachovia. The acquisition closed on October 1, 2007, and A.G. Edwards became a wholly owned subsidiary of Wachovia Corporation. Following the merger, Wachovia moved the world headquarters of combined retail brokerage,

, from Richmond, Virginia to A.G. Edwards' previous headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. Subsequently, Wachovia eliminated the A. G. Edwards brand in favor of Wachovia Securities. On December 31, 2008, Wachovia Corporation was purchased by Wells Fargo & Co. after the bank was nearly taken over by the

FDIC The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures credi ...

. Wachovia had purchased Golden West Financial and its subsidiary World Savings in mid-2007. The crash of

subprime mortgage In finance, subprime lending (also referred to as near-prime, subpar, non-prime, and second-chance lending) is the provision of loans to people in the United States who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. Historically, subpri ...

s, which made up most of World Savings' nearly $200 billion mortgage portfolio, put significant strain on Wachovia and eventually caused its collapse. On July 1, 2009, Wachovia Securities was renamed Wells Fargo Advisors and Wells Fargo Investments, which included the former A.G. Edwards business lines.

Controversy

In 2006 the firm agreed to pay $900,000 "to settle claims that it charged customers excessive account fees." In 2007 they paid "nearly $4 million" for a market-timing violation. In 2008, the office of the Massachusetts Secretary of State launched a formal investigation into A.G. Edwards in response to a string of complaints from retirees of the former Boston Edison (now known as NSTAR). The investigation centered on a former A.G. Edwards broker, William "Buck" McHugh, who had targeted the Boston Edison retirees for their large severance packages beginning in the late 1990s. The complainants accused A.G. Edwards of failing to properly supervise McHugh as he allegedly steered millions of dollars into failed investments and embezzled funds from client accounts. Wachovia settled claims by the A.G Edwards customers in an agreement with the state.

Benjamin Edwards III

Former CEO, Benjamin Edwards III, "who transformed A. G. Edwards, the St. Louis brokerage house founded by his great-grandfather, into the largest United States brokerage company based outside New York" died April 20, 2009 from prostate cancer at the age of 77, a couple of years after A.G. Edwards folded into Wachovia Securities.

References

External links

A. G. Edwards
{{Authority control Companies based in St. Louis Brokerage firms Financial services companies established in 1887 Financial services companies disestablished in 2007 2007 mergers and acquisitions 1887 establishments in Missouri 2007 disestablishments in Missouri