Pros
World class research. Access to high quality investment professionals across Wall Street. Strong relationships with other service providers. A well known brand. Strong analytic work from internal teams. Competitive levels of pay for top performers.
Cons
The management of Barclays Wealth Americas is run primarily through a culture of fear. Employees are discouraged from presenting issues or opportunities to improve the firm. There is no formal process with which to do so. Employees who informally attempt to raise issues are penalized or disciplined, and hurt their chances of future career growth. Benefits are skewed towards the top producers, which reduces the amount of collaboration between employees. Investment recommendations are most often made on the basis of what will earn the firm the highest amount of revenue. Products are pushed on advisers weekly. The advisers that sell the most commission-based products are rewarded and recognized more so than others. Management has a broker-dealer focus that adds conflicts of interest to the Wealth Management platform from succeeding. Finally, the technology in place is older and slower than that of its competitors, putting everyone at a disadvantage. Time is often wasted having to correct or re-enter data into various systems, making it harder to stay on top of your day-to-day tasks and goals.