A.G. Edwards, Inc. was an American

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

holding company; its principal wholly owned subsidiary was A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., which operated as a full-service securities

broker-dealer In financial services, a broker-dealer is a natural person, company or other organization that engages in the business of trading securities for its own account or on behalf of its customers. Broker-dealers are at the heart of the securities and d ...

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 asse ...

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 Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

, and the securities division was folded into

Wells Fargo Advisors Wells Fargo Advisors is a subsidiary of Wells Fargo, located in St Louis, Missouri. It is the third largest brokerage firm in the United States as of June 30, 2021 with $1.9 trillion retail client assets under management. The subsidiary was for ...

. 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 c ...

and other major stock and commodities exchanges. The firm's global headquarters were located in the Downtown West area of

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

. 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 Albert Gallatin Edwards (October 15, 1812 – April 19, 1892) was an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury under President of the United States Abraham Lincoln and founder of brokerage firm A. G. Edwards. Edwards was born in Kentucky in 1812 a ...

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 In business and Accountancy, accounting, net income (also total comprehensive income, net earnings, net profit, bottom line, sales profit, or credit sales) is an entity's income minus cost of goods sold, expenses, depreciation and Amortization ...

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 asset ...

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 (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

to A.G. Edwards' previous headquarters in

. Subsequently, Wachovia eliminated the A. G. Edwards brand in favor of Wachovia Securities. On December 31, 2008, Wachovia Corporation was purchased by

& 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 Golden West Financial was the second-largest savings and loan association in the United States, operating branches under the name of World Savings Bank. History The business was founded in 1929 as Golden West Savings and Loan Association, a smal ...

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 The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth is the principal public information officer of the government of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The Secretary of the Commonwealth oversees the Corporations Division, the Elections Division, the ...

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 Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

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