Benjamin "Tad" Edwards IV, the scion of an icon in St. Louis, had the wind knocked out of him when he learned that Wachovia was going to buy his family firm, A.G. Edwards. Neither he nor his father, retired CEO Benjamin Edwards III, were on the board of directors and they were not part of the decision, he says. So they were as surprised as everyone else at the news.

Robert Bagby, CEO at the time, had succeeded Ben Edwards III in 2001 to become the first non-family member to run the company.

Tad quickly decided that he didn't want to be part of Wachovia, so he set out on his own. He launched Benjamin F. Edwards, invoking not just the family name but, hopefully, also the Edwards way of doing business, which he feels got lost to Wachovia, and has since been subsumed into Wells Fargo.

Edwards has hired about 50 people, mostly former A.G. Edwards employees. Almost 30 of them work in the small headquarters in Clayton, Mo., that's adorned with portraits of former A.G. Edwards CEOs. The rest of the employees are advisors in branch offices in Springfield, Mo., Peoria, Ill., Madison, Wis., and White Plains, N.Y.

Edwards wasn't very detailed when discussing his future plans, but he definitely wants to grow. He says there is no specific strategy other than to go "wherever the right people are."

Edwards also has put together an advisory panel of another 50 people who he trusts and respects—another lesson he kept from his days at A.G. Edwards.

He insists that "we wish Wells Fargo well and hold no ill feelings." But as he talks about his former company and his father who passed away in April 2009, he gets a wistful, faraway look in his eyes. As soft-spoken as he is, he becomes almost inaudible for a moment.

But he's not shy about his wish to replicate the culture of his family firm, which he says was based on an ironclad devotion to putting clients' needs first.

And, it doesn't end there. Edwards wants all of his employees "to treat everyone the way they want to be treated, down to the guy who cuts the grass."

It's not just the talk of a do-gooder. As a businessman, he says that's the kind of action that "parlays into gains for shareholders."

Indeed, he notes that A.G. Edwards averaged a 15% total return for shareholders for 30 years using that kind of guiding mission.

A major part of ensuring this kind of corporate culture emanates from his method of hiring. He looks for the right fit in prospective employees for his young firm. And he gauges that fit with a measure he calls the "three Cs: they have to be competent, they have to fit with the culture, and there has to be good chemistry," he says. And lest an advisor thinks that's an easy bar to clear, Edwards notes that only one in 50 who applied have been hired.

The right fit is the most important factor to Edwards. "If we pass on a $4 million producer [that's not a good fit], so be it," he says.

ûAs Group Managing Editor of SourceMedia's Investment Advisor Group, Lee oversees all editorial aspects of our Bank Investment Consultant brand. He has spent half his 20-year journalism career at SourceMedia and legacy companies. Before taking over BIC in April 2011, he spent more than three years as managing editor of On Wall Street. And before that he was a senior editor at U.S. Banker magazine for four years. He also worked as an editor in the newsletter unit of legacy divisions of the company for three years, covering various aspects of the fixed-income markets.