Corporate culture is a "soft" issue, with little empirical evidence that it actually matters. While anecdotal evidence of its importance may be overwhelming, many chief executive officers still focus on the quantitative aspects of a merger because that's what they know. Wells Fargo has, no doubt, become an expert acquirer, but the task of melding A.G. Edwards and Wachovia into its own framework is bigger than any it has faced before. Just how well are the employees handling change?

John Lee worked at A.G. Edwards for 22 years. He loved the first 21. But soon after the 2007 announcement that Wachovia planned to buy his beloved employer, he knew that he "wasn't in Kansas anymore." There was a palpable change in the air as the company went from a low-key, family-owned regional shop-albeit one that had 6,600 brokers-to being part of one of the largest banks in the country, Lee says.

While many observers describe regional shops as "folksy," Lee says there is more to it than that: the differences boil down to how management views the end customer. "At A.G. Edwards, the advisor owned the client and assets," he says. "There was no pressure on us to do any specific type of service. The company didn't view clients as being a profit center. They let us serve [the clients] how we thought was best."

Wachovia made a major concession by moving its advisor unit, Wachovia Securities, into the St. Louis campus of A.G. Edwards, but Lee says he still didn't get the same vibe from his new parent company. So he left his job as the Pacific Coast regional manager in California for a similar job with another regional, Stifel Nicolaus.

And he wasn't the only one to make this move. A number of advisors moved to Stifel, A.G. Edwards' St. Louis neighbor, following the acquisition by Wachovia. Wachovia responded by suing these advisors (including Lee), with little success to date-another headache inherited by Wells Fargo.

Lee's dissatisfaction is emblematic of the challenges now facing Wells Fargo Advisors, which bought Wachovia in the middle of the financial crisis when the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank teetered on the edge of insolvency. So now, in addition to the integration and culture issues that Wachovia had been facing, it's up to Wells Fargo to make it all work.

That task has fallen to Jim Hays, president of the firm's Private Client Group, and Kent Christian, president of the Financial Services Group.

Hays says that the long-term vision for the advisor group is nothing less than to "lead the industry in client loyalty by knowing and understanding our clients."

Indeed, an intense focus on customer relationships was the reason the firm has enhanced an old Wachovia tool called the 4Front Plan. It offers bonuses to advisors based on how well they serve clients. Advisors must document details of their client interactions with the goal of ensuring that those clients have a long-term plan in place that's right for them, Hays says.

The company also put in place another bonus in January based on bringing in new assets. But even with these various bonuses in place, it still pays less than the 300% deals from places like Morgan Stanley Smith Barney or Merrill Lynch, according to recruiters in the industry.

Christian, president of the Wells Fargo Financial Services Group, notes that while some advisors have left the company in the wake of the two major deals in quick succession, others have joined the firm. And, overall, they are happy with the results. But he also adds that recruiting isn't the top priority for the company. Keeping the current crop of advisors satisfied and integrating them into one sales force is paramount, he says.

For that integration task, Christian says the outlook is now brighter than it had been over the past year or so because so much of the market uncertainty has passed. But even during the dark days, he proudly notes that the integration didn't get thwarted. "The A.G. Edwards merger stayed on track through the meltdown... 2009 was a transition year, but the A.G. Edwards transition is done."

Christian says that with both the A.G. Edwards and Wachovia deals, certain pieces of the acquired companies were kept because they were recognized as the best options, such as the popular training program from A.G. Edwards and the trading platform from Wachovia.

The platform switch will be done by this fall, Christian says. "By September, all of Wells Fargo's FAs will be on [Wachovia's] platform," he says.