For 26 years, my career has been woven through the worlds of financial services, wealth management, and insurance. It feels surreal to write that number, as the memory of how it began remains so vivid.

I had just arrived in Canada, eager to build a life with my boyfriend (now my husband), and while searching for work, a friend mentioned a call centre was recruiting for telephone banking representatives.

I applied, was offered the role, and, as they say, the rest is history. Make no mistake; this was no accident of time. I worked diligently, pursued industry education, and made deliberate career choices that have led me to this moment of reflection.

With these years of insight, I can confidently say so much within the wealth management industry has transformed: the explosion of new investment options, the varieties of tradable currencies, and innovations in technology that let us access our finances any time, anywhere.

Yet through all this change, one dynamic has remained constant — the ongoing pressure business development professionals face to reach their sales targets.

Business development professionals in the wealth management industry navigate a minefield of ethical issues, primarily driven by high sales targets that clash with their fiduciary responsibilities to clients.

These professionals, often financial advisers or wealth managers, face relentless pressure to grow assets under management (AUM), to secure commissions, and meet targets set by organisations hungry for revenue.

While such targets fuel business growth, they frequently tempt business development professionals into practices that prioritise personal or organisational gains over client welfare, leading to widespread misconduct, regulatory scrutiny, and personal ethical dilemmas.

This tension arises because compensation structures in wealth management can heavily rely on commissions and trailing fees tied to product sales, rather than flat fees for advice.

Business development professionals are often incentivised to recommend investments that maximise their earnings, even if they are suboptimal for clients.

Unrealistic targets exacerbate this, creating a high-stakes environment where failing to reach sales targets fosters fears of potential job loss, reduced bonuses, or demotion. As a result, ethical dilemmas become daily realities, forcing business development professionals to choose between integrity and survival.

The pressure cooker of sales targets takes a severe mental health toll. A survey conducted by Forbes magazine in 2025 revealed that over 40 per cent of salespeople struggle with mental health issues, with depression and anxiety correlating to not achieving sales targets. Furthermore, advisers reported the constant stress from pipeline scrutiny, rejection fatigue, and ethical compromises that haunt their conscience.

The Wells Fargo scandal of 2016 is a classic example of how aggressive sales targets drove employees to open millions of unauthorised accounts throughout the US. From 2002 to 2016, under intense "cross-selling” goals, employees created 3.5 million fake deposit and credit card accounts without customer consent, generating around $2 million in illicit fees.

Employees resorted to forging signatures, fabricating e-mails, and secretly shifting funds just to meet sales targets. Internal warnings about this misconduct had been noted as early as 2002, described by investigators as a “growing plague”, yet leadership repeatedly ignored ethics hotline reports and failed to act.

This crisis stemmed from unrelenting pressure created by unrealistic targets, cultivating a deeply toxic work environment where supervisors obsessively monitored employee logins and issued firing threats for shortfalls.

Bonuses heavily favoured sales volume over ethical conduct, prompting Wells Fargo to dismiss 5,300 low-level workers while top executives initially evaded personal consequences. The problem even spilt into wealth management, where advisers pushed unwanted services onto clients to inflate metrics.

The fallout proved severe: Wells Fargo agreed to a $3 billion settlement in 2020, on top of $142 million paid directly to victims, all under a deferred prosecution agreement that imposed three years of strict monitoring.

The former CEO faced a personal fine of $17.5 million, and the Federal Reserve imposed an asset growth cap that lasted until 2018.

Beyond finances, the bank suffered massive reputational harm, losing clients and top talent amid plunging stock prices and a wave of lawsuits (Tayan, 2019).

For the wealth management industry, this scandal serves as a warning of how sales target-driven fear can override fiduciary duties, heightening risks of churning investment portfolios or overselling products. It underscores the need for systemic change, as unchecked pressures not only erode trust but also invite regulatory interventions that can cripple firms in the long-term.

The fact is that organisations need to shift from a sales-driven culture, where sales targets reign supreme, to a client-centric one that prioritises genuine value delivery, thereby alleviating business development professionals’ ethical dilemmas.

As stated previously, in sales-driven environments, pressure to close deals often pushes business development professionals into high-pressure tactics, misrepresenting products or ignoring client needs, fostering guilt and moral conflict.

A client-centric approach reframes success around solving customer problems, reducing these tensions by aligning incentives with long-term relationships rather than short-term wins.

Organisations must start with leadership commitment, as executives model the change by embedding client focus into every decision, from hiring to performance reviews, while openly addressing resistance from veteran salespeople accustomed to aggressive quotas.

Clear communication of the “why” is vital: client-centricity boosts retention, referrals, and profitability, creating a sustainable growth model that benefits all stakeholders.

In addition, implementing training to equip business development professionals with essential skills like empathy, active listening, and needs-based questioning opposed to product pitches.

Programmes should teach business development professionals to uncover unmet needs collaboratively, turning sales calls into consultative partnerships that build trust. Ongoing coaching reinforces this, helping salespeople navigate longer cycles without reverting to unethical shortcuts born of sales-target desperation.

Organisations need to redefine metrics and ditch pure volume targets for balanced key performance indicators like customer satisfaction scores, lifetime value, and tying commissions and bonuses to retention and up-sell success. This motivates ethical behaviour, as business development professionals see rewards in loyal clients who return and refer, not one-off transactions.

In practice, organisations that adopt this practice, have higher employee satisfaction and lower turnover, as professionals feel the organisation aligns with their values. Ultimately, this evolution not only mitigates ethical risks but positions wealth management as a trusted partner in clients' financial futures.

References

Tayan, B. (2019) The Wells Fargo Cross-Selling Scandal. Stanford Business School Journal. Available from: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/wells-fargo-cross-selling-scandal [Accessed 25 January 2026].

• Carla Seely has 26 years’ experience in the international financial services, wealth management, and insurance industries. During her career, she has obtained several investment licences through the Canadian Securities Institute. She holds the ACSI qualification through the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (UK), the qualified associate financial planner (QAFP) designation through FP Canada, and the associate in insurance (AINS) designation through The Institutes. She also completed a Master’s Degree in Business and Management through University of Essex

• For further inquiries or suggested topics, e-mail: justaskcarla@outlook.com