Preferred Shelf?
Unless WFG is planning to issue preferred shares, a shelf is just dilutive to shareholders, and conflicts directly with the notion the shares are undervalued as evidenced by the share buyback WFG is currently undertaking and the "higher for longer" bull thesis.
Their earnings and balance sheet are so strong they should only be looking at issuing debt to finance any further takeovers. Issuing long term debt and/or preferred shares to finance takeovers in an inflationary environment is exactly the right thing to do - especially since WFG is clearly capturing the leading edge of the inflation wave a'coming.
The shelf also strongly suggests they wont be paying out these fat earnings as a fat dividend. This is good as is better to get share appreciation then pay tax on dividends.