By Thomas Coyle
A DOW JONES NEWSWIRES COLUMN
Wilmington Trust's (WL) rush into Georgia's lucrative
private-client market continues with the hire of five more
professionals for its Wealth Advisory Services team in Atlanta.
The appointments -- two from Bank of New York Mellon (BK), two
from Wells Fargo (WFC), and one from asset manager BlackRock (BLK)
-- come about a month after Wilmington Trust hired another five
wealth managers -- all but one of those from Bank of New York
Mellon's wealth-management division -- and about two months after
the appointments of former Bank of New York Mellon
wealth-management executives Jack Sawyer Jr. as head of Wilmington
Trust's WAS business in the southeastern U.S., Michael Mohr as head
of investment advisory and Todd Tautfest as head of business
development for the region.
Joining these eight recent hires at Wilmington Trust are senior
investment adviser Donald Demba, senior private client adviser
Robert Fell, senior investment adviser Benjamin Harris,
private-client associate Jeremy Lennep and senior client-service
officer Karen Touchstone.
"Atlanta is one of the top wealth markets in the United States
and we are committed to building the city's premier team of wealth
advisors," Sawyer said in a press release.
Demba and Fell come to Wilmington Trust from Wachovia's Atlanta
wealth-management office by way of Wells Fargo, which acquired
Wachovia late in 2008. Harris was an Atlanta-based portfolio
manager with BlackRock. Lennep and Touchstone had been with BNY
Mellon Wealth Management in Atlanta.
Bank of New York Mellon declined to comment on its loss of nine
wealth-management professionals to Wilmington Trust in recent
months. But then BNY Mellon Wealth Management has doubled
Atlanta-based sales force since 2006, where it has a staff of about
30, including recent hire Garrett Alton, formerly a senior
financial adviser with Bank of America's (BAC) Merrill Lynch.
Atlanta will see a 68.8% increase to 102,000 in the number of
households with $1 million or more in investable assets by 2012,
according to a pre-downturn study by market-research firm Claritas
(now part of Nielsen). Among other fast-growing wealth centers
identified by Claritas are Dallas, Houston, Denver, and Sacramento,
Calif.
Wilmington, Del., Wilmington Trust's WAS managed $40.3 billion
at the end of September 2009.
-Thomas Coyle, Dow Jones Newswires; 718-545-8628
thomas.coyle@dowjones.com