Wells Fargo Aims for Clients With $50 Million

[FarCenter]

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets, is courting families worth $50 million or more with the start of its Abbot Downing advisory unit.

Abbot Downing, which plans to begin operations under its own name in April, combines the businesses of Wells Fargo Family Wealth, the bank’s family office, and Lowry Hill private asset management, an investment-management and financial-planning subsidiary that works with individuals, foundations and endowments, among others, with $10 million or more in assets, the company said in a press release today.

“We’re aggregating a number of capabilities that we’ve had at Wells Fargo under one umbrella,” David Carroll, head of wealth, brokerage and retirement for San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, said in a telephone interview before the announcement. “As arguably the best-capitalized financial institution in the U.S., we think the affiliation with Wells Fargo will be very relevant,” for families looking for intergenerational wealth management, he said.

The combined assets of about $27.5 billion would make Abbot Downing the fourth-largest family office behind HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA)’s private wealth solutions unit, Bessemer Trust Co. and UBS AG (UBSN)’s wealth-management business, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bringing the two units together means Abbot Downing will be managing the finances of about 575 families across the country, and also will serve families’ foundations and endowments, Carroll said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/wells-fargo-starts-abbot-downing-family-office-for-those-with-50-million.html

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$50,000,000 in assets definitely puts your family in the 1%.

[kestrel91316]

1. I walked in there recently with about $10k and they acted all snooty and like

they were doing me a huge favor to open (gasp) a mere savings account. Of course it has tons of restrictions and pays 0.1% interest, IIRC.

[DaveJ]

2. At least we know where to find the 1% now.

"Intergenerational wealth" means Aristocracy, which is the antipathy of this country's founding values. It shocks me that they demonize
Socialism whereas Aristocracy gets a free pass... until now that OWS has taken hold.