BofA has ‘Trust’ in wealth unit
As promised, Bank of America Corp. will keep the U.S. Trust name in its new private-wealth-management business.
As promised, Bank of America Corp. will keep the U.S. Trust name in its new private-wealth-management business.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based banking giant said today the unit will be called U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management.
It will combine New York-based U.S. Trust Corp.’s wealth management business with the Private Bank of Bank of America and Family Wealth Advisors, BofA’s ultrahigh-net worth businesss.
“The underlying concept behind [using the U.S. Trust name] is sound,” said Robert Ellis, a New York-based senior analyst covering wealth management for Boston-based Celent, LLC, describing BofA as a “mid-market brand that does not translate particularly well to high net worth customers.”
Problems with the new name, he said, included the “somewhat unwieldy” full title and an uncertainty about it represented for customers.
Bank of America’s optimism about the new business was captured by chairman and chief executive Kenneth Lewis, who said in a New York Times interview that the bank expects its’ wealth management business to “grow faster than our consumer bank and commercial bank because of its demographics.”
BofA is expected to finalize its $3.3 billion agreement to buy U.S. Trust from San Francisco-based Charles Schwab Corp. next month.
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