The new family office is formed by merging Wells Fargo’s Family Wealth and Lowry Hill businesses and Wachovia’s legacy Calibre business. It is named ‘Abbot Downing’ and will commence operation under new brand from April next year.
Jim Steiner, who previously led Lowry Hill, will head the new advisory unit.
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Wells Fargo Private Bank will continue serving people with US$1 million to US$50 million of investible assets.
The new unit will manage around US$27.5 billion in assets for about 575 families across the US, and will offer wealth management, investment and banking services for families and their endowments and foundations.
Abbot Downing will also offer in-house and third-party investments and will invest in stocks, bonds, hedge funds and real estate.
Wells Fargo is not the first firm to launch separate unit to woo ultra rich clients. Firms including HSBC, Bessemer Trust Co. and UBS are already operating in this niche market.
