Banks have a “valuable opportunity” this year to get into or expand their wealth management business by buying or partnering with an advisory firm, according to investment banker
Dan Seivert, chief executive and managing partner for
Echelon Partners.

“As the market recovers, there will be great buying opportunities,” Mr Seivert said at a session of the American Bankers Association’s annual Wealth Management and Trust Conference in Phoenix yesterday.

There will also be plenty of sellers and available talent, he added.

The dislocation in the markets has produced “the biggest bumper crop of [available] talent this industry has ever seen", Mr Seivert said.

But bankers who do buy or partner with an existing wealth management firm need to be cautious about the cultural differences in the firms, he warned.

“The key to successfully integrating wealth management into banks is the less integration the better,” Mr Seivert said. “Let them leave their name on the door, let them keep their compensation structure. They’re coming from a very different place.”