192-year old Brown Brothers Harriman & Co's wealth management division keeps a low profile but has an impressive $45 billion in assets under management. In an exclusive interview, managing director Scott Clemons discusses the firm's plans and philosophy.

Most wealth management businesses with $45 billion in assets under management would hardly be considered low-profile, but Brown Brothers Harriman & Co’s private wealth management unit is more than happy to fly under the radar.

And while it’s de rigueur for ambitious wealth management firms to try and grab headlines with chest-beating national expansion and hiring plans, the 192-year old firm is happy to stick with its knitting in its New York-area backyard.

“We want to grow smartly and in a controlled way, and have clients who have an investment philosophy that resonates with ours,” Scott Clemons, managing director and co-head of wealth management at the firm, told Family Wealth Report. “We haven’t concluded that broader advertising is the best way to accomplish that, although it is something we wrestle with.”

Nor does Clemons, who shares leadership duties with John Lee, foresee any new offices outside of the six BBH  wealth management has in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Charlotte and Wilmington.

“We have a national practice and visit our clients all over the country, but we see most of our growth geographically coming from the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut tri-state area,” he said. “There’s a lot of wealth here and we see a lot of liquidity events taking place. There’s a concentration of wealth advisors such as lawyers and accountants that make for a cluster effect that makes the market very attractive and very competitive.”

Asked if he thought the New York-area wealth management market was over-saturated, Clemons said no.

“It’s a really big market and there are a lot of different models,” he said. “It would take a lot to over saturate it.”

So what differentiates Brown Bothers Harriman?

Clemons believes the firm’s history as the oldest and largest privately-owned bank in the country is a major asset.

“We’re the last general unlimited liability partnership left on Wall Street,” he said. “Many of our clients are owners of private businesses and the fact that we are also owners of the business resonates with them.”

The firm’s investment emphasis on preservation of wealth has also worked in its favor, Clemons said. “The vast majority of our clients have already earned their wealth,” he said. “They don’t want to earn it again,” he said.

This is the first in a two-part series.