UHNW shop says it needs help coping with an influx of qualified prospects. Bessemer Trust has made another high-level appointment. The multifamily office has hired former Bernstein Global Wealth Management (GWM) principal Gilbert Chapman III as a business-development officer in New York. He reports to managing director and trust-services chief Andrew Parker.

"Gib has had extensive experience working closely with wealthy families," says Parker. "He possesses an in-depth understanding of how investment strategies and family stewardship goals need to intersect."

Bottle rocket

At Bernstein GWM, the high-net-worth unit of AllianceBernstein, Chapman helped wealthy families, endowments and foundations to build and execute investment strategies. Before joining Bernstein in 2001, he was president of Bottle Rocket, a New York-based developer and distributor of web-based entertainment products that was acquired by ACTV (now part of OpenTV) in 2000. Before that, he was group publisher of EMAP's sports publications. He began his career in advertising sales with Conde Nast.

Chapman is one of a series of hires Bessemer has made in over the past year or so. Among other multifamily offices that haven't let recent market turmoil keep them from expanding in recent months are Glenmede, Pitcairn, Bel Air Investment Advisors, Rockefeller & Co., Harris myCFO, GenSpring Family Offices, Threshold Group, Convergent Wealth Advisors, Evercore Partners and Lowenhaupt Global Advisors.

Bessemer at least saw strong account growth in 2008 -- in part because of the troubles many of its bigger-name competitors found themselves in as their exposure to bad debts, plummeting share prices, forced mergers and a resultant erosion of brand cachet prompted cautious investors to seek out stabler stewards for their holdings.

"There are indications that Bessemer will continue to see a high level of interest among wealthy families this year, and it is essential that we have seasoned professionals like Gib to address qualified inquiries," says Parker.

Bessemer, which was founded in 1907 as the Henry Phipps family office, supervised $53.6 billion for about 1,900 clients at the end of September 2008. In addition to its New York headquarters, it has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Naples, Fla., Palm Beach, Fla., San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Wilmington, Del., Woodbridge, N.J., London and Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. -FWR

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