Multifamily office continues rigorous no-product approach to ultra wealthy. Former Atlantic Trust/Stein Roe Investment Counsel managing director Pamela Kuhn Lent has joined Lowenhaupt Global Advisors (LGA), a St. Louis based multifamily office.

"Pam is as fine an investment counselor as I have met in my 30 years in this business," says LGA chairman and CEO Charles Lowenhaupt. "[Her] depth of experience, her mentoring and her understanding will add immeasurably to our resources."

Based in New York, Lent will help LGA's clients realize their investment goals and objectives. Many of these clients are familiar to her from her 23 years with Atlantic Trust/Stein Roe and its predecessor firms.

The move to LGA takes Lent from a firm with proprietary investment product -- which she had a hand in managing -- to one with a rigorous no-product stance.

This, says LGA's CIO Donna Gilding, frees Lent to "put all of her energy into helping our clients set their goals and work with their money managers to accomplish those goals," without obligation to any particular manager.

Lent says LGA's advice-only approach frees her continue to "serving clients loyally and well" with no "criteria other than un-conflicted excellence."

A member of Stein Roe IC's executive advisory group, Lent was part of the partnership's management-led buyout from Liberty Mutual in 2001. She was managing Stein Roe IC's largest book of business when Amvescap acquired it in 2004, changing its name to "Atlantic Trust" in the process.

Things afoot

Lent's hire is part of a series of changes at LGA going back several years now -- all undertaken, says Lowenhaupt, in an effort to remove conflict and prevent its return. (See Boutique hires to help clients avoid conflicts and Ex-Neuberger star joins Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff.)

Of these changes, the biggest is may be the creation this past summer of LGA itself.

LGA is an offshoot of St. Louis-based Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff, a 99-year-old tax-law firm that has long served as a de facto multifamily office -- or as Lowenhaupt prefers, a provider of individually customized family offices -- to ultra high-net-worth families.

Separating the Lownhaupt & Chasnoff from LGA, a registered investment advisory (RIA), ensures attorney-client exclusivity around matters such as taxation, estate planning and probate, according to Lowenhaupt. That said, Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff attorneys advise many of LGA's clients.

The split also helps LGA attract and retain top talent. In some states, including Missouri, law firms can only be owned by lawyers. As an RIA, however, LGA is free to make top executives part owners no matter what their callings.

LGA has about $750 million under advisement. Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff administers or advises on client assets of well over $1 billion. -FWR

.