Sevilla-Sacasa replaces Scaturro as a bank gets set to absorb trust company. Bank of America has made it official: once the bank completes its acquisition of U.S. Trust from Schwab -- probably early this summer -- Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa will become president of its new Private Wealth Management unit.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America agreed late last November to buy U.S. Trust from San Francisco-based Schwab for $3.3 billion. Schwab paid $2.7 billion for U.S. Trust back in 2000.

Substitute

"Frances is a proven leader in the private wealth-management industry who shares our vision for a new organization defined by the needs of our clients and reflective of the complementary strengths of the two predecessor organizations," says Brian Moynihan, head of Bank of America's Boston-based wealth- and asset-management division. "We will continue to partner closely with Frances and her team as we work to bring our two great organizations together, and look forward to her leadership of the combined business."

Word of Sevilla-Sacasa's promotion is the first official indication that Peter Scaturro has already left U.S. Trust. Last week Bank of America declined to specify his departure date, saying only that he would be gone before the transaction closed. Up until last week, Scaturro had been slated to fill the role now in store for Sevilla-Sacasa.

What's in a name?

For now Sevilla-Sacasa remains CEO of U.S. Trust, a position she has held for less than a week. She joined U.S. Trust as its president late in 2005 from Citigroup Private Bank. Scaturro was CEO of Citigroup Private Bank until he stepped down in the wake of a late-2004 regulatory scandal in Japan.

Bank of America says its Private Wealth Management business "will be formed through the combination of U.S. Trust operations with the Private Bank of Bank of America and its Family Wealth Advisors" multifamily office.

In other words, a venerable brand in may not be long for this world. "The U.S. Trust marquis name will go away," says Elizabeth Nesvold, a managing director with New York-based investment bank Cambridge International Partners, reacting to Bank of America's description of its Private Wealth Management business. "That's what this suggests to me."

Last year high-net-worth clients chose U.S. Trust as the third most respected brand in wealth management (after Bessemer Trust and Goldman Sachs), according to the Luxury Institute.

U.S. Trust has been around for more than 150 years.

Who's on first?

Meanwhile the "Private Wealth Management" moniker that Bank of America has selected to brand its high-end private-client business is fairly common. Deutsche Bank, Mellon, Morgan Stanley and UBS -- to name a few -- already use it.

Bank of America's private bank is run by Jane Farley Magpiong, who reports to Moynihan. Family Wealth Advisors head Alan Rappaport -- himself head of the private bank until September 2004 -- is also a direct report to Moynihan.

It's not clear whether Magpiong and Rappaport will report to Sevilla-Sacasa or to Moynihan -- or even if they'll keep their jobs. "Those positions have not been determined," says bank of America spokesman John Yiannacopoulos.

The marriage of U.S. Trust and the Private Bank of Bank of America will make Bank of America Private Wealth Management the biggest private bank in the U.S. -FWR

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