Wells Fargo appoints East Coast wealth-management chiefs under Stan Gregor. Getting down to the task of integrating Wachovia's private-client lines with its own wealth-management businesses, Wells Fargo has named six managing directors for the bank's U.S. East Coast regions.

At the same time, Wells Fargo has put Stan Gregor in overall charge of Wells Fargo Wealth Management's eastern U.S. markets -- giving one executive direct responsibility for all wealth-management disciplines in each region including private banking, credit, bank brokerage, trust, investment management, planning and insurance services.

Incredible opportunity

"As we merge two of the nation's premiere wealth firms -- Wells Fargo Wealth Management Group and Wachovia Wealth Management -- our goal was to find leaders who can best guide our high-net-worth clients through the complexities that wealth often creates," says Gregor, who joined Wachovia as president of its Wealth Markets group from Commerce Bancorp (now part of TD Bank) in the summer of 2007.

Wachovia's Wealth Markets caters to clients with $10 million in net worth or more than $5 million in investable assets.

Here are Wells Fargo Wealth Management's six East Coast region heads. Four of them were employed by Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia before the merger. But then Wachovia has bigger name in the private-client business east of the Mississippi than San Francisco-based Wells Fargo.

John Dowd, New York: Northeast (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York). He joined Wachovia last spring from Bank of New York Mellon as director of Wachovia Wealth Management's northeastern U.S. region.
John Duchala, Philadelphia: Pennsylvania and Delaware. He joined Wells Fargo from JPMorgan Chase's Private Wealth Management group in June 2008; three months later he was tapped to spearhead Well Fargo's private-banking efforts in the U.S. Northeast from it's then-new Private Bank office in New York.
Gregory Bronstein, Washington, D.C.: Mid-Atlantic (Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia). He's a sixteen-year veteran of Wells Fargo, most recently as manager of the bank's wealth-management business in Washington State.
Jeff Hartman, Charlotte, N.C.: North Carolina and South Carolina. A Wachovia employee since 1980, he was named director of its private-banking business in the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia in 2007.
Kim Radford, Atlanta: Southeast (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee). This Wachovia stalwart -- he joined the bank in 1992 -- was most recently head of its bank-brokerage channel in Virginia and the Carolinas.
Bill D'Antignac, Jacksonville, Fla.: Florida. A broker with First Union for a decade before it merged with Wachovia in 2002, he has been in Florida since 2000, most recently as regional president of Wachovia's bank-brokerage channel in the bank's southeastern region.

As Wells Fargo and Wachovia work toward complete integration -- doing so "carefully" while "maintaining a sharp focus on client service," according to Gregor -- their wealth-management businesses will continue to use their legacy brands.

"We have an incredible opportunity to help our clients through this challenging economic climate, and build upon the company's reputation for client service and loyalty, and its generations of experience in serving high-net-worth clients," Gregor adds. "The leaders appointed today are talented and seasoned wealth professionals who offer a great understanding of what it means to be that trusted advisor to clients looking for stability."

Wells Fargo Wealth Management Group provides financial products and services through various affiliates of Wells Frago including Wells Fargo Investments and Wachovia Securities. -FWR

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