Wealth manager signs distribution agreements with major advisor platforms. Wilmington Trust has hired veteran wholesaler Darryl Grayson to spearhead distribution of its proprietary investment products to fee-based advisor-support platforms. The wealth-management firm has recently signed agreements to supply mutual funds to advisors through Fidelity Investments' Fidelity FundsNetwork, Pershing's FundVest, Schwab's OneSource and TD Ameritrade's Ameritrade Connection.

"Expanding the availability of our investment management expertise is central to growing our business," said Neil Wolfson, president of Wilmington Trust Investment Management. "In Darryl we have an experienced person to lead that effort."

23 funds

Grayson comes to Wilmington from Gabelli Funds, where he was head of sales for the firm's mutual fund enterprise. Before that he led ARK Funds national distribution efforts. Earlier in his career, Grayson was a wholesaler with Delaware Investments, Bankers Trust, and OppenheimerFunds.

Wilmington, Del.-based Wilmington Trust calls its new distribution agreements "the latest steps" in the trust company's initiative to bring the investment acumen it has successfully provided high-net-worth investors for many years to a wider audience." Wilmington has also created an investor class of shares for the Wilmington Funds, and introduced several new mutual funds.

The new sales agreements make the Wilmington Funds complex of 23 mutual funds available to advisors affiliated with the several of the biggest service agencies to registered investment advisors.

At the end of June 2006 Wilmington Trust had about $39 billion in assets under management, including about $6 billion in the Wilmington Funds.

In addition to its headquarters in Delaware, Wilmington Trust and its affiliates have offices in California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Vermont. Overseas it has offices in London, Dublin, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands. -FWR

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