High-end groups in Rochester, N.Y. and D.C. up stakes for boutique advisory. Convergent Wealth Advisors (CWA) has just pulled in a pair of high-profile investment-consulting teams from Citigroup's Smith Barney; one in the Washington, D.C. area, the other in upstate New York. The liftouts stand to boost CWA's standing as an institutional investment advisory.

The Washington team is Smith Barney's former "Potomac Group," led by George Dunn, a 29-year veteran of Smith Barney and its predecessor firms.

Dunn made the leap with his near namesake Peter Dunne, Bruce Wall and a six-member support staff.

$7 billion

In Rochester, N.Y., 21-year Smith Barney veteran Lori Van Dusen has joined CWA along with David Mattia, Rick Van Kuren and a support staff of six.

CWA confirmed the hires, but otherwise declined to comment.

In aggregate CWA's new teams managed around $7 billion when they were ensconced at Smith Barney -- with about 60% of this total classified as institutional money; mainly belonging to endowments and foundations.

CWA is in the process of attempting to re-paper its new teams' books of business.

Van Dusen and Dunn have both been named among Barron's annual top 100 financial advisors for the past five years -- the same publication this year rated Van Dusen as one of the five top female advisors.

CWA advises on assets of more than $9 billion, mainly for high-net-worth investors. It is part of Chicago-based Convergent Capital Management, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based City National Corporation.

In addition to its headquarters in Rockville, Md. (just outside Washington), and its new office in Rochester, CWA has offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., and Seattle. -FWR

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