Bank of America fills out third-tier wealth-biz slots

FWR Staff

25 July 2007

Wealth-management giant names 20 executives for "national solutions areas". Having already said who was going to be who at and near the top of its new wealth-management organization, Bank of America was out earlier this week with a long list of folks tapped to staff its "Investments," "Specialized Client Solutions," "Wealth Structuring," and "Credit and Banking Delivery" groups.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America completed its acquisition of U.S. Trust from Schwab earlier this month. U.S. Trust, the Private Bank of Bank of America and Bank of America's Family Wealth Advisors have been combined to form U.S. Trust Bank of America Private Wealth Management.

As reported earlier, wealth-group CEO Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa reports to Brian Moynihan, head of Bank of America's investment-management division.

Names

Among those reporting to Sevilla-Sacasa are CIO and "Investments" head Leo Grohowski, "Specialized Client Solutions" head Henry Fischel-Bock, "Wealth Structuring" head Lynn Davis and "Credit and Banking Delivery" head Bob Lynch.

Like Sevilla-Sacasa these four executives were U.S. Trust employees before the merger. In all, seven of Sevilla-Sacasa's 11 direct reports made the move with her over from U.S. Trust.

Here are the group-level appointments.

Under Grohowski in "Investments": Chris Hyzy -- Global Investment Strategy, Solutions and Analytics Durraj Tase -- Capital Markets and Brokerage Advisory Tom Fay Jay Springer , Rick Pomeroy , Hinton Crawford , Bob Pitti, will regional investment-management executives

Under Fischel-Bock in "Specialized Client Solutions":

Chris Zander -- Multi Family Office Garbis Mechigian -- CTC Consulting Kim Sloat -- Executive Advisory Services Peter White -- Family Advisory Lex Zaharoff -- Senior Investment Executive

Under Davis in "Wealth Structuring":

Ralph Borrello -- Trust & Estate Smith Freeman -- Office of Chief Fiduciary Nina Charnley -- Specialized Wealth Structuring Gillian Howell -- Private Philanthropy Kim Garcia -- Wealth Planning Solutions

Under Bob Lynch in "Credit and Banking Delivery":

Bill Lordi -- Custom Credit Managers Jan Reuter -- Mortgage Charlie Burrows -- Deposits

Optimal blend

"These talented individuals share a common commitment to providing world-class wealth and investment management services to our clients across the country," Sevilla-Sacasa assures us. "The depth of knowledge and experience these leaders bring to our business enables them to lead the development of sophisticated solutions to meet the unique and complex needs of our clients."

But she doesn't say where any of these people came from. Some are easy to place: CTC's Mechigian because CTC has been an own-brand subsidiary of U.S. Trust for nearly 15 years; Zaharoff because FWR stumbled across the June 2005 press release on his appointment to Bank of America's Family Wealth Advisors.

Bank of America's PR team isn't much help in sorting out the rest of them. "The list includes a blend of legacy and U.S. Trust executives who we feel possess the optimal blend of expertise and management rigor to best serve the unique and complex needs of wealthy and ultra-wealthy clients," is as far as bank spokesman John Yiannacopoulos will go toward helping this publication keep score. -FWR