The new unit, to be based in Baltimore in Maryland, will be called Stanford Institutional Consulting and focus on clients with assets between $10 million and more than $1 billion, the company said in a statement.

SIC will be led by veteran financial advisor Christopher Aitken, in the role of executive managing director and senior investment consultant, and by Stephen Thacker, managing director and investment consultant.

Other financial professionals joining the team include Dawn Pfaff, senior analyst; Timothy Truss, senior analyst; Danyelle Berger, senior analyst; Ayaz Hasan, analyst; Shari Serafin, operations manager; Teri Houp, portfolio administration and Karen Doggett, senior portfolio administrator.

Prior to joining Stanford Institutional Consulting, Mr Aitken was managing director for Citi-Smith Barney Institutional Consulting. Mr Thacker also joins the company from Citi-Smith Barney Institutional Consulting where he has served for the past 16 years.

Stanford Financial Group is a privately held global network of independent, affiliated financial services companies led by chairman and chief executive Allen Stanford. The first Stanford company was founded by his grandfather, Lodis Stanford in 1932. Stanford has over $50 billion in assets under management or advisement.