Colter Lewis is head of Northern Trust in Houston, where the firm has $6.1 billion in assets under management and custody, and two offices.

The new team members are: Martha Voss, Brian Thomas, Chad Lyons, John Jacobi and Adam Brennen.

Voss, a senior vice president, senior lender and banking practice leader, is tasked with growing Northern Trust's lending and depository practice in Houston and Austin. She is also responsible for maintaining the quality of its credit risk portfolio, which is “so important to Northern Trust’s strong credit culture,” the firm said. She joins from JP Morgan, having spent most of her 33-year stint there in private and commercial banking.

Thomas, a senior wealth strategist, will work with wealthy individuals and families. He was formerly a managing director at JP Morgan Private Bank in Houston. He spent 14 years at JP Morgan in total, working in San Francisco, CA, St Louis, MO, and Chicago, IL.

Lyons, a vice president and banking relationship advisor, will coordinate a team focused on the financial and lending needs of individuals, families and corporations. Before joining Northern Trust, Lyons was in oil and gas banking at Scotiabank. 

Meanwhile, Jacobi, a vice president and portfolio manager, will provide clients with investment strategies and asset allocation policies. He joins from Capital One Asset Management, where he was co-manager on several equity strategies, and managed portfolios for high net worth and institutional clients.

Lastly, Brennen, a vice president and senior client advisor, will work with wealthy individuals, providing wealth planning services including investment management, trust and asset servicing and multi-generational advice. He previously spent ten years at Amegy Bank.   

While New York remains the city with the highest HNWI population overall, the top six cities for HNWI growth in 2014 were in Texas and on the West Coast, driven by strong real estate market, according to the US Wealth Report 2015 by RBC Wealth Management and Capgemini. Houston’s HNWI population grew at the fastest pace in 2014, at 14 per cent, it said. Meanwhile alongside the controversial “fracking” revolution, there has been a surge in energy-related wealth in Texas in recent years, particularly in Houston and Dallas, fuelling demand for wealth management services in the region.