Law firm's wealth unit changes name, shares equity

Thomas Coyle

2 October 2008

WilmerHale's Hale and Dorr Wealth Advisors re-named Silver Bridge Advisors. Hale and Dorr Wealth Advisors, an 80-year-old affiliate of the law firm WilmerHale, has changed its name to Silver Bridge Advisors and rolled out an equity-ownership strategy for its employees.

These changes are part of a campaign -- begun in 2005 when Silver Bridge's president and COO Stephen Prostano arrived from Invesco's Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management -- to make Silver Bridge more efficient and competitive.

CIO Thomas Manning, formerly an executive with Bank of America, joined Silver Bridge shortly afterward.

In addition to its name change and the employee-ownership plan, Silver Bridge has expanded its investment platform to include outside as well as in-house asset management, and built a new data-aggregation and performance-reporting system.

Restructuring

"Building out our platform was integral to ensuring that we continue to meet and exceed our clients expectations," says Manning. "Our commitment to helping successful individuals and families protect, manage and grow their assets is of paramount importance to us."

Boston-based Silver Bridge has also brought in about 80% of its 44-member staff since Prostano and Manning -- former colleagues at Bank of America acquisition Fleet -- arrived, according to Prostano.

Silver Bridge says its new name "reflects the distinct characteristics of the firm." That is, "silver" equals venerable and valuable, and "bridge" connotes its connection to multi-generational clients.

The "Hale & Dorr" name also conjures the legacy name of a law firm that merged with Wilmer Cutler Pickering to form WilmerHale in 2004.

Though Silver Bridge continues to be affiliated with WilmerHale, its new name may serve, as Silver Bridge says in a press release, to underline its "position as an independent, objective and highly professional wealth-management firm."

The employee-ownership plan, open to all Silver Bridge staff members, is still a work in progress. It's intended to put nearly half of the firm's equity in the hands of its employees to align their interests with the firm's performance and growth.

Looking at it another way, the equity share is a means to keep talent in place for the long run and give Silver Bridge opportunities to groom the firm's next-generation leadership, according to Manning.

That said, Prostano and Manning emphasize that they have no plans to walk for another 15 or 20 years.

Silver Bridge has $1.4 billion in assets under management. -FWR

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