ReportWire

Tag: Career moves

  • Citi’s wealth ambitions take shape with new hires, promotions

    Citi’s wealth ambitions take shape with new hires, promotions

    [ad_1]

    Morgan Stanley isn’t the only firm that sees a way to gain possibly trillions more in AUM via workplace clients.

    Its Wall Street rival Citi is looking in much the same direction. In announcing a new head of Citi’s Wealth at Work division, wealth head Andy Sieg estimated that the firm’s clients have $5 trillion under management at other institutions.

    According to a memo from Sieg released Wednesday, longtime Citi exec Kris Bitterly is slated to become head of the firm’s Wealth at Work division in September. That line of business has long specialized in helping lawyers and law firms with financial planning and other services, lately extending to asset managers and other professionals.

    Sieg suggested in his memo that Wealth at Work will be one of Citi’s main avenues for bringing in assets that current clients might now hold elsewhere.

    “Wealth at Work is a critical growth area and one that clearly sets us apart from the competition,” Sieg said in the memo. “This is a proven business with a loyal client base that has traditionally been rooted in banking and lending. It is time for a laser-like focus on winning our clients’ investment assets.”

    READ MORE:Citi: The megabank that is always rebuildingCiti turns to Morgan Stanley exec to bridge wealth and banking divisionsCiti wealth CIO David Bailin to leave next monthCiti pays Sieg $11.3M for first three monthsCiti CEO: Reorganization going swifter than expected

    Morgan Stanley playbook

    The statement bears similarities to remarks Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick made on Monday at his firm’s annual U.S. Financials, Payments & Commercial Real Estate Conference in New York. Pick also cited a $5 trillion figure for assets clients hold elsewhere and suggested a way to bring more of that in is through the firm’s Morgan Stanley at Work unit. Morgan Stanley at Work offers a variety of services to employers, including helping them set up retirement plans for employees and overseeing equity compensation policies that pay workers partly in company shares.

    “There’s $5 trillion of wealth held by those same people who work at company XYZ whose comp plan we administer,” Pick said.

    Jason Diamond, an executive vice president at the recruiting firm Diamond Consultants, said these large firms’ workplace divisions are just one way they have to usher new clients and assets into their wealth management businesses.

    “This is helping your advisors via means that they couldn’t necessarily use on their own,” he said. “If you can feed them the CEOs of companies that you have the retirement business for, that’s great.”

    What kind of wealth business to have?

    Citi also has an advantage in having a well-established retail and commercial bank. Now Sieg and his fellow executives need to decide exactly what sort of wealth business they want to have, Diamond said.

    Are they going for something closer to what the now-defunct First Republic Bank offered — specialized banking and advisory services meant mainly for affluent clients? Or, Diamond said, do they want to try to go head-to-head with firms like Merrill, which tend to work with clients of all wealth levels?

    The distance between Merrill and Citi remains substantial. Merrill reported record revenue of $5.6 billion on $4 trillion in client assets for the first quarter. Citi reported $1.7 billion in revenue — $181 million of it from Wealth at Work — for the same period.

    ‘Everybody knew something like this was coming’

    Diamond said Sieg’s recent hires and promotions suggest he’s starting to push forward harder in his ambitions and that his plans for the firm will most likely become clearer. Sieg announced last week that Citi had hired Dawn Nordberg from Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management to oversee bank-to-advisor referrals through a new initiative called Integrated Client Engagement.

    Diamond said Sieg appears to want to have all the pieces of his management team in place before making a big push to recruit advisors and build AUM.

    “It seemed really unlikely that he would resign from being the head of Thundering Herd, and having one of the most prestigious positions on Wall Street, to lead a sleepy wealth management unit at Citi,” Diamond said. “So everybody knew something like this was coming.”

    Back to the Merrill well

    Sieg’s memo on Wednesday also announced that Keith Glenfield, formerly Northeast Division executive for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, will succeed Bitterly as Citi’s head of investment solutions. Sieg himself came to Citi last year after serving as president of Merrill Wealth Management and has turned to his former employer for other recruits in the past. He, for instance, tapped Don Plaus, the former head of Merrill private wealth, to run Citi’s private bank in North America.

    As for Glenfield, Sieg said: “I’ve worked closely with Keith over the years, and I’m delighted he’s decided to bring his formidable leadership skills to Citi Wealth.”

    Sieg’s memo says Glenfield was at Merrill for 29 years, where he led the firm’s investment solutions group and personal retirement unit within Global Wealth Management.

    “During his tenure, Merrill’s fee-based investment offering expanded to more than $1.5 trillion,” according to the memo.

    A spokesperson for Merrill declined to comment.

    Bitterly has been at Citi since 2008, following stints at Credit Suisse and JPMorgan. Sieg’s memo credits her for contributing to the firm’s Project Simplify to streamline its business, as well as its offerings in alternative investments.

    “Importantly, Kris is a trusted voice to our clients on investments and portfolio implementation,” Sieg said in the memo. “I am confident she is the right person to take this high-growth business to new heights through a sharper and more comprehensive focus on investments.”

    Both Bitterly and Glenfield are scheduled to start their new positions in September.

    Diamond said he expects to see Citi’s wealth management business to start picking up its pace.

    “It makes sense to want to staff up to a certain degree before you are ready for prime time,” he said. “You do not need to be at 100%, but probably 80% before you go out and make all your big splashy advisor hires.”

    [ad_2]

    Dan Shaw

    Source link

  • Wells Fargo’s new public affairs head exits, will focus on Middle East crisis

    Wells Fargo’s new public affairs head exits, will focus on Middle East crisis

    [ad_1]

    “Watching the horrific events unfold in Israel and Gaza these past few weeks have had a profound effect on me, in ways that I could not have imagined,” said Thomas Nides, who is leaving his job as Wells Fargo’s head of public affairs.

    Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg

    Thomas Nides, Wells Fargo’s brand-new head of public affairs, is leaving the company after just a few weeks, as the former U.S. ambassador to Israel turns his focus back to the growing crisis in the region.

    Nides, a longtime insider in Washington, D.C. and on Wall Street, had joined the megabank to lead its lobbying, communications, community relations and philanthropy. Wells Fargo announced his departure on Friday, saying it will restart the search for the next leader of its public affairs division.

    In the meantime, Bill Daley, who was Wells Fargo’s vice chairman of public affairs from 2019 until last month, is returning to the post.  Prior to joining Wells, Daley was chief of staff to President Barack Obama and held senior roles at Bank of New York Mellon and JPMorgan Chase.

    Nides, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2021 until July, said in a statement he feels “an obligation to turn my attention back to the region, and continue to provide whatever assistance I can.”

    “Watching the horrific events unfold in Israel and Gaza these past few weeks have had a profound effect on me, in ways that I could not have imagined,” Nides said. He thanked Wells CEO Charlie Scharf for his “complete understanding about the decision I have made today.”

    Nides said he will look to provide “whatever expertise I can” to the UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish philanthropic group, and several Middle East organizations.

    Scharf said in the announcement he’s “wholly supportive of Tom’s decision.”

    “He came to Wells Fargo as a dedicated public servant, and he wants to fully commit his time and energy to urgent global issues during a time of grave need,” Scharf said, praising Nides for his “dedication and willingness to help find solutions in one of the most complicated issues in the world today.”

    Nides’ previous government jobs include top roles on Capitol Hill, chief of staff to the U.S. trade representative and chief operating officer at the State Department. He spent about a decade at the investment bank Morgan Stanley, where he was chief operating officer from 2005 until 2010 and where he returned after his State Department stint.

    Nides also is the former chief administrative officer of Credit Suisse First Boston, the U.S.-based investment banking arm of the now-failed Swiss bank, and was senior vice president at Fannie Mae.

    Last month, Nides said he was excited to “join Wells Fargo at this pivotal time in the company’s transformation journey.”

    Scharf has spent the past four years looking to improve Wells Fargo’s public image and standing with regulators after years of consumer abuse scandals under his predecessors. The company remains under an asset cap that the Federal Reserve imposed in February 2018.

    [ad_2]

    Polo Rocha

    Source link

  • Andy Sieg out at Merrill, returns to Citi

    Andy Sieg out at Merrill, returns to Citi

    [ad_1]

    Andy Sieg is leaving Merrill Wealth Management for Citigroup, returning to the Wall Street rival he last worked for 13 years ago.

    After a required six-month leave, Sieg will become the new head of Citi Global Wealth in September and report directly to Citi CEO Jane Fraser, according to an internal Citi memo dated March 30.

    Sieg worked at Citi from 2005 to 2009. He had been at Bank of America’s Merrill since then, serving first as head of Global Wealth & Retirement Solutions, then as president of Merrill in 2017. 

    Sieg is replaced by Lindsay Hans and Eric Schimpf, who were named presidents and co-heads of Merrill Wealth Management. Both executives will report to Bank of America CEO and chairman Brian Moynihan. 

    The Merrill appointments were announced Thursday in a press release. They are effective immediately, a spokesperson for Merrill said in an email. 

    Sieg’s surprise departure, one of the biggest C-suite poaches on Wall Street and a move that impacts Merrill’s “thundering herd” of brokers and advisors, could position Citi to expand its wealth management footprint in the U.S. Sieg oversaw strategies at Merrill that more than doubled advisors’ average assets from new clients to $1.7 million over a decade.

    “Andy’s decision to join Citi sends a strong signal about the potential of our wealth proposition and the attractiveness of our unique global offering,” Fraser said in the internal memo, which was provided by a Citi spokesperson. “Growing Wealth is a core pillar of our strategy and will improve our business mix by adding more fee-based revenue and drive improved returns.” 

    Fraser added in the memo that Citi’s new COO, Anand “Selva” Selvakesari — the bank’s former CEO of personal banking and wealth management who was promoted last week — had planned with her to find someone who “has a track record of driving growth, who has deep experience in the U.S. where we aim to grow significantly and who will be well positioned to drive global synergies between Wealth and our four other core businesses.” 

    Sieg’s experience at Merrill, where he oversaw 25,000 employees and around 15,000 advisors who managed a collective $2.8 trillion of assets, made him a prime candidate for the role. 

    “He also is no stranger to Citi, having worked at our bank for four years as a member of our Wealth team,” Fraser wrote in the memo. 

    In a statement, Sieg called his sudden move “a fantastic opportunity to build a leading wealth management business at the world’s most global bank at a time of massive wealth creation worldwide.

    “There is a transformation underway at Citi, and I am excited about becoming part of a team that’s driven to deliver for clients, colleagues and shareholders.” 

    Just last month, new co-head Hans was a regional division executive. Merrill had promoted Hans to be the new head of private wealth management, international and institutional groups in February, following private wealth head Don Plaus’s sudden retirement. 

    Co-head Schimpf joined Merrill as a financial advisor in 1994, the release said. He “served for six years as division executive, first for the Southeast and most recently for the Pacific Coast. He also has been serving as co-head of the Enterprise Advisor Development program,” the bank said. 

    “Lindsay and Eric have excelled as leaders, delivering outstanding results for our advisors and clients,” Moynihan said in the statement announcing the changes. “I’m looking forward to them building on the success and long tradition of Merrill in the years ahead.”

    The company declined to comment on Sieg’s move, but noted in its announcement that it appreciated Sieg’s leadership of Merrill “through a period of sustained growth and modernization of technology for advisors and clients.”

    Under Sieg, the firm adopted a “Modern Merrill” strategy that included digitizing processes for advisors and helping them market more effectively online to clients, as well as improve the digital client experience. He also called for broader efforts within the firm as well as across the industry to improve outreach to what he termed the diversifying “face of wealth” in the U.S.  

    Sieg replaces Jim O’Donnell in the role at Citi, and O’Donnell will transition to be Executive Vice Chairman of Citi and Head of Senior Client Engagement, the Citi memo said. 

    [ad_2]

    Victoria Zhuang

    Source link