STREET MOVES: Wilmington Continues Push For Clients In Georgia

   By Thomas Coyle 
   A DOW JONES NEWSWIRES COLUMN 

Wilmington Trust's (WL) rush into Georgia's lucrative private-client market continues with the hire of five more professionals for its Wealth Advisory Services team in Atlanta.

The appointments -- two from Bank of New York Mellon (BK), two from Wells Fargo (WFC), and one from asset manager BlackRock (BLK) -- come about a month after Wilmington Trust hired another five wealth managers -- all but one of those from Bank of New York Mellon's wealth-management division -- and about two months after the appointments of former Bank of New York Mellon wealth-management executives Jack Sawyer Jr. as head of Wilmington Trust's WAS business in the southeastern U.S., Michael Mohr as head of investment advisory and Todd Tautfest as head of business development for the region.

Joining these eight recent hires at Wilmington Trust are senior investment adviser Donald Demba, senior private client adviser Robert Fell, senior investment adviser Benjamin Harris, private-client associate Jeremy Lennep and senior client-service officer Karen Touchstone.

"Atlanta is one of the top wealth markets in the United States and we are committed to building the city's premier team of wealth advisors," Sawyer said in a press release.

Demba and Fell come to Wilmington Trust from Wachovia's Atlanta wealth-management office by way of Wells Fargo, which acquired Wachovia late in 2008. Harris was an Atlanta-based portfolio manager with BlackRock. Lennep and Touchstone had been with BNY Mellon Wealth Management in Atlanta.

Bank of New York Mellon declined to comment on its loss of nine wealth-management professionals to Wilmington Trust in recent months. But then BNY Mellon Wealth Management has doubled Atlanta-based sales force since 2006, where it has a staff of about 30, including recent hire Garrett Alton, formerly a senior financial adviser with Bank of America's (BAC) Merrill Lynch.

Atlanta will see a 68.8% increase to 102,000 in the number of households with $1 million or more in investable assets by 2012, according to a pre-downturn study by market-research firm Claritas (now part of Nielsen). Among other fast-growing wealth centers identified by Claritas are Dallas, Houston, Denver, and Sacramento, Calif.

Wilmington, Del., Wilmington Trust's WAS managed $40.3 billion at the end of September 2009.

-Thomas Coyle, Dow Jones Newswires; 718-545-8628

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