Wachovia Wealth Management Recognized As High Net Worth Leader Of The Year

New York, N.Y.—Wachovia Wealth Management has been recognized by Private Asset Management, a publication of Institutional Investor, Inc., as the 2007 High Net Worth Leader of the Year. The award recognizes Wachovia Wealth Management for its westward expansion and for creating a national platform with three distinct channels to serve the affluent, high net worth and ultra high net worth segments.


Wachovia, the fifth largest U.S. wealth manager, announced in June that Private Banking, previously known as the Private Advisory Group in its Retail Bank, would join Wachovia Wealth Management to serve affluent clients with $250,000 to $5 million in investable assets, while more than doubling its relationship managers to 500 over the next three years. The Wealth Markets division will serve a new market niche, focusing on clients with $10 million in net worth and/or $5 to $50 million in investable assets, enabled by the introduction last year of its new open architecture investment platform. Calibre, its family office advisory group, will serve families of multi-generational wealth with more than $50 million. The new thresholds become effective Jan. 1, 2008, for new clients and will not impact existing clients.

The award also recognized Wachovia for leveraging the strength of its universal bank model to implement its new segmentation strategy. Private Banking will partner with financial advisors in the Investment Services Group of Wachovia Securities to serve affluent households with $250,000 to $5 million in investable assets, as those households are projected to increase 30 percent by 2010. Wachovia Wealth Management is partnering with Wachovia’s Retail and Commercial Banking groups in its westward expansion, as they establish the Wachovia brand, starting in California. At the same time Calibre is building its partnership with Wachovia’s Corporate and Investment Bank by cross-selling to CFOs and CEOs, as well as those who gain liquidity through the sale of a company.

Stan Kelly, president of Wachovia Wealth Management, accepted the award during Private Asset Management’s 6th Annual High-Net-Worth Industry Awards ceremony, Sept. 10, at The Pierre hotel in New York City, where some 200 high net worth industry executives gathered. “We are honored to be selected from a field of highly regarded firms for this award,” Kelly said. “This industry is relatively young and still fragmented, compared to the maturity of retail and commercial banking, and we are pleased that Wachovia Wealth Management is recognized for emerging as a leading national wealth management firm.”

The publication considered all wealth firms for the award before narrowing the list to four finalists. The final selection was based on extensive interviews with centers of influence, executive search firms and practitioners in the wealth management industry. In 2006, Private Asset Management named Wachovia Wealth Management Platform Provider of the Year in recognition of its new open architecture investment platform, Advantage.

“What we really look for is something cutting edge and trendsetting---something other firms could potentially follow,” said Marianne Nardone, managing editor of Private Asset Management. “Wachovia Wealth Management is taking its cross-selling efforts to a new level and is one of the first to aggressively target clients with less than $500,000 in investable assets.”

Private Asset Management is focused exclusively on reporting on marketing, investment management, financial and advisory services to the high net worth arena. Institutional Investor is a leading international business to business publisher, focused primarily on international finance. It publishes magazines, newsletters and journals as well as research, directories, books and maps. It also runs conferences, seminars and training courses and is a provider of electronic business information through its capital markets databases and emerging markets information service.