Title: Is Wealth Management a Good Fit? It's an Attractive Option, but to Make It Work, You Need All the Right Pieces, Including Scale, People, and Patience
Abstract: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] continuing squeeze on net interest margins has banks of all sizes scrambling to replace lost revenues with non-interest income from related businesses--wealth management among them. Wealth management can be--and is--a profitable business for some community banks, but those banks not already in the game may want to study the option carefully. The cost of entry to the wealth management business is high, explains Joseph Dugan, executive vice-president of the Customer Value Management Group and Wealth Brands at Canandaigua National Bank and Trust, a $1.7 billion-assets bank headquartered in western New York. He cites the costs of compliance, staffing, legal, and implementation of investment infrastructure. Canandaigua already had in place a large portion of the infrastructure. had been providing trust services for more than half a century when it ramped up its efforts in 2001 to provide more comprehensive wealth management services. bank was able to focus on fine-tuning its offerings, including adding certified financial planning staff and providing solutions designed to meet the needs of mass market customers. Today, wealth management brings in revenues topping $10 million annually. Wealth management is a business of scale, concurs Jeffrey Morris, managing director and principal at Austin Associates. most successful community banks are those that have been offering wealth management for some time and have grown the business aggressively to realize economies of scale. There are options for banks without a strong infrastructure, such as partnering with a firm that will place registered investment advisors in branches as well as provide the back-office support. real profitability story As Canandaigua's results suggest, wealth management, done right, can be very profitable, but profitability isn't always measured correctly. Morris finds that a number of community banks are surprised when they discover that the wealth management business is actually a drain on bank profits. Even a traditional profitability analysis may not uncover the true costs of a wealth management business, he says. Bank executives can be unwilling to allocate and chargeback overhead expenses, like senior management time, to the business, particularly if wealth management is seen as a synergistic line of More often, says Morris, a community bank needs to reevaluate the true value of wealth management to its bottom line. I've seen banks with six full-time employees in the wealth management area that have the revenues to support only two. Profitability can take a long time to achieve, says Steve Randolph, managing partner at Oakbrook Solutions. It takes time to create a wealth management brand that conveys competency and trust. Community banks have not been patient, nor have they been aggressive in investing in the business. Competing against the bigs Those community banks that have already invested in wealth management do have a significant opportunity for growth, according to Rob Blume, managing director and senior vice-president of Wealth Management and Advisory Services at Washington Trust Bank in Spokane, Wash. bank, established in 1903, has been offering wealth management for more than a century. Blume is optimistic about the future of the bank's wealth management business and believes that community banks can successfully compete with larger banks, which tend to be uninterested in serving customers without substantial assets. And if these larger banks do offer wealth management to the mass affluent or mass market customer, they tend to provide services through lower-cost channels like the call rather than meeting face-to-face. We have no interest in a call center, Blume says. Scott Trumbower, senior vice-president and management director of the Wealth Strategies Group at Canandaigua National Bank and Trust also believes that customers are averse to being directed to a call center. …
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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