Small-Bank Trust Unit Targets Professional Women

A Maryland community bank is tailoring its investment management services to fit the needs of an untapped market: business and professional women.

The bank, Hagerstown Trust Co., hired a woman, Heather D. Myers, to run its $110 million-asset trust department in November. This week, she will begin holding investment seminars designed exclusively for women.

Ms. Myers, an attorney, said she realized the need for such seminars while attending meetings of the local bar association and other professional groups. At these events, Ms. Myers was often approached by working women who wanted to pick her brain about investing and other money matters, she said.

Women already account for a large portion of the $350 million-asset bank's trust clientele. But the majority of those women are widows with trust accounts, said Ms. Myers, a bank vice president. Hagerstown is now looking for younger women who are more likely to bring new assets to the bank.

"Nowadays women have their own wealth to be concerned about," said Ann M. Grochala, director of bank operations at the Independent Bankers Association of America."I can see why they are segmenting that little niche."

Ms. Myers was hired by Hagerstown, a subsidiary of Lancaster, Pa.-based Fulton Financial Corp., specifically to attract women clients to the bank, said David Barnhart, vice president of marketing. The move was a good idea, the IBAA's Mr. Grochala said.

"Women may find it much more comfortable to talk to a woman than a man about investing," she said. "A man could be intimidating."

Ms. Myers, who previously headed a regional trust office for First Virginia Bank, Falls Church, said most women invest with a mutual fund company and a brokerage, leaving them without a "comprehensive" financial plan.

"None of those people are trust customers and that's frightening," she said. It could leave a woman who owns her own business without a clearly defined succession plan.

Hagerstown's design mirrors that of one of the largest banks in the country. BankAmerica Corp., San Francisco, is establishing a "women's banking initiative" within its private bank.

But Hagerstown's $50,000 minimum investment for trust and private banking makes its customized services available to a larger class of people. Its market, Washington County, Md., is not as affluent as the San Francisco clientele BankAmerica is targeting.

"$50,000 is not a lot of money to get that type of service, which you can't do at a much larger bank," Ms. Myers said.

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