The U.S. Trust executive responsible for bringing the troubled Doris Duke estate account to the New York banking company has been quietly reassigned.
Senior vice president Anthony P. Marshall is no longer U.S. Trust's estate planning chief, a spokeswoman confirmed. Mr. Marshall left the bank's Manhattan headquarters in March and relocated this week to its Princeton, N.J., office.
He has been succeeded by Nancy S. Gabel, a vice president who has been promoted to senior vice president and head of U.S. Trust's estate planning group, the spokeswoman confirmed.
The changes came to light this week in U.S. Trust Corp.'s annual report for 1996. That document includes a list of all of the banking company's officers. But Mr. Marshall's name is nowhere to be found.
"That just must have been an omission," the spokeswoman said. Mr. Marshall's role in New Jersey is "similar to what he's always been doing, which is estate planning, which is his expertise," she added.
But other sources said Mr. Marshall's responsibilities have been greatly reduced. One banker said he has been asked by attorneys who have worked with Mr. Marshall to consider hiring him.
Mr. Marshall did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Held in high regard by trust and estate attorneys, Mr. Marshall ran estate planning for U.S. Trust for several years. He is widely credited with bringing to the bank the $1.5 billion estate of tobacco heiress Doris Duke, for which he served as administrator.
While landing the account was initially seen as a coup for U.S. Trust, it eventually turned into an embarrassment.
The bank, which manages $53 billion in client assets, had to fight off several litigants, including Bank of New York Co., J.P. Morgan and Chemical Banking Corp., which wished to replace it as co-executor of the estate.
The litigation was a blemish on the otherwise well-regarded U.S. Trust. At one point during the proceedings, a New York surrogate judge removed U.S. Trust as co-executor on the estate because she determined the bank had failed to put a check on the spending of estate assets.
Some former U.S. Trust executives said moving Mr. Marshall-a New Jersey resident-to the bank's Princeton office fits in with its plans to enhance its business in the state. Last summer, it hired a prominent J.P. Morgan & Co. executive, Harry O'Mealia, to serve as president of U.S. Trust Company of New Jersey. The unit's chairman is Ashton Harvey.
