Fund Executive Eyes Ties to Wealthy

Mary Lehman MacLachlan has a job that a private banker probably would not have taken 10 years ago: selling mutual funds as investment management.

Ms. MacLachlan, a one-time trust and estates lawyer, spent 14 years with two of the leading stalwarts of private banking: as a managing director of domestic private banking of Bankers Trust New York Corp., and as head of sales for trust and private banking at U.S. Trust Corp.

Yet in February she became president of the private clients group of Global Asset Management (USA) Inc., the American unit of London-based Global Asset Management, which manages $10.7 billion in nine offices worldwide. Most recently, Ms. MacLachlan worked for Private Capital Management, a Naples, Fla., investment firm owned by the Collier family.

Her career move is not simply a matter of shunting from the buy side to the sell side, as GAM manages separate accounts with minimum investments of $1 million of assets in proprietary funds and to a lesser extent funds from other managers.

As GAM also sells funds individually with $10,000 minimum investments, Ms. MacLachlan is also hoping to catch some assets from people looking for higher returns outside of their primary investments.

"I really believe the industry has changed. I believe that the smartest of the wealthy individuals understand they have to access the greatest managers of the world and I do not believe the traditional providers have them," she said.

The European clientele of London-based GAM, founded in 1983 by former private banker Gilbert de Botton, are mostly wealthy individuals. In the United States, just 30% are individuals. Ms. MacLachlan and three portfolio managers are looking for additional accounts.

GAM opened its New York office in 1990 and business had come directly from people the principals knew or referrals from existing clients.

"That's changing dramatically. First of all, the sheer number of (newly wealthy) households in the U.S. makes it harder to reach them directly," Ms. MacLachlan said.

She added that the means of getting through to wealthy Americans has changed. The old way was getting references from accountants and corporate lawyers. These days, ties to fee-based financial advisers and family office and private trust company managers are essential.

Global Asset Management is on line with hordes of other fund managers to meet with wealthy families and individuals, observers said.

"These people already have a huge stable of advisers. She's got to break into that," David Ross Palmer, a private banking consultant based in East Falmouth, Mass., said.

Mr. Palmer added that besides strong investment performance, any company, including GAM, needs a strong personality with connections in front of it.

"Mary's got a very good reputation. She's been successful in taking her talents and marketing them for the best value, which people in that industry rarely do. She's got the guts to do what she's done," he said.

Others agreed, adding that Ms. MacLachlan has enough personal experience and name recognition to open some doors.

"There's no doubt if you spend 25 years in this business that you do have a certain personal franchise - that may be with accounts or with intermediaries," said Peter E. "Tony" Guernsey, managing director of U.S. private banking for Union Bank of Switzerland.

Mr. Guernsey said GAM's aspirations to take on more U.S. investors could be met by Ms. MacLachlan.

This is an excellent person to do this. I have great respect for her. She is tough, but you have got to be tough. She is good, he said.

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