Bryn Mawr Trust Co. of Pennsylvania said its establishment of a limited-purpose trust company in Delaware is an important step in its effort to expand its wealth management business nationally.
Matthew G. Waschull, the executive vice president of the wealth management division, said the new unit will help the Bryn Mawr Bank Corp. trust business develop strategic partnerships with asset managers and law firms and cross-sell services.
"I think there are a lot of prospective clients from other states and foreign jurisdiction," he said in an interview. "This is really going to allow us to reach beyond our footprint. This will make our wealth management business national in scope."
Mr. Waschull, who is also the chairman and president of Bryn Mawr Trust Co. of Delaware, which opened for business last week, said Bryn Mawr Trust already has clients nationally, but Bryn Mawr Bank's branches are in eastern Pennsylvania and most of the trust company's clients are in that region.
Now it will be able to attract more customers and more assets, Mr. Waschull said.
"Delaware law is considered very desirable by legal advisers across the country for trust and tax advantages," he said. "Having these capabilities in Delaware is a key part of our growth strategy for our wealth business."
Bryn Mawr Trust entered Delaware in July when it completed its acquisition Lau Associates LLC of Wilmington, a financial planning and investment advisory firm with $603 million of assets under management and $156 million under supervision.
Mr. Waschull, who was an executive at Wilmington Trust Corp. before joining Bryn Mawr Trust in February 2007, said the Lau acquisition and the establishment of Bryn Mawr Trust Co. of Delaware are parts of a "major initiative" by Bryn Mawr to expand its wealth management business.
The company is "always reviewing potential acquisition opportunities" in complementary businesses, he said.
Bryn Mawr Trust had $2.7 billion of assets under management, administration, supervision, and brokerage on Sept. 30. Mr. Waschull said assets have dipped this year because of "market erosion." (Bryn Mawr Trust had $2.3 billion under management at the end of 2007, but that did not include the assets of Lau Associates.)
"We haven't dropped as much as the market as a whole," Mr. Waschull said. "We have declined slightly, but we are confident we can grow."
He said Bryn Mawr Trust hopes to have $5 billion of assets under management, administration, supervision and brokerage within the next five years.
Analysts said that this is an ambitious goal considering that the parent company is ramping up its trust business during a time when other small and midsize banks are outsourcing their wealth management and trust capabilities.
Outsourcing was never part of Bryn Mawr's strategy, Mr. Waschull said.
"The trust business has been part of this bank's heritage dating back to 1889," he said. "We would not exit that business no matter what our competitors were doing. We want to build this business."
Last year Bryn Mawr Trust ranked sixth in fiduciary services among 213 such providers in its size category, according to the Michael White-LPL Financial Community Bank Investment Program Report.
It generated $13.1 million of such revenue, and its investment program income of almost $1.1 million ranked it 18th out of 298 banks of its size that reported such income, according to the annual report.
