U.S. Trust Corp. plans to open its fifth office in Florida next month and says it plans to expand further in the Sunshine State - possibly through acquisitions - and throughout the Southeast.
"Florida is our highest priority right now," said Mark Stevens, a regional chief executive officer for U.S. Trust, the banking subsidiary of Charles Schwab Corp. "We want to go further in Florida first, but we have also begun to look at the Atlanta marketplace, and that would be the next likely target beyond Florida."
Mr. Stevens said the New York private bank has begun research into expanding into other cities of the Southeast but that it is too early to make predictions.
"We want to move beyond Florida and beyond our footprint, but we want to do it carefully and strategically," he said.
The new office in Sarasota, Fla., which will offer investment management and fiduciary and financial planning services to wealthy individuals and their families, is scheduled to open Jan. 3.
U.S. Trust, which had $104 billion of assets under management at Sept. 30, entered Florida in 1982 when it opened an office in Palm Beach. Since then, it has started offices in Naples in 1993, Boca Raton in 1994, and Vero Beach in 2000.
Mr. Stevens said several more markets in Florida are very attractive.
"If you look at a roster of the 100 most affluent counties in the country, 11 are in Florida," he said. "Currently U.S. Trust operates in only three of those. That gives you a good idea of where we want to be."
The bank already operates in Palm Beach, Collier, and Indian River counties and will add Sarasota County next month.
"This is a narrow geographic region with a lot of ideal opportunities for an operation like ours that is decentralized and committed to providing a full range of services in each of our offices," he added.
Kevin Daniels, a Boston analyst, said U.S. Trust is trying to grow in an area heavily populated by private banks - all competing with the same strategy for the same customers.
"You can't drive around a corner in an affluent area in Florida without seeing eight to 10 banks," he said. "That means for every location you open, there are eight to 10 banks competing with you for the same customer."
Mr. Stevens said its strong brand and a strategy solely focused on high-net-worth investors will enable U.S. Trust to compete.
"This strategy is our only game, and it sets the company apart," he said. "We are in wealth management, and that is it. We have a full range of wealth management services, and that is it. We want to be the best at what we do. That singular focus, particularly in a marketplace that is full of competition, is a huge advantage."
"I don't worry too much about the competition," he added.
Other analysts said that U.S. Trust's growth strategy has been well tested. The bank has expanded its footprint through offices in California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
It has added offices both through acquisition and, as in Sarasota, by hiring a team of executives and building de novo.
L. Scott Merritt is to head the Sarasota office. He has nearly 30 years of experience in investment management and joins U.S. Trust from Merritt and Co., an investment counseling and portfolio management company that he founded in Sarasota.
Joining Mr. Merritt is a team of executives from the former FleetBoston Financial Corp., which was bought this year by Bank of America Corp. Matthew Lowell Bower and Sid Schwalbe are both to be senior vice presidents; Donald M. Sikorski, a vice president; and Nancy Masterson, an assistant vice president and account administrator.
Mr. Bower was a vice president and area director in the Fleet private-clients group. Mr. Schwalbe was a regional fiduciary officer in the group. Mr. Sikorski was a vice president and regional manager of Exchange Bank for Bank of Boston Florida, a FleetBoston predecessor. Ms. Masterson handled account and relationship administration for both trust and agency relationships in the Fleet private-client group.
Mr. Stevens said acquisition opportunities exist in Florida for U.S. Trust to jump-start its expansion there. In November 2003, for an example from another state, U.S. Trust bought State Street Corp.'s private asset management business. Mr. Stevens said this established U.S. Trust in Massachusetts where the bank has already seen strong results.
U.S. Trust would like to engineer a similar jolt in Florida, he said.
"Ideally, we are looking for an individually focused asset management operation or a private banking operation, but I don't want to limit our search," he said. "We can look at a private bank, or we can look at an investment operation and add trust and banking capabilities."
Mr. Stevens said it is hard to predict how long it would take to make a deal. "For now we are developing great opportunities in Florida," he said. "We want to focus on this area of the country."
