Wells Fargo Unveils New Wealth Brand

In combining its ultra-high-net-worth units under a new name, Wells Fargo & Co. may be balancing the consumer's post-2008 disdain for big financial-service brands with an aura of tradition and durability.

The San Francisco-based bank is merging its two high-wealth groups, Wells Fargo Family Wealth and Lowry Hill, and calling the combination "Abbot Downing, A Wells Fargo Business." Part of Wells Fargo's Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement group with $1.3 trillion in assets, Abbot Downing has $28 billion in client assets, nearly $5 billion of it from Minneapolis-based Lowry Hill. The unit employs 300, and provides investment, wealth-management and banking services to clients worth at least $50 million.

Wells Fargo put the businesses together to establish a united front to win more business from such households. According to government data, there are about 10,000 U.S. households worth $50 million or more.

The name Abbot Downing dates back to the 1800s, when stage coaches made by Abbot Downing were "known worldwide for their ingenuity, high-quality craftsmanship, and distinctive passenger experience," according to modern-day Wells Fargo. At the time, Abbot Downing's biggest customer was a contract-mail carrier called — Wells Fargo.

The bank resuscitated the moniker to give its high-wealth business "a name that was different, but tied back to Wells Fargo," said James Steiner, the former Lowry Hill managing principal who has been tapped to lead Abbot Downing.

More to the point, the brand is a "great metaphor" for the "smooth ride" the newly combined business aims to provide its customers, he added.

Drew Mayer, a luxury-brand specialist with the marketing firm HNW, applauded Wells Fargo for picking a brand that sounds impressive and "comes from something real" instead of a purely descriptive or a made-up name.

It conveys, he said, "a sense of heritage" — even for customers who don't know the back story, which Wells will outline in sales materials.

Descriptive brands — the jettisoned "Wells Fargo Family Wealth" is a fair example — can work, but they can also get in the way of change. A made-up name can help too, especially if the business is on solid ground to start. Think Ameriprise Financial Inc. (AMP) and Fortigent LLC: established spinoffs from well-known corporations, Ameriprise from American Express Co. and Fortigent from Lydian Trust Co.

Among notable wealth-management name changes: In 2007, Palm Beach, Fla.-based Asset Management Advisors became GenSpring Family Offices; and in 2008, Kochis Fitz-Quintile, a newly merged firm based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, became Aspiriant.

Mayer said Wells Fargo was smart to add the "Wells Fargo" tag to the new name of its ultra-high-net-worth business. "They're walking the line between appealing" to the high-wealth client's "desire for independent advice" and tapping into the comfort — handy in times such as these — of a "very established" financial institution.

Big-name brokerages have shed about 8% of their advisory assets since the financial crisis of 2008, according to research firm Cerulli Associates. These losses seem to be flowing to independent brokers and fiduciary boutiques, Cerulli added.

"With Abbot Downing, Wells Fargo seems to set up the implication of something different that's also solid and lasting," said Mayer.