Atlantic Trust adds advisers, aims to double assets by 2015
It has been six months since Jack Markwalter returned to the chief executive's chair at Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management, the wealth management arm of Invesco Ltd., but he won't be able to turn his full attention to running the firm until next week.
It has been six months since Jack Markwalter returned to the chief executive’s chair at Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management, the wealth management arm of Invesco Ltd., but he won’t be able to turn his full attention to running the firm until next week.
That is when he will relinquish his other responsibilities as head of Invesco’s U.S. institutional sales, client service and consulting team to Eric Johnson, a former managing director at Neuberger Berman.
Mr. Markwalter has ambitious plans for Atlantic Trust, hoping to double the Atlanta-based firm’s $15.2 billion under management within five years by adding experienced financial advisers at its 11 offices around the country. A recent hire in Newport Beach, Calif., as well as two last month in Washington, are recent examples.
Mr. Markwalter said that he is also looking to hire a managing director at the firm’s largest outpost — Boston, home to a quarter of the firm’s assets and 38 advisers.
“We’ve selectively attracted and brought in talent at a pretty fast clip,” he said. “With the turmoil in the high-net-worth marketplace, there’s more talent than I’ve seen in 25 years.”
Atlantic Trust fits in well with its giant ($423 billion in assets) parent, said Mr. Markwalter, because of the Invesco products it can offer clients, such as core equity, core fixed income and other options, such as investments from its WL Ross & Co. unit. After June, when Invesco plans to close on its acquisition of Morgan Stanley’s retail-asset-management business, it will also be able to offer products from Van Kampen Investments Inc.
For most alternative investments, Atlantic Trust uses external managers. Fees are 1% of assets, and the minimum investment is $5 million.
In its quarterly earnings report last week, Invesco said that long-term net asset inflows at Atlantic Trust reached $100 million, marking the 11th straight positive quarter.
“To continue to have net inflows in a down market is a sign of strength,” said Sean Cunniff, research director, brokerage and wealth management at The Tower Group Inc. “The high-end wealth firms that are very good at developing relationships and offering personal service are poised to do extremely well,” he added.
Atlantic Trust, which in addition to investments offers its clients “wealth strategies,” including counseling on tax and estate planning, philanthropy and succession planning consulting, has a good reputation in the industry, according to Jim Campbell, a partner at Windward Advisory Group, a family-office consulting firm. “They’re a good firm, and they have a good service mentality, but they just don’t put themselves out there as strongly as some of the other firms do.”
Atlantic Trust, created in 2002, is an amalgam of three asset managers purchased by Invesco over the last decade: Pell Rudman & Co. Inc. in Boston, Whitehall Asset Management Inc. in New York and Stein Roe Investment Counsel LLC in Chicago.
Mr. Markwalter, 50, joined Pell Rudman as head of business development in 2002, shortly after it was purchased by Invesco. He had previously worked at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, where he was a managing director and national director of the client strategy group. He became chairman and chief executive of Atlantic Trust when it was formed, and has retained the chairman title ever since.
In March 2008, Mr. Markwalter was asked to head the institutional team at Invesco in addition to his duties at Atlantic Trust. Last March, Jeffrey Thomas became CEO of Atlantic Trust, freeing Mr. Markwalter to concentrate on the institutional business. But Invesco brought Mr. Markwalter back to Atlantic as CEO in August, and asked Mr. Thomas, another company veteran, to serve as vice chairman, working out of the firm’s Boston office.
“Jeff’s passion and primary interest are working with many of the top clients of the firm,” Mr. Markwalter said.
Bringing him back as CEO and hiring Mr. Johnson to take over his other role at Invesco is recognition that both businesses are important to the company, Mr. Markwalter said.
“They wanted me to go back and run Atlantic Trust full time, building and growing the business,” Mr. Markwalter said. “It was more of a situation of making sure we had full attention of the firm on two businesses, both the high-net-worth business, where we saw huge potential, and the institutional business. We think both are significant growth areas.”
Mr. Markwalter said he’s looking to build the firm office by office. The 100-person Boston office remains a top growth priority, Mr. Markwalter said. Not only will he hire a managing director there, but he may look for other good advisers to join the team, preferring those with credentials, connections, degrees and a $300 million to $500 million book of business. Houston and New York are other areas where the firm would like to expand, Mr. Markwalter said.
The firm will also consider acquisitions, but organic growth is the main strategy, he noted. Currently, Atlantic Trust has about 2,400 clients.
“Growth creates a virtuous circle,” Mr. Markwalter said. “You grow, you attract more clients, you attract more advisers, you’re able to pay the advisers better, they do a better job for clients, clients make more money, they refer more assets to you, and it just keeps going around in a very positive way. Thank goodness that’s the cycle we’re in right now, and that’s where we hope to capitalize.”
E-mail Hilary Johnson at [email protected].
Learn more about reprints and licensing for this article.
