BMO hires industry veteran to run family office

Bank of Montreal hired wealth management veteran Shannon Kennedy from Bank of New York Mellon Corp. to run BMO Family Office, its newly rebranded division serving ultra-high-net-worth clients. (More:​ Royal Bank of Canada deal with BlackRock gives it ETF heft without much cost) Ms. Kennedy, 54, who joined the Toronto-based bank last week, will lead a global expansion of the unit, with a team of more than 200 people, the company said Thursday in an emailed statement. She'll be based in her native Chicago. The move comes amid a boom in the formation of family offices, firms that manage ultra-affluent families' assets, often surpassing $500 million. There are more than 10,000 single-family offices worldwide, according to a report from EY. BMO's expansion reflects a general push among private banks to offer a broader array of services. "We've worked with a lot of multigenerational and multinational families," Ms. Kennedy said in a phone interview. "The generational issues, education and transfer of ownership in businesses are the same thing that happens within financial families." Ms. Kennedy worked at BNY Mellon for six years, most recently as president of U.S. markets in the Southwest. She previously was director of global family and private investment offices at Northern Trust Corp. (More: Fleming's Rockefeller Capital may buy into Silicon Valley wealth firm) "Ultra-high-net-worth families are often global citizens, and their interests and their needs will go beyond borders," Darrel Hackett, president of BMO's wealth management division, said in the interview.