Emigrant Bank names Tyler Kelley managing director in family office push

Emigrant Bank has appointed Tyler Kelley as managing director, the latest in a series of senior hires and strategic moves as the privately held institution accelerates its push to build out a comprehensive family office platform for ultra-high-net-worth clients and the independent advisory firms it supports.

Kelley, who reports to Liz Nesvold, vice chair of Emigrant Bank, chair of Emigrant Partners and executive chair of Emigrant Family Office, joins with more than two decades of experience spanning wealth management, strategic advisory, operations and enterprise development.

The appointment signals a continued commitment at Emigrant to assembling executive-level talent capable of managing the complexity that comes with serving the wealthiest families and the advisors who work with them.

"Tyler and I have known each other for nearly 20 years, and I've had the opportunity to watch him operate across nearly every aspect of a wealth management business," Nesvold said in a statement. "He combines strategic perspective with operational experience and understands how to help firms grow while preserving the culture, people, and high-touch client care that defines exceptional service."

A career built on operational complexity

Kelley's résumé reflects the kind of institutional weight Emigrant is on the hunt for as it moves to consolidate its family office capabilities. Before joining Emigrant, he served as chief operating officer and partner at Evoke Advisors. Prior to that, he spent more than 15 years at Bel Air Investment Advisors, rising to chief operating officer and senior managing director while sitting on the management committee and leading strategic planning and operational development.

He began his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before moving into the strategic planning group at AECOM. He holds a bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Southern California in international relations and political science, was elected student body president and was selected as a Henry R. Luce Foundation Scholar, a distinction that took him to Jakarta, Indonesia, where he worked with an entry-market strategy and consulting firm.

In his new role, Kelley will work across several of Emigrant's specialized business units, strengthening connectivity between divisions, identifying strategic opportunities and supporting the continued build-out of its family office offering. He will also serve as a strategic resource to the Emigrant Partners team, according to the firm.

"Emigrant has built a highly differentiated platform centered on long-term partnership, advisor independence, and sophisticated capabilities for clients," Kelley said. "I'm excited to work alongside Liz and the broader team to help further strengthen the platform and support the evolving needs of advisors, families, and institutions."

A deliberate build-out at Emigrant

Kelley's appointment is part of a broader leadership and acquisition strategy that Emigrant has pursued over the past year. In May last year, the bank named Mark Rogozinski as managing director and head of family office services, a newly created position designed to coordinate family office solutions across affiliated business units including Summitas, a digital collaboration platform for family offices, and Emigrant Bank Fine Art Finance. Rogozinski, who arrived from Cresset Capital Management, now serves as president of Emigrant Family Office.

The following month, it welcomed Kenneth Eyler, a managing director with more than 30 years of experience in single- and multi-family office operations, who joined after serving a similar role at Cresset. Eyler had previously served as chief executive of Aquilance, a financial administration platform for wealthy families.

Then, this past March, Emigrant Bancorp announced it had agreed to acquire a majority interest in Fortis Management Group, a Boston-area firm specializing in non-investment family office services.

The deal formed the cornerstone of Emigrant Family Office, a newly launched division designed to deliver specialized non-investment services – financial reporting, cash management, family governance, and coordination across tax, trust and estate planning – to ultra-wealthy families and the RIAs looking to serve them without building their own infrastructure.

Howard Milstein, chairman and chief executive of Emigrant Bank, has framed the cumulative effort as the fulfillment of a long-term institutional vision.

"For decades, we have built a broad set of specialized capabilities to serve the increasingly complex needs of wealthy families," Milstein said at the time of the Fortis announcement. "Emigrant Family Office brings these capabilities together into a single, coordinated platform."