BMO is deepening its presence in one of the fastest-growing wealth markets in the United States, adding three senior hires to a new Dallas-based team dedicated to private banking and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
The move, confirmed by the bank this week, comes as Dallas continues climbing global wealth rankings, reinforcing the city's emergence as a genuine rival to established East Coast financial hot spots like New York and Miami.
The new team includes Megan Steinbach, who joins as wealth advisor and director; Chris Gold, managing director; and Daniel Patterson, portfolio manager. All three previously worked together at Northern Trust and BNY Wealth.
In their new roles, they will partner with clients on customized strategies spanning investment management, private banking, estate and wealth planning, and liquidity and credit solutions, with an emphasis on helping families preserve and grow assets across generations.
"This expansion in Dallas is part of our broader U.S. wealth strategy to scale in key growth markets," Michele Havens, head of U.S. wealth management at BMO, said in a statement. "Dallas represents a dynamic and growing wealth market. By investing in top talent and deep local expertise, we are strengthening our ability to deliver advice-led solutions for clients with increasingly complex needs."
The Dallas build-out extends a presence BMO has cultivated in Texas for years, including a capital markets office in Houston and an expanding commercial banking operation across Dallas and Fort Worth. Adding dedicated wealth capabilities, the bank said, lets it support clients across the full span of their financial lives, from running an operating business to planning a multigenerational wealth transfer.
The new hires will also coordinate with BMO's commercial bankers in North Texas, an approach designed to connect business owners' corporate and personal financial strategies through a single advisory relationship rather than separate teams.
BMO is not alone in making that bet. Wall Street's westward migration into North Texas has accelerated sharply over the past year, with Morgan Stanley weighing a $1.3 billion office tower in Uptown Dallas that could bring as many as 4,800 jobs, after the Dallas City Council approved an $18.5 million incentive package to help secure the project.
JPMorgan Chase now employs more people in Texas than in New York – at least one estimate from last September counts more than 31,500 employees in the Lone Star State – and new trading venues have followed the talent. NYSE Texas launched as a fully electronic equities exchange in 2025, while Nasdaq's Texas operation came online in March 2026, cementing Dallas as a listings hub rather than simply a back-office location.
The financial-sector build-out reflects a broader shift already visible in the region's household wealth. Based on data put together by Henley & Partners on the world's richest cities, Dallas is home to an estimated 72,400 residents holding at least $1 million in net assets, effectively more than holding its own against well-known jurisdictions like the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, and Beijing.
Looking at millionaire growth between 2014 and 2024, the same study ranks Dallas as the seventh-fastest-growing wealth hub in the United States and the 12th-fastest in the world, with an 85% growth rate over that decade. The city is also home to 16 billionaires and 135 centi-millionaires, individuals worth at least $100 million, according to the report.
Amid a growing trend of state-level pressure to increase wealth taxes, Texas's lack of a state income tax, combined with a steady flow of corporate headquarters relocations, has helped sustain its trajectory as an up-and-coming destination for the ultra-affluent.
Charles Schwab and Yum! Brands are among the high-profile companies that have relocated to North Texas from out of state in recent years, and the cost of living in San Francisco runs roughly 60% higher than in Dallas, a gap that has made the city an increasingly attractive alternative to both firms and the executives who lead them.
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