In an ultra competitive environment for recruiting private client advisers in the United States at the moment, a Bank of America spokesperson said it had experienced “minimal attrition” following its acquisition of high net worth client business US Trust, even as the two companies continue to be integrated. Private client advisors are at a premium at the moment as private banks look to expand their US operations. Recently North Carolina-based Wachovia Bank private banking managing executive, Morrison Creech, announced plans to hire 300 advisors for its Private Advisory Group within the next three years. A spokesman for the bank, told WealthBriefing both Bank of America and US Trust had been recruiting advisors even during the transition of the joining of the two firms that earlier this week spawned the new name US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. “We’ve been in a pretty aggressive hiring mode,” the spokesman said. He pointed ex-HSBC private client advisors who joined Bank of America’s New York operations in March, and recent private client additions in South Florida. “Even during the integration we’ve had industry best retention rates experiencing minimal attrition of client facing advisors.” He would not disclose attrition rates since the bank announced it had acquired US Trust earlier this year to create the largest American private banking business with combined assets of $270 billion. The bank said the business will serve clients with more than $3 million in investable assets with offices nationwide. The spokesman said, combined, US Trust and Bank of America had around 5,000 employees, a “large proportion” of which he said are client facing advisors. As competitors look at the integration process as an opportunity to poach advisers, the spokesman said the bank is confident in the lure of the group for new talent. “We’re creating something enormously attractive for clients and by extension an attractive place for advisors.” He said more information of the continued expansion plans of the business in the US would be made public when the integration is finalised in the third quarter.