Former head of sales for U.S Trust’s Philadelphia office moves to boutique. Lydian Wealth Management has made Kathleen Freed a director of its Philadelphia office. She’ll be in charge of marketing and business development in the Philadelphia area for the Rockville, Md.-based multi-family office.

“Kathy is a great fit for the existing team and moves us another step toward our objective of being the premier provider of financial services to ultra-high-net-worth individuals in the market,” says Steve Lockshin, Lydian’s CEO.

Copper Beech

By “ultra high net worth” Lydian means private clients – usually families – with at least $15 million to invest. For others, the “ultra” designation is reserved for families with $25 million or more. Still others prefer the term “high wealth” to describe families with that kind of money.

Freed comes to Lydian from U.S. Trust, where she was as a Philadelphia-based senior v.p. Before that she was a senior v.p. with the Pennsylvania Trust Company, in Radnor, Pa. Previously she was in mid-market cash-management with CoreStates Bank, now part of Wachovia.

Lydian moved into Philadelphia about two years ago when it acquired family-wealth advisory Copper Beech Advisors. “Kathy will help us spread the word about Lydian Wealth Management in the Philadelphia area,” says Dan Geary, formerly head of Copper Beech, now a director of Lydian’s Philadelphia office.

Geary says that clients are increasingly interested in “an objective wealth management solution that doesn't involve proprietary products” as opposed to “traditional service providers” that “are still conflicted with in-house products.”

Lydian Wealth Management, a subsidiary of Palm Beach, Fla.-based holding company Lydian Trust, has about $11 billion in assets under management or administration. In addition to suburban Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, Lydian Wealth Management has offices in New York, Palm Beach, Seattle, Atlanta and Portland, Ore. –FWR

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