Family Office

Northern promotes Appell, Kennedy

Thomas Coyle 21 July 2005

Northern promotes Appell, Kennedy

New roles geared to help meet demand for family-office services. Northern Trust has made some promotions in its Wealth Management group, naming Steven Appell as its director of sales and marketing, and Shannon Kennedy as its director of client relations. Northern says the appointments recognize "the significant growth of affluent households worldwide" and the increasing demands of its family-office client base.

"We are fortunate to have two outstanding, seasoned professionals joining our group as we continue to provide the latest technology and investment solutions to clients," says Steven Bell, head of Wealth Management at Northern. "With [their respective expertise in personal financial services and institutional sales], we look forward to the contributions Shannon and Steve will make to our clients and organization."

There's support for Northern's assertion about the growth in the number of affluent households in a recent study by the Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based research and consulting firm.

The number of U.S. households worth between $1 million and $5 million increased 21% last year to an all-time high of 7.5 million, according to Spectrem's "Affluent Market Insights 2005." This total, an all-time high for millionaires, represents a net gain of 1.3 million households. Meanwhile households with $5 million or more in net worth increased 38% in 2004 to a record 740,000, a net increase of 200,000.

Worldwide, wealth among people with at least $1 million in financial assets increased at a compound annual growth rate of 8.2% to $30.8 trillion in 2004, according to Merrill Lynch and Capgemini 2005 World Wealth Report. The number of people in the million-plus bracket increased 7.3% to 8.3 million worldwide.

And that growth has been accompanied by increasing demand for coordinated wealth-management services, not least among those wealthy enough to operate family offices, according to Northern. "The operations of family offices have reached a level of maturity and sophistication in which outsourcing non-core competencies to third parties is increasingly of interest to family office executives and family members who seek to reduce the cost, burden and complexity of technology and back-office operations," says Bell.

Appell, who has worked with institutional clients for the past 20 years, joined Northern from State Street Bank and Trust, a subsidiary of State Street Corp., in 1995. Kennedy has been with Northern since 1987.

Chicago-based Northern's Wealth Management group offers specialized global services including asset management, investment consulting, global custody, fiduciary, technology, risk management and private banking to affluent individuals and families, typically with assets over $75 million. -FWR

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