SunTrust Banks, the US banking giant, has acquired the San Francisco-based wealth management firm CSI Capital Management for an undisclosed amount, expanding its wealth offering for the sports and entertainment sectors in the process.

CSI Capital Management, which also has offices in Los Angeles, Greenwich and Boca Raton, focuses on the financial and investment needs of high net worth clients from the fields of professional sports, music and film. The firm has approximately $1.5 billion in assets under management. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"SunTrust continues to build its client base... through its strategic acquisition of assets of CSI Capital Management," said Thomas Carroll, managing director of SunTrust's sports and entertainment specialty group.

The sports and entertainment unit provides investment advice, estate planning, wealth advisory services and personal finance services to its clients. It has offices in Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Daytona Beach, and Nashville, and provides wealth services to musicians, actors, artists and athletes and their representatives.

Global financial services firms have been ramping up their services for sports, entertainment and media clients, a reflection of increasing client segmentation in the wealth management industry. This particular client segment, for example, faces the unique set of issues created by a short but intense income-earning period.

Last year a report by consultancy Cerulli Associates found that client segmentation is vastly underused by wealth advisors, with only 37 per cent of those surveyed saying they use a formal client segmentation process.

SunTrust Banks is headquartered in Atlanta and had total assets of $170.8 billion on 31 March 2011.