SunTrust Banks, the US-listed firm, has officially unveiled its foundations and endowments practice, forming part of its wealth management business. Meanwhile, the firm unveiled a survey showing how foundations have been hit by the credit crunch.

The new practice has more than 50 specialists, and already serves more than 550 foundations, educational institutions and other endowment-supported organisations in the US.

"We have found that a specialty approach differentiates us in our ability to provide highly attentive service and focused expertise to clients with unique needs," said Jack Nichols, senior vice president and head of the new specialty team. 

The practice will offer a full array of financial and advisory solutions, including strategic guidance on key investment, governance and operational issues, open architecture investment management, and sector-specific administrative services, to meet the needs of its clients.

Separately, the new practice published a survey of US private foundations less than $100 million in assets, showing that over the last year, falling investment returns hit 88 per cent of respondents, but the majority – 59 per cent – indicated they will retain their existing asset allocation.

In spite of reduced investment funds, 75 per cent of the foundations surveyed  have not cut their payouts and almost half of them have maintained their payout percentages about the 5 per cent minimum distribution.

As of September 30, 2009, SunTrust had total assets of $172.7 billion and total deposits of $119.3 billion.