Central and Northeast region heads join new business from Bank of America. Wachovia has made two regional-management appointments for its private-banking business, both poached from rival Bank of America.

Trent Williams, formerly Baltimore market manager for Bank of America's retail-oriented Premier Banking and Investments group, has been made head of private banking for Wachovia Wealth Management's Northeast region, which takes in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia.

More to come

Keith Schmidt, formerly Dallas division sales chief for Bank of America's Premier group, takes the lead for Wachovia private-banking business in Texas, Colorado and -- in a bit of a geographic leap -- Chicago.

Williams in based in Baltimore; Schmidt is based in Dallas. They report to Morrison Creech, managing director of Wachovia Private Banking.

This past spring, Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia took Wachovia Private Advisory Group out of its retail-banking line and made it part of Wachovia Wealth Management, re-naming it Wachovia Wealth Management Private Banking in the process.

Wachovia's private-banking group focuses on clients with between $250,000 and $5 million in investable assets. By putting it into its wealth-management channel, which generally targets investors with at least $5 million, Wachovia thinks it will be better positioned to shunt the bank's low-tier wealth clients to higher-tier service offerings as they grow more affluent over time.

But Wachovia Private Banking also hopes to grow along with a growing population of "mass" affluent clients, whether or not they graduate to higher wealth tiers.

Pointing to a forecast for a 30% increase in U.S. households with $250,000 to $5 million in investable assets by 2010, Creech says Wachovia wants "to be well positioned to grow and deliver our robust suite of wealth products and services across a broader client base."

Wachovia Private Banking plans to double its relationship-manager force to around 500 over the next three years, with particular emphasis on growth markets within the bank's retail footprint such as New York, Florida, Texas and California. -FWR

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