Wachovia Securities is likely to go on-line to capture a bigger chunk on the “affluent market” – those clients with between $250,000 to $2 m...

Wachovia Securities is likely to go on-line to capture a bigger chunk on the “affluent market” – those clients with between $250,000 to $2 million of investable assets – based on the business unit’s new leadership hire, Yvette Butler, who has a strong background in on-line marketing. Ms Butler most recently led a customer development team at Merrill Lynch targeted at the emerging affluent. Prior to her role at Merrill, Ms Butler held strategic marketing roles at online discount broker, Charles Schwab and E*Trade, according to an internal memo announcing her appointment as director of Affluent Client Experience for Wachovia Securities. Prior to joining E*Trade, Ms Butler was instrumental as an entrepreneur in the establishment of an online financial planning firm, the memo stated. Wachovia Securities, a unit of the US regional bank, is the third largest full service brokerage firm in the US with $670 billion in client assets. Ms Butler will be in charge of structuring programmes and practices suited to the various components of the affluent market, understood to be the main client base for most US retail brokerage firms. In the coming weeks Ms Butler will relocate to Richmond, Virginia from Wayne, New Jersey, to assume her new role, according to the memo. Wachovia Securities wants to prevent affluent clients being overlooked amid the general move on Wall Street to move up a gear to serve the ultra high net worth client segment, a spokesman for the group said.