Both are new positions.

Flurry

"The growing Atlanta wealth-management market offers significant opportunities for GenSpring, and we're pleased to invest in top notch people to serve ultra high net worth families throughout the area," says Michael Zeuner, GenSpring's business-strategy and client-experience head.

Atlanta has one of the fastest growing high-net-worth-population bases in the U.S.

Woocher was a group leader with Suntrust Banks wealth-management division, where he was in charge of four private-client teams with client assets in excess of $7 billion.

Alton led Neuberger's wealth-management teams in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

GenSpring -- Asset Management Advisors until about eight months ago -- just hired John Morris, another ex-SunTrust wealth manager, to help it drum up business in Tennessee. In March 2008, it brought in Bruce Arella, formerly with the fund-of-fund firm Orion Capital Management to manage its New York office. In the past 10 months, it has acquired a four-professional private-equity team (also from SunTrust) and further swelled its senior staff by acquiring firms in Miami and Phoenix.

Although GenSpring has hired a number of people from Atlanta-based SunTrust, which is GenSpring's corporate parent, Zeuner says it operates independently from SunTrust and that there is no hiring "pipeline" between the firms.

Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based GenSpring has about $15 billion in advisory assets. In addition to locations mentioned, it has offices in Orlando, Fla., Sarasota, Fla., Tampa Bay, Fla., Miami, Charlotte, N.C., Greenwich, Conn., and Washington, D.C. -FWR

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