RBC Wealth Management Adds To US Offices

Eliane Chavagnon

8 October 2012

Canada’s RBC Wealth Management has appointed Mark Rabbe - who oversees $85 million in client assets - to serve as branch director of its Burlington, VT, and Andover, MA, offices, Boston complex director Paul Leyden has announced.

Leyden, who oversees the Burlington and Andover offices, said Tania Cadieux is also joining, along with Rabbe. Rabbe was latterly the manager of UBS’ Andover branch. Overall, he has more than 27 years of industry experience.

In a related move, last week the firm added the Evans group - with over $177 million in assets under management and $1.15 million in production - to its Denver, CO, tech office. The group - latterly of Bank of America's Merrill Lynch - is comprised of David Evans, senior vice president and financial advisor, Nepeta Godec, senior financial associate, and Patty Eckelberry, senior client associate.

A busy period for RBC

Continuing a number of recent senior moves, last month RBC intensified focus on its ultra high net worth segment, appointing Steve Sokić as head of ultra high net worth, trust, fiduciary and tax - a newly-created role in which he relocated from Jersey to Toronto.

Later, the firm boosted its transatlantic private client team in London, taking on Shehreen Quayyum and Jaime Zuloaga as directors for the Americas desk. Quayyuum – formerly of HSBC – and Zuloaga – formerly of Barclays – report to Martin Heale, who was appointed head of Americas in July last year.

The existence of an Americas desk highlights how RBC, which holds a license from the Securities and Exchange Commission, is making a virtue out of being a North American bank at a time when some large non-US firms have ceased providing services to expat US citizens due to the regulatory burdens perceived in the US FATCA Act.

Meanwhile, in late August it hired former HSBC relationship manager Ben Taylor as a director on its London-based Middle East and Levant desk.

In the US, RBC Wealth Management operates as a division of RBC Capital Markets. The firm has over $227 billion of assets under administration and nearly 2,000 financial advisors operating across 42 states.