By way of background, the New York-listed firm for ultra high net worth families has 12 locations spanning California, Minnesota, Georgia, Tennessee, Washington, DC, North Carolina, Florida, New York and Connecticut.

The integration of the latter two locations, previously regarded as separate local family offices with individual presidents, has created “tremendous opportunity” through leveraging internal personnel resources, Joseph Rotella, president of the Northeast region, told Family Wealth Report at GenSpring’s New York office last week.

From a managerial perspective, the amalgamation of the Greenwich and New York offices has created efficiencies from operating as a larger team with more skills ranging from investment expertise to lifestyle management capabilities.

While both the Greenwich and New York branches are “somewhat homogenous” and remain very much open as normal, merging the two teams has also given Rotella the upper hand when it comes to pairing staff with client relationships.

“For example, I have here in New York another family wealth advisor who is a CPA by background and thus very quantitative and analytical. This is a good counterpart to me as I’m less so in that respect, being a lawyer by background,” he explained.

Another important factor regarding the move to strengthen ties between the two locations is that the majority of GenSpring’s Northeast clients are either based in the New York metropolitan area or have a firm locus there.

“We have clients who have cross-border connections that lead them to New York in one form of another. It has unique characteristics that I’ve got to be attentive to in terms of making sure we offer the right mix of services here,” Rotella said. “Part of our effort is going to be to reintroduce the name to the wider market. Our leadership team has been helpful in assuring everyone that this is one of the centers they will continue to focus on.”

Being “receptive” to trends and demand

According to Rotella, the first several months of working with a new client is essentially a process of listening and getting to know them, as “clients don’t care about what you know until they know that you care.”

He said: “We are not trying to drive the service model toward the clients, but are receptive and design the service around what we’re hearing.”

Meanwhile, he pointed to “growing realization” among families that some of the non-investment services - governance, philanthropy, estate planning, for example - are critical to the success of the family.

This is in line with the firm’s view that the ability to integrate wealth management advice and services is central to the role of a family office and improves the likelihood of sustaining wealth across generations (view related article here).

“Maybe there has been, over the last several years, a heavier focus on the investment and wealth preservation sides. But now we’re seeing a trend toward human and intellectual capital,” Rotella said.