Family History Team Joins Abbot Downing To Open NY Wealth Office
NEW YORK — April 2, 2014 — Abbot Downing has opened a new office at 330 Madison Ave. with the Wells Fargo Family History team to serve ultra-high-net-worth families who seek to understand and preserve their historical legacies for future generations. Abbot Downing—with its 40-year history serving ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families and foundations—is part of Wells Fargo’s Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement group, a leading U.S. wealth manager, with $1.6 trillion in client assets.
Wells Fargo announced in late 2011 it would merge two existing businesses to be rebranded as Abbot Downing, and formally launched the brand on April 2, 2012. Today, Abbot Downing has $36.9 billion in client assets, a 30 percent increase since the merger was announced. As Abbot Downing marks its two-year anniversary, the firm is seeking to grow its presence in the New York metro area and New England.
“Clients across the country have responded very favorably to Abbot Downing and we’re excited to be expanding in New York,” said Jim Steiner, president of Abbot Downing. “In our brand research, people told us they wanted an integrated offering of services combined with a high-touch client service experience. Successful individuals and families are looking for wealth managers who can go beyond the numbers to help them use their wealth to positively impact their families and their communities.”
The New York office is led by Abbot Downing Northeast Regional Managing Director Paul Cummings, a 20-year wealth management veteran. Cummings oversees a team that provides planning and family dynamics services; asset management; private banking; trust, fiduciary and administrative services.
The Wells Fargo Family History Center, based in San Francisco, has eight historians and associates, including two historians in the Madison Avenue office: Heidi Druckemiller, who holds a master’s degree from Columbia University, where she specialized in architectural and urban history, and Nicole DeRise, who has a master’s degree in archives and public history from New York University.
“Our work illustrates a family’s unique story of challenges, survival and growth, typically across four generations,” Druckemiller said. “Though New York City is not central to every family’s history, it is featured, to some degree, in a significant number of our projects since the city has been the epicenter of immigration to North America since the 1600s. For our clients who have family roots in New York City, we are uniquely positioned to investigate their ancestors’ lives in the city – including where they lived, worked, and celebrated the milestones that led to the growth and evolution of their families.”
The Wells Fargo History Center provides clients with an archive of historical documents charting the geographic, social, economic, political, religious and cultural circumstances that shaped a family’s businesses, lives and reputation. Each family history includes unique documents from archives and libraries around the world. By working with families to understand their history, Abbot Downing helps them integrate their core values into wealth planning. The Abbot Downing family dynamics team builds upon that work to help clients develop strategies for communication, education and philanthropic giving for the people and communities they care about most.
About Abbot Downing
Abbot Downing serves clients in all 50 states through offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Scottsdale, Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Winston-Salem, Palm Beach, Naples and other regional offices. Abbot Downing is the world’s eighth-largest family office based on assets, according to the 2012 Bloomberg Markets survey. The original Abbot Downing built the iconic stagecoaches that have come to represent Wells Fargo.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.5 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, and the Internet (wellsfargo.com), and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s customers who conduct business in the global economy. With more than 270,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 25 on Fortune’s 2013 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Wells Fargo perspectives are also available at blogs.wellsfargo.com.
Abbot Downing provides products and services through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and its various affiliates and subsidiaries. Some alternative investments and complementary strategies may be available to pre-qualified investors only. Certain products and services offered subject to credit approval or credit qualification. Wells Fargo Bank, N. A. Member FDIC, NMLSR ID 399801
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- Are NOT insured by the FDIC or any other federal government agency
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SOURCE: Wells Fargo