When Maria Elena Lagomasino resigned as chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Private Bank in March 2005 after more than 20 years with the firm, including at Chase's legacy wealth management business, the 58-year-old executive figured she would try something just a little different. So she wrote a business plan for a bank affiliate that would provide independent financial advice to ultrawealthy individuals but sell no in-house products. Lagomasino approached seven big private banks with the idea, but they all gave roughly the same response. The plan would inject a virus into their systems that they would not be able to deal with, she recalls them saying.
幸运的是，对于Lagomasino来说，一个猎头将她与亨利（HAP）Perry联系，该棕榈滩，佛罗里达州的多梦办公室的资产管理顾问的创始人联系，富裕的企业家在15年以上推出了超过15年。在会见Lagomasino之前，Perry面谈了大约40名候选人，以加强他公司的领导力，但总结说，他们都没有“得到它”。Lagomasino是不同的。在佛罗里达那不勒斯的那不勒斯，她家的一小时午餐预约是什么，变成了四个小时。佩里说，当他离开时，他找到了他的事业“灵魂伴侣”。他的主人很高兴地了解她设想的公司已经存在，感觉完全相同。
Lagomasino于2005年11月被命名为AMA的首席执行官。为了循环她的高级管理团队，她招募了两名前副代表，据2004年与芝加哥的Bankone Corp 2004合并了jpmorgan Chase＆Co。：Michael Holden，JPMorgan私人银行前首席运营官，在AMA和Michael Zeuner，JPMorgan的前全球财富解决方案负责人中担任同样的作战官，他被命名为AMA的首席战略和创新官。佩里仍然董事长。
AMA's business model is straightforward: Sell customized, independent advice to individuals and families with $25 million or more in investable assets. With its open-architecture platform, the firm addresses client needs with products that come from wherever the firm's wealth managers see fit. AMA earns no commissions; instead, it charges clients an annual percentage of assets under management on a sliding scale -- from 85 basis points on the first $30 million to 48 basis points on assets at or above the $100 million mark. This fee covers financial planning for everything from risk management and asset management to advice on family governance, estate planning and educating children about wealth.
AMA offices are small and high-touch, each with a maximum of 80 clients served by 15 employees organized into teams that typically include a chartered financial analyst, an accountant or tax lawyer (or both) and an administrator. Each team serves a maximum of 20 clients, although they average only seven.
“我们是Unbank，”Lagomasino说，他的收费是加速AMA在东南部的根源之外的扩张 - 没有稀释其服务文化。亚慱体育app怎么下载
“UNBANK”绰号是众多大多数人的罕见主人：自2001年自2001年以来，在佩里需要扩张资本和亚特兰大的银行决定与现有运营的合作伙伴更加谨慎时- 并授予它独立 - 而不是从头开始启动自己的超高净值业务。
“开始它自己并不是真正可信的，”威廉·罗杰斯说，财富和投资管理领袖，阳光下的沉闷，他达成协议。“这对自己承认这是一件难过的事情。”
行业分析师believe it was the right choice. "The best strategy now in the ultra-high-net-worth market is to buy a brand with a reputation and proven expertise, and let them run it autonomously," says Jefferson Harrelson, a bank analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in Atlanta.
Michael Kostoff，在华盛顿的公司执行委员会经营金融服务实践，同意。“更多银行将不得不尝试，”他说。
阳光和AMA之间的伙伴关系似乎正在工作。五年前，AMA在棕榈滩，21家客户家庭和5亿美元的资产中有一个办公室。如今，由于Suntrust的财富管理部门的推荐，该公司在亚特兰大等城市提供11个办事处提供360个家庭，以110亿美元的资产。北卡罗来纳州夏洛特;迈阿密;和华盛顿。“AMA的新客户的优势来自阳光繁琐的特许经营权，”罗杰斯说。
Lagomasino和她的团队将不会讨论AMA的扩展策略的具体情况。然而，最后，该公司在利润丰厚的纽约市市场开设了一个办公室，在2003年推出了一个Greenwich，康涅狄格州的Greenwich，康涅狄格州的北前达到东北部。
尽管由大银行拥有，但AMA的重点是亲密的服务和独立建议深受举办的，并反映了创始人佩里的优先事项，在20世纪80年代后期正在经营水下工程业务并坐在各种公司的一堆现金上他已经建造和销售。管理他的业务和他的财富对于佩里来说太过分了，所以他决定寻求帮助。
The experience was frustrating. Trust companies didn't want to give Perry the level of independence he desired, and hiring money managers would mean that he would have to perform due diligence. He is a risk taker and wanted access to investments like hedge funds, precious metals and emerging markets. But for private bankers, he found, "all roads led to stocks and bonds."
佩里于1989年设立了AMA。他不想要一个单独的家庭办公室，因为他更喜欢异议意见，并且谨慎对任何一个家庭的客户都是谨慎的。所以他采取了一些大家庭，最终放弃了他的其他专业利益来运营业务。他甚至在1996年之前管理了投资，当时他带来了一个外部首席投资官。
Perry's search for growth capital brought him together with Rogers in 2000, after the SunTrust executive was put in charge of devising the bank's strategy for the ultra-high-net-worth market. With most of the growth in the segment coming from family offices and multifamily offices, Rogers quickly concluded that his bank didn't provide a relevant offering. "Clients wanted more of a boutique feel -- someone sitting on their side of the table selling advice rather than products," Rogers says.
在几个周末与佩里讨论AMA的业务后，罗杰斯向企业家提供了招标交易：股权和尊重多梦办事处的自治的承诺。
The move wasn't at all popular within SunTrust. "The challenge in the beginning was to give up good clients," says Rogers, who even today must remind colleagues that AMA is not a competitor. "We've made a lot of headway, but it has been a long road," he adds.
阳光初步为未公开的总和购买了80％的股份。在去年将股票的新管理团队DOLING换取股权之后，它的控股降至70％。Lagomasino表示，该计划是将所有权扩展到AMA的排名。
Creating a profitable multifamily office isn't easy. The temptation is to sacrifice customized service for economies of scale. That's why Perry initially did not want to grow the firm. "We told our original shareholders that we never wanted to deal with more than 50 families," he says.
尽管如此，创始人很快意识到AMA需要更大，以发展关键学科的能力和专业知识。
“我们对如何保持密切，友好，高触控服务的讨论进行了激烈的灵魂搜索讨论，”Perry说。该解决方案是他称之为“Bob W，”的组织结构，即“两全其美”。为避免损害其服务文化，AMA不会松开其最大的员工到客户率，但它将其客亚慱体育app怎么下载户团队与中央资源中心备份，其中包括投资，慈善事业，税收，经理研究和资产分配的专业知识，如以及整个公司的营销和融资。“资源中心让每个人都滋养，”拉格莫萨里诺说。
The approach enables AMA to maintain the intimacy of its offices even as it builds scale. A case in point is the firm's Atlanta presence. When the original office reached the maximum of 15 employees and 80 clients, "We went ten minutes away and built another office," says Lagomasino. SunTrust's Rogers says there was "zero discussion" about creating more leverage by adding clients to the first office.
With a staff that includes former tax partners from top law firms and ex-managing partners from leading accounting firms, Lagomasino says the high caliber of AMA's teams is another competitive advantage. "The people who come here have a fundamental belief in working in an unconflicted way for the family," she says.
In an industry where staff turnover can be debilitating, AMA has a 98 percent retention rate. And virtually all of the firm's clients who were with AMA when it launched are still there today. "That's a pretty important endorsement of our vision," says Rogers.
随着Lagomasino建立业务，她说她的下一个挑战是重新加入公司的挑战。由于姓名，资产管理顾问，潜在客户常常认为它是传统的货币经理。对于旨在重写财富管理规则的企业，这是根本不会那样的。