JPMorgan Forms New Wealth Business

By Janet Levaux

News December 12, 2019 at 11:24 AM

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JPMorgan is forming a new U.S. wealth unit by combining some $400 billion in assets now with Chase Wealth Management and JPMorgan Securities and has tapped its marketing chief Kristin Lemkau as its CEO, according to multiple reports.

Lemkau will report to the head of consumer banking, Gordon Smith, JPMorgan said in a memo obtained by Bloomberg.

The memo notes that the wealth unit, which will focus on investors with up to $25 million in assets, will include digital services and the bank's You Invest team. Investors with more than $25 million will stay with JPMorgan's private bank, according to the Wall Street Journal.

As of Sept 30, 2019, JPMorgan had some 2,900 financial advisors — up about 65 from the year-ago period.

Rivals in the space include Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. As of the third quarter, BofA Merrill had 17,657 financial advisors (of which about 14,700 are Merrill FAs); the firm's total wealth unit, including BofA Private Bank/US Trust, works with with $2.91 trillion in client assets.

"The wealth management industry is going through unprecedented change with digitization, consolidation, moves to passive and robos, and fierce competition," Smith and Mary Erdoes, CEO of asset and wealth management, said in the memo.

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