There's hardly been a better time to be a wealth manager to the ultrarich as the war for talent escalates. Here are 5 firms on the hunt.

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There's hardly been a better time to be a wealth manager to the ultrarich as the war for talent escalates. Here are 5 firms on the hunt.
The war for wealth talent intensified during the pandemic, and shows no signs of stopping. Samantha Lee/Business Insider
  • Demand for private wealth and banking services grew during the pandemic and shows no signs of stopping.
  • Firms are competing for talent to cater to moneyed clients who are worth at least $10 million.
  • These are five of the players on the hiring hunt.
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America's wealthy are getting richer thanks to a booming stock market. Private wealth managers and banks are competing for talent to service this niche clientele, which often have at least $10 million in assets.

Though the pandemic showed that much of this work can be done remotely, firms are expanding geographically so they can provide concierge-level service to moneyed clients who moved during the pandemic. New York and California may still be home to most of America's wealthy, but now firms want advisors in popular relocation spots such as South Florida and Wyoming's Jackson Hole.

Here's our running list of which private wealth firms and banks are looking to staff up.

JPMorgan

David Frame, CEO of the private bank, is doubling down on a recruiting push. JPMorgan aims to hire as many as 1,500 new private bank advisors over the next five years, which would double its current headcount.

His second goal is to have private-bank advisors in every city with at least 10,000 people worth at least $10 million. The new batch of hires will ideally be split between internal promotions and external hires of executives at vice president level or above.

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"There's only 1.8 million people in this country that are worth $10 million or more. And so there's a rarefied amount of services that those clients expect," he said.

Read more here.

Rockefeller Capital Management

The wealth firm built from the 139-year-old Rockefeller family office is growing at a breakneck pace, poaching from larger rivals including Merrill Lynch and buying multifamily offices.

Heather Flanagan, who left HSBC Private Banking to join Rockefeller last summer, told Insider that more hires and acquisitions are on the way. Staffing up will allow the firm, which has $75 billion in client assets, to branch into specialty areas such as tax planning and philanthropy.

"We're trying to build the services for an organization that has dramatically changed. It's not like the family calls in and says, 'We need you to get a mortgage for our $20 million apartment that we want to buy in New York City next month.' Now we've got clients that we have to serve from all different regions of the country, all different asset levels, and in different ways," Flanagan, head of trust, fiduciary and client accounting services, told Insider.

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See more about the firm's plans here.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo's new private bank head Julie Caperton told Insider during her first week on the job that she had three priorities: "growth, growth, and growth."

The Wells Fargo veteran's appointment coincides with the restructuring of the firm's wealth and investment management business. The firm is streamlining by folding the private bank the Abbot Downing family office arm into the brokerage business, among other moves.

However, Caperton still wants to expand, here's where they're looking to recruit.

Clarfeld

Demand for private wealth services has surged according to Donna Cuiffo, head of family office services at Clarfeld, where she has worked for more than three decades. The $17 billion (client assets) firm hired 30 employees in the first six months of 2021, bringing the headcount to 185, and is still looking to hire.

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Clarfeld, owned by Citizens Bank since 2019, is expanding geographically as well. It opened a new wealth management office in West Palm Beach to follow rich snowbird clients that fled the East Coast during the pandemic.

PNC

The Pittsburgh-based bank is staffing up after finalizing its $11.5 billion acquisition of Spanish lender BBVA's US operations. Thanks to the takeover, the newly-branded PNC Private Bank now has a foothold in Arizona, California, and Texas, opportune for serving Americans who fled the Northeast during the pandemic for sunnier climes.

Carole Brown, chief of the $355 billion asset management group, told Insider that she plans to form wealth teams in the new markets added from the BBVA buy as well as staff up preexisting branches.

Read more about the roles they're filling here.

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