Savings will be used to boost high-net-worth business.
Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown is shuttering four of Southeast branches to devote more resources to its high-net-worth business, a spokesman says. It's in talks to sell its Richmond, Va., and Jacksonville and Palm Beach, Fla., offices. The brokers and their clients will most likely be retained by the purchasers, according to the spokesman. The fourth office, in Towson, Md., will be consolidated with Alex. Brown's Baltimore operations. All four locations will close in the next couple of months.
DB Alex. Brown has about 400 brokers who provide a range of services to all clients, and a high-net-worth private client division with about 150 brokers catering to clients with at least $5 million in assets.
In the reorganization, low producers will likely face the axe, says one rep: “Twenty-five percent of the brokers are doing more than 80 percent of the business, so it makes sense for the firm to eliminate lower-producing brokers.”
Alex. Brown is following the industry trend to beef up the more profitable high-net-worth business at the expense of its regular retail business. Smaller accounts are time consuming and are diverting brokers' attention from more profitable accounts, the firm believes, according to the rep.