Hanover
The departure of the four investment professionals from Charter Trust comes as Bar Harbor Bankshares is set to close next month on its acquisition of Lake Sunapee Bank. The Newport, N.H.-based bank struck an agreement earlier this year to be bought by the Maine bank in a deal valued at $143 million.
Ledyard — like all banks in the Upper Valley, which are facing slower growth because of the region’s aging population — is looking to tap into the Concord market, with its greater business activity and home sales, construction and wealth management opportunities, said Kathy Underwood, chief executive of Ledyard.
“A big part of our plan is to expand our footprint into a new market,” Underwood said in a telephone interview. “Our southernmost branch today is New London. We had the opportunity to hire four seasoned pros who have all worked together to start and build the Concord office.”
Underwood said she expected the addition of commercial banking, mortgage lending and private banking activities to “follow pretty quickly” in Concord. The bank is now negotiating a lease for office space. Eventually, the Concord branch will offer traditional savings and checking deposit accounts, although “we will not have a teller on Day One. But that is part of the eventual plan,” she said.
The four former Charter Trust advisers — Diane DeStefano, Diane Mullin, Karen Crump and Jeffrey Trombly — together have 82 years of experience in financial planning and portfolio management, Ledyard said in a news release. They all live in the Concord and Southern New Hampshire area and worked in Charter Trust’s Concord, Rochester and Nashua offices.
Lake Sunapee Bank chief executive Stephen Theroux said the simultaneous departure of the four advisers was not unusual, although he acknowledged the pending sale of the bank has introduced a feeling of uncertainty among some employees. In October, the bank notified a number of employees — bank representatives declined to say how many — that their positions were being eliminated as a result of combining with Bar Harbor Bankshares.
“Very simply, people come and go,” Theroux said. “There hasn’t been a big migration. I know the merger does create some anxiety,” he said, adding that he didn’t know what motivated the departure of the four executives but called them all “very good employees. We wish them well.”
Ledyard Financial Advisors, the bank’s investment and trust services division, was established in 1994, three years after the bank first opened, and now has a staff of 37 with the addition of the Concord office employees and oversees $1.14 billion on behalf of clients in 29 states and five foreign countries, according to the bank.
The Concord expansion marks Ledyard’s seventh branch office.
Charter Trust Co., which has 35 employees and manages about $1.6 billion in assets, was formed in 1984 by a consortium of six New Hampshire banks — including Mascoma Savings Bank — before Lake Sunapee Bank became the sole owner in 2013.
As low interest rates have put a squeeze on profits of traditional community banks, more of them are turning to wealth management and the fees it generates as a source of revenue. Accounting firm KPMG reported in its Regional and Community Banking Industry Outlook Survey in July that 50 percent of the banks it polled said that asset and wealth management would be the “biggest driver” of bank revenues over the next one to three years — far more than mainstay services such as commercial and industrial lending.
Wealth management, which provides investment advice not only to high net-worth individuals but also can encompass advising individuals on their personal IRA and 401(k) plans — a segment of the market called “mass affluent” — is a growing priority among Upper Valley banks. In addition to Ledyard Financial Advisors and Lake Sunapee’s Charter Trust, Mascoma Savings Bank launched a wealth management division in 2012 headed by Robert Boon, who joined from Ledyard.
And in the Upper Valley, the banks are competing for clients against the local branch offices of investment bank giants such as Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Edward Jones. In addition, there are established independent wealth management firms Taylor, Cottrill, Erickson & Associates in New London and American Trust Investment Advisors in Lebanon, as well as a host of smaller firms.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on its website lists 82 investment adviser firms within a 25-mile radius of Lebanon, not counting Ledyard Financial Advisors and Charter Trust Co.
John Lippman can be reached at 603-727-3219 or jlippman@vnews.com.
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An earlier version of this story understated the number of Ledyard Financial Advisors employees.
