Brooke’s Note: I interviewed Frank Maiorano yesterday, and I’m working on an article for Monday that reflects our conversation. This article is here to let you know the news of his hiring. Monday’s article will look more closely at his career at Schwab and Nuveen and how he hopes to use that experience — and his thick Rolodex — to bring Trust Company of America stomping out of the bulrushes.
Frank Maiorano has been named president and CEO of Trust Company of America, one of the 10 largest asset custodians for RIAs. He replaces Terry Reitan, who is retiring. Read: CEO Terry Reitan retires from Trust Company of America
Maiorano, a former Nuveen Investments and Schwab Institutional [now Advisor Services] executive, came aboard on Jan. 17. Trust informed its clients of the executive change on Friday.
“I’m very fortunate to be taking over a very well-run company,” Maiorano says.
Maiorano has a tough act to follow because Reitan quadrupled the custodian’s assets from $2.3 billion to $9 billion in four years.
Nuveen Investments
Mr. Maiorano, 50, most recently was managing director of the RIA and institutional consulting services group at Nuveen Investments. He joined Nuveen in 2001. He left in 2008, taking a year off from his career before joining Trust this year.
Prior to his stint at Nuveen, he was with Charles Schwab & Co. from 1989 to 2001. During his 12-year career there, he held a variety of positions, including divisional vice president at Schwab Institutional.
“His career has been marked by consistent success as a leader in the RIA services industry,” says Stephen Finn, Trust Company of America’s board chairman. “This leadership will help us continue our remarkable growth and success.”
Maiorano was selected by Trust Company of America because of his broad industry experience, says Sara Nelson, vice president of marketing.
“What Frank brings is his knowledge,” she says. “He’ll bring excellent customer service into every aspect of the company, including how technology is developed.”
![Tweets Krawcheck: "Mind-numbing details [about the difference between RIAs and B-Ds] make it hard to get anyone to stay awake thru it."](http://images4.riabiz.com/i/12924076/t "Tweets Krawcheck: \"Mind-numbing details [about the difference between RIAs and B-Ds] make it hard to get anyone to stay awake thru it.\"")
Stephen Winks added: (Friday 1.29.10 4:55p.m. PST)
The industry is in great need of principaled leadership in suppoer for advisory services and Frank Maiorano gets it.
The opportunity Terry Reitan saw three years ago is even more compelling today as the industry’s evolution from product sales to advisory services in the consumer’s best interest is no longer in question.
If Frank can be a catalyst for the development of the requisite prudent process, technology, functional division of labor, conflict of interest management and advisory services support necessary to safely bring fiduciary standing within the reach of every advisor, there will be a huge wave of top brokers and advisors with massive assets that would be attracted to the aptly named Trust Company of America. This is advisory services market leadership in an industry geared to commissiion sales.
Just by posing an alternative—when there are no options—the Trust Company of America can make that 35% annual growth rate look very conservative. There are individual advisors with billions that are actively looking for a custodian that actively supports advice to no avail.
Frank Maiorano might be at the right place at the right time, (1) he can think outside of the box when it comes to disruptive innovation necessary to win market share, (2) he can confirm in the market place the demand for these services (he can double his asset base with five or ten advisors) and (3) he has everything to gain by aggressively being responsive to the needs of the industry’s best and brightest advisors who are compelled to act in the consumers best interests and are not well served by today’s support offerings geared to the lowest common denominator.
SCW