Return to Home Page | News page
 

News Release: Internationally Recognized Industry Thought Leader Joins Genspring Family Offices as Chief Investment Officer
Palm Beach, FL—April 19, 2011

GenSpring Family Offices, a market leader among independent advisors, announced today that well-respected and internationally recognized investment industry thought leader Jean Brunel will take the helm of GenSpring's Investment Advisory Center as chief investment officer. This comes after Brunel was named chairman of the firm's Strategic Investment Advisory Committee in January 2011 of which he has been a member for 12 years. In addition to joining the firm's Operating Committee, Mr. Brunel will work with GenSpring's head of investments, John Elmes, to synthesize the firm's investment views and communicate them through regular communication with GenSpring family investment officers and family offices as well as with client families.

"I am honored to be part of a community of wealth management professionals whose values, like mine, underlie an unwavering commitment to building and sustaining client relationships based on trust," says Brunel. "GenSpring has emerged as a leading alternative to traditional wealth management firms. I am confident that together we will further the firm's footprint, both domestically and internationally, as the choice for ultrahigh net worth families and individuals all over the world."

"We are thrilled to expand our longstanding relationship with Jean and to further accelerate our efforts and deepen our expertise in goals-based and after-tax investing, fields of increasing importance to the investment advice we offer our clients and within which he is a foremost expert," says chief executive officer Mel Lagomasino. "We strongly believe that under Jean's guidance, GenSpring will extend our thought leadership in the investment field so that our family offices can best meet the unique needs and objectives of our client families."

The benefits of a family office are rapidly becoming known to a wider circle of ultra-high net worth clients. A market leader among family offices, GenSpring now serves more than 700 families in 17 countries, providing wealth and investment advice and managing important aspects of their financial lives.

About Jean L. P. Brunel

Prior to assuming his new role with GenSpring Family Offices, Mr. Brunel was the managing principal of Brunel Associates, a firm offering wealth management consulting services to ultra affluent individuals. He spent the bulk of his career in the investment management group of J.P. Morgan, where he worked in the U.S. and abroad from 1976 until his retirement in the spring of 1999. In 1990, he assumed the position of chief investment officer of J.P. Morgan's global private bank. Prior to that, he had served in New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Melbourne, in various investment and managerial capacities. Jean is the editor of the Journal of Wealth Management, published by Institutional Investor Journals and was a Trustee of the Research Foundation of the CFA Institute from 2004 - 2009. Further, he authored "Integrated Wealth Management: The New Direction for Portfolio Managers" (a book published in 2002 and in 2005 – Second Edition – by Euromoney Books) and a number of peerreviewed articles. Jean is the 2011 recipient of the C. Stewart Sheppard Award presented by the CFA Institute in recognition of outstanding contribution to continuing education in the CFA profession. He is actively involved with Fondation France Unitiative, a charitable organization based in France. A graduate of Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in France, Jean holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

About GenSpring Family Offices

Founded in 1989, GenSpring Family Offices LLC, an affiliate of SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE:STI), is a leading wealth management firm for ultra-high net worth families. With over $20 billion in assets under advisement, GenSpring, including its affiliate GenSpring Family Offices International, is trusted by more than 700 of the world's wealthiest families to oversee or manage important aspects of their financial lives. GenSpring is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and has 14 family offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Costa Mesa, Denver, Greenwich, New York City, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Palm Beach, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Sarasota, and Washington, DC. GenSpring was named 2010 Multi-Family Office Team of the Year by Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), ranked #1 in Investment News magazine's 2010 Top RIA Rankings of Independent Advisors and most recently ranked #1 on Forbes' 2011 list of Top Fee-Only Advisors.

Return to Home Page | News page