Bank of America Private Bank opens first West Michigan office

Extending Bank of America’s private bank to Grand Rapids follows a growing local economy that’s creating more wealthy individuals, according to company executives. 

Bank of America Private Bank for years has served high-net-worth clients in West Michigan from a location on the east side of the state. However, the local market’s economic vibrancy led Bank of America to open a private bank office in Grand Rapids to serve wealthy clients locally and with hopes of growing market share. 

“Bank of America has recognized that Grand Rapids is a growth opportunity,” said Brad Harrison, senior vice president and private client adviser for Bank of America Private Bank.  

Harrison previously spent nearly 20 years with Huntington Bank’s private bank in West Michigan, most recently as senior vice president and regional director, before retiring in May 2023. After a Bank of America official reached out to gauge his interest, Harrison decided to leave retirement to lead Bank of America Private Bank’s new Grand Rapids office, located at 250 Monroe Ave. NW in downtown. 

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Since joining Bank of America Private Bank last fall, Harrison has been steadily building a foundation in Grand Rapids. The private bank intends to add staff at the Grand Rapids office as it grows a book of business locally, he said. 

“We’re ramping up and just getting ready to go,” he said. “We’re now able to service clientele out of West Michigan and we’re looking to expand and grow responsibly.” 

Bank of America Private Bank had more than $600 billion in assets under management at the end of 2023, and offices in 41 markets across the U.S. that provide wealth management services to clients, including high-net-worth individuals, family offices and philanthropic organizations. Services include wealth planning, trusts and estates, asset management, portfolio construction, and real estate financing. 

Bank of America Private Bank serves clients with a minimum of $3 million in investable dollars, “but we’re typically looking to upscale that here,” Harrison said. 

In extending the private bank into Grand Rapids, Bank of America looks to tap into a vibrant economy that’s creating a larger potential client base. 

“Grand Rapids is one of the fastest growing economies in the U.S.,” said Renee Tabben, Grand Rapids market president for Bank of America. “With that growth of the economy comes the growth of wealth.” 

As well, Bank of America is a “global company” with “global resources,” Tabben said, “but what we’ve come to learn and know about West Michigan is that people value a local face.” 

An entire generation of baby boomers who will eventually transition their assets, as well as aging entrepreneurs exiting their business to retire, also create an unprecedented wealth transfer in America, driving the demand for wealth-management services, Tabben said. She calls opening the private bank office “another step” in building Bank of America’s presence in the Grand Rapids market.

The Private Bank differs from Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch Wealth Management that Tabben also leads in the market. While clients may use both, the private bank tends to serve people and institutions with more complexities in what they need in wealth management, Tabben said. 

Bank of America does not have “a set amount where you stop being served by Merrill and you start being served by the private bank,” Tabben said. Having the private bank office in Grand Rapids complements Merrill Lynch and gives Bank of America a fuller continuum of services for clients as their wealth grows and how they manage their assets evolves as they age, she said. 

“If we’re going to serve a growing population of people, we want to give them as many choices as possible,” Tabben said. “We have clients that use both. It doesn’t have to be an ‘or.’ It can be an ‘and.” 

Bank of America estimates that the number of high-net-worth individuals in Grand Rapids who have $10 million or more in investible assets will grow “somewhere about 20%” over five years, creating a broader prospective clientele for the Private Bank, Tabben said. 

“If that’s going to take place, then we have to have more local coverage, we have to have more local expertise,” Tabben said. “That’s what’s really driven us. We’re again going back to what’s happening in the local economy.” 

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