New York is where the largest American private banks are run. J.P. Morgan Private Bank and Citi Private Bank operate from Manhattan headquarters with global reach, and their lending capacity, against securities, real estate, aircraft and art, is a large part of what they offer. Beside them sits a different tradition: independent firms such as Bessemer Trust, founded in 1907 as the family office of Henry Phipps, and Brown Brothers Harriman, a private partnership since the nineteenth century.
A third group has grown rapidly: multi-family offices and independent wealth managers such as Rockefeller Capital Management, which offer consolidated reporting, tax coordination and governance support to families who do not want to build a single family office of their own.
Regulation is layered. National banks answer to the OCC, state-chartered trust companies to the New York Department of Financial Services, and registered investment advisers to the SEC. The distinction matters: a trust company can act as trustee for family trusts, which a pure adviser cannot.
What to Look For in a New York Private Banking Professional
- Whether the firm can act as trustee, or only manage assets held in trusts administered elsewhere
- Lending capacity and terms against illiquid assets such as art, real estate and private company stakes
- Conflicts arising from proprietary products, and how the firm discloses them
- Coordination with the family's lawyers on estate and gift tax planning