Travis LeMonte has been on the job for a little more than two months, but the executive leading Regions Private Wealth Management in West Tennessee already is talking expansion and adding to his team’s wealth management firepower.

LEMONTE

LeMonte – who worked for First Tennessee Bank as vice president and relationship manager of Private Client Services before moving to Regions in June – says his team is eyeing communities like North Mississippi and Jackson, Tenn., for expansion. Expanding there, he adds, requires not only additional resources but a certain kind of banking veteran, one who brings a track record and can navigate the relationship aspects of private wealth in “close-knit” West Tennessee.

That’s why he said the team a few weeks ago added a pair of SunTrust Bank veterans, Amy O’Bannon and Holly Clark, to its ranks. LeMonte himself decided to make the leap over to Regions – to succeed previous West Tennessee area wealth executive Paul Craft, who died late last year – partly after deciding Regions had an expansive list of advantages that made it a formidable competitor locally.

“I’ve been in private wealth at SunTrust and at First Tennessee for the last, really, 10-plus years in Memphis, and competing against Regions has always been tough,” LeMonte said. “It starts with Regions has a longstanding, very well-established trust clientele, a great group of clients that have been very loyal. And also the ability to partner with other areas of the bank like the commercial group, the business banking group.

“The resources also continue to flow into Memphis as opposed to flowing out of Memphis, which is definitely an advantage on our part.”

Both of the most recent hires, meanwhile, bring more than 20 years of experience to Regions, as well as a track record, reputation and the all-important relationships with clients and organizations around the area. That, LeMonte adds, is what Regions will be looking to add more of to its private wealth team as it makes a greater push throughout the area, leveraging the resources and divisions of the bank to turn customers in different divisions into private wealth clients.

O’Bannon had previously been a wealth adviser with SunTrust, and Clark a high-net-worth client adviser with SunTrust.

“We’re expanding our team, because of the opportunities we’ve got to continue to really develop our existing clients and take those relationships to the next level,” LeMonte said. “We’ve got a very well-established trust book of business as well as very established bank clients, all of those which we see as opportunities to expand into the other areas of private wealth.

Regions’ private wealth group offers services that include comprehensive banking, trust, and investment management to affluent and high-net-worth individuals and families through wealth advisers. Through a team of more than 600 associates, it operates 50 offices and serves clients in 16 states.