Union Bank's wealth markets team snags Fidelity sales manager

Union Bank has snatched a sales manager and coach from Fidelity Investments to join the bank's wealth markets team in San Francisco as a wealth management consultant.

In this newly created role, Harold Rhee will work with "an exclusive group of private wealth advisers, private bankers and financial advisers to enhance customization of advisory services and financial products to affluent and ultrahigh-net-worth clients," the bank said in an announcement.

He is responsible for ensuring the bank's staff is "centering client engagement on the fundamentals and rigor of wealth planning across all life events," it said.

Rhee, who is based in San Francisco, reports to Jason Liu, head of wealth planning and director of sales development and training. He is the fourth individual to join Union's private bank in the San Francisco area since the fall of 2016, according to Union.

The bank is ramping up hiring in a push to expand the wealth management business, which includes Union's private bank as well as its brokerage unit, trust and estate business and HighMark Capital Management, the bank's asset management arm.

In an interview with Bank Investment Consultant last year, the leader of Union's Wealth Markets Group, Michael Feldman, said the bank is looking to provide clients with integrated wealth management, lending and banking services. As part of that effort, he co-located private bankers and wealth advisers with portfolio managers, trust and estate advisers and other experts in major metropolitan areas within Northern and Southern California and the Pacific Northwest, where Union operates.

"Harold's appointment is part of our strategic plan to stay ahead of client needs while we continue to grow in this important market," Feldman said in a statement.

While at Fidelity Investments, Rhee was a regional planning consultant, a role that involved coaching, training and supporting local sales representatives in appointment skills, technology, tools and new sales initiatives, according to his LinkedIn profile.

"We continue to assemble a highly experienced team of individuals that can assist clients with the development of holistic wealth plans," Liu said in a statement.