Genworth Financial Wealth Manage-ment appointed Cameron Miller as chief financial officer. Miller was previously a principal of Los Angeles-based Lovell Minnick Partners LLC, a private equity firm that focuses on the financial services industry.

Silver Bridge Advisors appointed Allison L. Taff as director of family office services. Taff previously served as the senior director of business development and marketing for Fidelity Family Office Services.

Mitchell Politzer joined Spectrem Group as managing director and president of Spectrem Consulting. Politzer was previously president and CEO of First Ameritas  Life Insurance Corp. of New York and CEO of Ameritas Direct.
Pitcairn multifamily office appointed Harold F. "Rick" Pitcairn II as chief investment officer. He was previously managing director of investment strategy.

Ogier, a provider of offshore legal and fiduciary services, appointed Ian Cain as director and head of Ogier Private Wealth.

Upchurch Watson White & Max announced that Gerry Le Van, an expert in family dynamics and dispute resolution, will chair the firm's new Family Business and Wealth Mediation Practice Group.

Schwab Sees More Family Offices
Despite hard times, more advisors appear to be looking to transition into family office services that cater to wealthier clients, according to a Charles Schwab official.

Janelle Sallenave, who heads Schwab Institutional's family office services business, says the trend is rooted in the explosion of wealth that occurred before last year's market collapse.

"If you look at where the wealth has moved the last five to ten years, you've had huge liquidity events and advisors all of a sudden having clients selling businesses or retiring and cashing out," she says.

The wealthier clients get, she notes, the more services they want from their advisors-leading to more demand for family office services.

"The more wealthy the advisors' clients, the less they want to deal with their money," Sallenave says. "Advisors really need to be the control tower."

Schwab acted as a custodian to 88 family offices as of the end of 2008, including 14 of the 20 largest family offices in the nation, according to Schwab.

That amounts to about $33 billion in custodied assets, which Schwab feels could double over the next four to five years.

Schwab's family office services are more intensive, and are often called upon to be speedy and streamlined. In one example, Sallenave notes, a family office gave Schwab an hour's notice to wire money to a client who needed it for a car auction in Europe.

Schwab has also noticed a demand for help handling clients' lending needs, she adds.

"It's much more about speed and attention," she says.

Schwab considers family offices to be shops serving multiple generations of families with at least $25 million in wealth, with a breadth of services that extends beyond wealth management and into lifestyle management, she says.

GenSpring Buys Epic Advisors
GenSpring Family Offices announced the acquisition of Denver-based Epic Advisors, creating a combined firm with more than $17 billion under advisement.

Epic is a multifamily office serving families in 11 states in the west. The acquisition gives GenSpring, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., a presence in Denver, Phoenix and all along the East Coast.

GenSpring is a wealth management firm serving ultra-high-net-worth clients.

"Epic's location in Denver accelerates our strategy of creating a national and international market leader that squarely sits on the family's side of the table and uses its collective power and resources solely for their benefit," says Maria Elena Lagomasino, CEO of GenSpring.