Bank of America Private Bank

[2] U.S. Trust was created as a financial company to serve both institutions and individuals by acting as executor and trustee of their funds.

[1] In the mid-1800s, U.S. Trust had a list of wealthy clients and played a role in major construction projects including railroads and the Panama Canal.

The company began to introduce more personalized services including advising clients on schools and careers for their children.

[1] By the latter half of the 1970s, profits had declined and despite efforts to expand the firm's physical footprint,[1] it lost large pension fund clients due to poor performance and an incident where municipal bond certificates worth $397 million disappeared from its vault.

[3] As a result, U.S. Trust stopped dealing in international lending, closed its Geneva and London branches[1] and reduced privileges available to lower-asset-level clients (less than $2 million).

[1] U.S. Trust was acquired in May 2000 for $2.7 billion in stock, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of Charles Schwab & Co. David Pottruck, CEO of Charles Schwab at the time, pursued the acquisition to broaden the firm's wealth management platform and stop client outflow to bigger wealth management firms like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

Efforts to integrate the exclusive U.S. Trust into the discount-broker Schwab yielded a culture clash that ultimately undermined the merger.

[10] U.S. Trust offers resources and customized services to help meet clients' wealth structuring, investment management, banking and credit needs.