Regional Wealth Management Firms: Brand Strength & Strategy

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Category Advantage measures the drivers of brand strength by capturing both mental availability (likelihood a brand comes to mind) and emotional closeness (how strongly consumers connect with a brand) among all competitors. Schedule a private briefing on this research. .

The bottom line up front  

Eight brands, eight percent of total mental market share — individually invisible at the national level, yet collectively hiding a signal the top-line numbers obscure. These brands average 39% mental penetration on just 17% awareness: a 2.3x conversion ratio that is the highest in the category. U.S. Bank’s 49% penetration rivals J.P. Morgan. BMO’s 6.8 network size exceeds Morgan Stanley’s. Among the consumers who know them, Regional Players build associations at rates that compete with brands ten times their size. But breadth is their constraint. They compete on trust, proximity, and advisor continuity — not scale. The opportunity is not to out-scale incumbents. It is to dominate the life transitions that are inherently local: buying a home, starting a business, inheriting property, retiring from a regional employer. Depth is their advantage.

The Category Role They Own

They are the relationship-led advisors. Regional firms benefit from community presence, branch familiarity, and advisor continuity. When trust is personal — when a consumer wants someone who knows their family, their business, their community — these brands are competitive. The dashboard’s emotional connection curve shows that across all segments, deeper advisor relationships translate directly into higher share of wallet. The regional model is structurally designed to produce that depth, even if the national data does not fully capture it.

They win in proximity-driven triggers. Home buying, small business formation, inheritance, and family financial coordination are often tied to local relationships. A first-time homebuyer in Pittsburgh is more likely to discuss wealth implications with their existing PNC advisor than to open a Fidelity account. A business owner in Charlotte may turn to Truist for liquidity planning before considering a national brand. These are not niche triggers — they account for a meaningful share of the category’s 20 entry points. They are simply triggers where local matters.

In short: they are built for relational depth, not national dominance. And in wealth management, relational depth converts.

Segment Snapshot 

Brand scorecard

Segment Leaders: Two Models for Regional Relevance

U.S. Bank Wealth Management: The Breakout Candidate

U.S. Bank is this segment’s clear standout — and one of the more surprising profiles in the entire 30-brand category. At 49% mental penetration, it rivals J.P. Morgan Private Bank (56%) and exceeds Morgan Stanley (41%), Merrill Lynch (40%), and Goldman Sachs (41%). Its 2.7 emotional connection ties with Wells Fargo Advisors and Capital One. Its 49% likelihood to be selected places it in the upper half of the full category. All of this on just 24% national awareness and a footprint concentrated in the Midwest and West. U.S. Bank appears to be a brand whose local mental strength far exceeds its national visibility. Among consumers who know it, U.S. Bank builds the kind of trust-driven associations that the Traditional Powerhouses invest hundreds of millions to maintain. If U.S. Bank chose to invest in broader awareness — even within its existing geographic footprint — the underlying brand architecture is already in place to compete. It is the one brand in this segment with a credible path from regional strength to broader relevance.

BMO Wealth Management: The Network Breadth Outlier

BMO offers a different model of regional strength. Its 6.8 network size is the fourth-highest in the entire 30-brand category, trailing only Fidelity (8.3), Schwab (7.1), and Vanguard (7.1). This means consumers who know BMO associate it with a wide range of wealth triggers — not a narrow slice.

The Network Breadth Signal: On just 16% national awareness, BMO has built the kind of broad CEP network that most national brands invest heavily to achieve. This likely reflects BMO’s heritage as a full-service institution with deep advisory relationships in its core Midwest markets — creating mental associations that span retirement, estate planning, tax optimization, and beyond. Where U.S. Bank leads on penetration depth (how many consumers recall it), BMO leads on association breadth (how many triggers each consumer links to it). Both are viable paths to regional dominance.

The Middle Cluster: Locally Present, Nationally Undifferentiated

Regions, Key Bank, Truist, and Fifth Third form a tightly clustered middle group with remarkably similar national profiles: 37–40% mental penetration, 5.6–6.1 network size, 2.2–2.4 emotional connection, and 1% or less mental market share. At the national level, these four brands are statistically indistinguishable from each other.

Regions & Key Bank: Invisible Awareness, Competitive Penetration

Regions Wealth Management (9% awareness, 40% penetration) and Key Bank Wealth (11% awareness, 39% penetration) present the segment’s most extreme awareness-to-penetration ratios. Regions converts just 9% national awareness into 40% mental penetration — a 4.4x ratio that implies extraordinary brand stickiness among the consumers it reaches, almost certainly concentrated in its Southeast footprint. Key Bank shows a similar 3.5x ratio in its Midwest and Northeast markets. Both brands share 2.4 emotional connection and 5.9 network size. Their profiles suggest that in their home markets, these brands may be significantly more competitive than national data indicates. The challenge is that 90%+ of $100k+ households nationally have never heard of them. For Regions and Key Bank, the strategic question is not “how do we improve our mental profile?” — it is “how do we maximize mental dominance within the geography where we actually operate?”

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Truist Wealth: Post-Merger Identity Still Forming

Truist holds 19% awareness — meaningfully higher than Regions (9%) or Key Bank (11%) — but converts it into just 38% mental penetration and a 6.1 network size, placing it mid-pack on both measures. Its 2.2 emotional connection is below the segment average. Created from the 2019 BB&T–SunTrust merger, Truist is one of the newer brand identities in the category, and the data suggests the wealth brand has not yet fully established its own mental architecture. A consumer in Charlotte or Atlanta who previously banked with SunTrust or BB&T may not yet associate “Truist Wealth” with the same trigger-specific recall they had with the legacy brand. Truist’s 19% awareness gives it more national visibility than most regional peers, but that visibility has not yet translated into distinctive wealth associations. The brand-building opportunity is real — but it requires deliberate investment in linking “Truist Wealth” to specific life moments within its Southeast and Mid-Atlantic footprint.

Fifth Third Private Bank: Awareness Without Depth

Fifth Third carries 22% awareness — the second-highest in the segment after U.S. Bank — but converts it into just 37% penetration, a 5.6 network size (the segment’s second-narrowest), and a 2.2 emotional connection. This is a brand that more consumers have heard of than most regional peers, but that hearing has not produced deep mental associations with wealth triggers. Fifth Third’s “Private Bank” positioning implies an upmarket advisory identity, but the data does not show that positioning translating into distinctive emotional depth or CEP ownership. In its Ohio, Michigan, and Southeastern markets, Fifth Third may perform better than national data suggests — but among the broader $100k+ sample, it reads as a known name without a known role in wealth management.

The Segment Floor: Where Distribution Fails to Convert

M&T Bank: Broad Network, Low Recall

M&T Bank presents an intriguing contradiction. Its 6.4 network size is the segment’s third-highest (behind BMO and U.S. Bank), meaning the consumers who do consider M&T for wealth management associate it with a wide range of triggers. But at 34% mental penetration, 2.1 emotional connection, and 17% awareness, M&T reaches far fewer consumers than its network breadth would reward. This is a brand with good mental architecture among a very small audience. In its Mid-Atlantic and Northeast footprint, M&T’s community banking heritage and long advisory relationships may produce stronger results than these national figures indicate. The data suggests M&T should invest in awareness and emotional depth within its existing geography before worrying about breadth of trigger coverage — the network is already built.

Huntington Bank: The Segment’s Cautionary Case

At 25% likelihood to be selected — the lowest of any brand in the 30-brand category — Huntington Bank represents what happens when a meaningful banking operation fails to translate into mental relevance for wealth management. Its 21% awareness is on par with Fifth Third, but its 33% penetration, 5.3 network size (the segment’s narrowest), and 2.0 emotional connection (the category’s lowest) show that awareness has not produced mental associations. Despite significant retail banking operations across the Midwest, Huntington’s wealth division has not built the trigger-specific, emotionally resonant identity that would make consumers think of it at a financial decision moment. Huntington is the outcome every Regional Player should be working to avoid — and the clearest evidence that banking distribution, without deliberate wealth brand-building, produces nothing in the consumer’s mind.

Competitive Context

How the segment maps against the broader category:

The Strategic Imperative

• U.S. Bank should test whether its local strength scales. At 49% mental penetration and 2.7 emotional connection, the underlying brand architecture already competes with national Powerhouses. Targeted awareness investment within its Midwest and Western footprint — not national expansion — could yield outsized returns. U.S. Bank is the one regional brand with a credible path from local strength to broader relevance.
  
  
• BMO should leverage its network breadth as a strategic asset. A 6.8 network size on 16% awareness means consumers who know BMO link it to nearly as many wealth triggers as Fidelity users. The imperative is to expose more consumers in its core Midwest markets to the brand — the associative structure is already built. Community events, local financial media, and partnerships with regional CPAs and attorneys are high-ROI channels.
  
  
• Truist must invest in wealth-specific brand building post-merger. At 19% awareness, Truist has more national visibility than most peers but has not yet converted it into distinctive wealth associations. The brand-building window is now, while consumers in its Southeast and Mid-Atlantic footprint are still forming mental links to the new name. Own estate coordination and retirement planning for local employer ecosystems.
  
  
• Regions and Key Bank should maximize dominance within their geography. Their extreme penetration-to-awareness ratios (4.4x and 3.5x) mean they are already highly effective among consumers who know them. The play is not broader awareness — it is deeper local saturation. Own every wealth trigger in their region. Be the first brand recalled for every financial life moment within a defined service area.
  
  
• Every brand should amplify advisor continuity as the emotional differentiator. The segment’s 2.30 emotional connection must improve, and the path is through what national brands cannot replicate: long-tenured advisors who know the client’s family, business, and community. Highlighting advisor tenure in marketing, promoting intergenerational planning narratives, and building visible community-level financial events create the kind of trust that a Fidelity app cannot match.
  
  
• Capture the 30–45 cohort before they form brand preferences elsewhere. The banner data shows that 42% of 35–44-year-olds cite minimum thresholds as a barrier. Regional banks can address this by offering seamless, no-minimum transitions from deposit relationships into advisory services. The cross-sell trigger is not a generic wealth upsell — it is an intervention at the exact moment when a customer’s deposit growth, mortgage event, or inheritance receipt signals wealth readiness.
  
  
• Prepare for the Great Wealth Transfer at the local level. Over $124 trillion in assets will change hands through 2048, with Gen X set to inherit $1.4 trillion annually. Inheritance, estate planning, and managing aging parents’ finances are among the category’s top triggers — and these events happen locally. Regional Players are positioned to be the first point of contact. The brands that build visible wealth transition capabilities now will capture disproportionate share of intergenerational wealth movement within their markets.
  
  
• Do not compete on national prestige. Chasing Fidelity’s awareness or Robinhood’s digital buzz dilutes the local advantage. Compete on personal trust, advisor responsiveness, and community depth. The “local wealth partner” identity is not a consolation prize — it is a defensible positioning that national brands cannot replicate at scale.

The core insight: Regional Players cannot out-scale national incumbents. But they do not need to.
The category is entered through life transitions — and many of those transitions are deeply local. The firms that dominate those moments within their geography will retain clients through wealth complexity. The opportunity is not expansion everywhere. It is dominance somewhere.

About this research

Morning Consult conducts over 30,000 daily proprietary surveys in 45 countries covering more than 5,000 brands and 50 economic indicators. 

Our category advantage research is aimed at understanding the needs driving consumers in your category — and how your brand can own more of them. This research is built on validated principles of brand-driven growth and powered by Morning Consult’s industry-leading sampling technology.

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