Connecting: First Horizon takes an unusual approach to growing its wealth management business.

For many banks, wealth management is a fancy offshoot of the bank brokerage already offered through their branches, often through an in- house trust department. First Horizon National, still known as First Tennessee in its home state and headquartered in Memphis, took a different tack.

The bank has spent the past decade building up a mortgage business across the country, to the point that half of its customers originated outside its branch network. Hoping to capitalize on the growth of its mortgage business, First Horizon decided to put wealth management teams in its loan offices to target clients ranging from the mass affluent to the ultra-affluent, with account sizes starting at $500,000. While the project is still in its early days, the two businesses-not, at the outset, at least, a natural pairing-are starting to gain traction in each other's client bases.

"We have two different strategies. The bank in Tennessee has a full complement of investment and platform reps, plus we're expanding regionally into areas where we have a strong mortgage presence," says Rhomes Aur, executive vice president of wealth management services at First Tennessee/First Horizon National. (The bank holding company changed its name in April 2004 from First Tennessee National Corp. to First Horizon National Corp. to reflect its national outreach. However, First Tennessee Bank has retained its brand name in its home state. Aur runs wealth management for both operations.)

First Horizon National began expanding its mortgage business nationally in 1994. It consolidated its mortgage acquisitions under the First Horizon Home Loans banner in 2000 and started placing its first wealth management teams in the loan offices in 2001.

Total revenue from wealth management operations in both programs hit $57.2 million in 2003 and rose to $64.9 million in 2004. Most of this growth came from investment revenue, which grew from $26.3 million in 2003 to $33.8 million in 2004. During the same period, revenue from life insurance sales grew by $500,000 to $3.6 million, and trust revenue fell slightly, from $27.8 million to $27.5 million.

The relatively new national program has a ways to go to catch up to the growth of revenues from the Tennessee program. In 2004, the in-state program generated $27 million in investment revenue, $3.4 million in insurance revenue, and $27.5 million in trust revenue. The wealth management business in its loan offices outside Tennessee accounted for $6.8 million in investment revenue and $200,000 in insurance revenues, a combined $7 million in revenue.

"We met 99% of our goal in 2004 on the asset management side," says Vanessa Taylor, senior vice president and national program manager at First Horizon in Dallas. "We want to grow the business, rather than just …