Building trust: Knoxville-based Trust Company expands Chattanooga operations

Daniel Carter, center, President at The Trust Company, stands with his team, seated from left, Deborah F. Miller and W. Fred Speakman Jr. Standing from left, William M. Walker IV, Andrew J Muldoon, III, Carter, James A. Woods and Stacy Roettger.
Daniel Carter, center, President at The Trust Company, stands with his team, seated from left, Deborah F. Miller and W. Fred Speakman Jr. Standing from left, William M. Walker IV, Andrew J Muldoon, III, Carter, James A. Woods and Stacy Roettger.

In the past couple of years, a half dozen commercial banks headquartered elsewhere in Tennessee or neighboring Georgia and Mississippi have moved into Chattanooga, either through acquisition or branch additions.

While the new banking entrants have raised lending limits and often added mortgage lending or other new services, most of the new banks entering the Chattanooga market are not offering trust services, even after some of Chattanooga's biggest banks trimmed staff in their trust operations.

So even with 28 deposit-taking banks in metropolitan Chattanooga, a state-chartered bank focused entirely on trust and wealth management is growing a different kind of banking business in Southeast Tennessee. The Trust Company, which began in Knoxville in 1987, expanded into Chattanooga in 2012 and has grown the local operation with a handful of veteran investment specialists who assist clients with qualified retirement plans, investment management, wealth management, trust and foundation administration and estate planning.

Since last September, the local operation has been headed by Andy Muldoon, a 62-year-old banker who returned to Chattanooga after heading the Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks' $35 billion-asset personal asset management group, which had 250 employees in 27 cities.

"When I decided to leave SunTrust, I wanted to get back closer to clients which is what I was doing when I was in Chattanooga (starting at the former American National Bank & Trust in the 1980s)," says Muldoon, the company's senior vice president who heads the Chattanooga office.

The Trust Company Chattanooga office includes four veteran financiers who once worked together at the former American National, including Fred Speakman Jr., James Wood, Debbie Miller and Muldoon. "We joke that we have put the old band back together," Muldoon says. "And it's great to be back where so much new wealth is now being created in a community that is on the move."

Across Tennessee, The Trust Company has a 60 person staff operating out of offices in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Johnson City and manages $2.6 billion.

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