Truist Wealth, which is legally known as Truist Advisory Services, Inc., is the wealth management arm of Truist Bank. Truist Bank was officially established in December 2019 when BB&T and SunTrust banks merged. Today, Truist offers various types of investment advisory programs, in addition to financial planning and consulting services. Truist is a multi-billion dollar operation, with more than 2,000 financial advisors.
As a fee-based firm, some of the advisors at Truist can receive third-party compensation for things like insurance product sales. A fee-only firm, on the other hand, earns only client-paid fees, avoiding any third-party compensation.
Truist Wealth Background
As we stated above, Truist Wealth and its affiliate, Truist Bank, began operations in their current form in 2019. The firm was born out of the merger of BB&T and SunTrust, formerly two of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. Truist Wealth and Truist Bank are both under the ownership of Truist Financial Corporations (TFC). Today, TFC is led by Joseph M. Thompson, chief governance and controls officer. The company's wealth management arm is led by Brian Dowhower.
Truist Wealth Client Types and Minimum Account Sizes
Truist Wealth's advisory business is squarely centered around individuals both above and below the high-net-worth threshold. In fact, the firm works with more than 121,000 individuals, the majority of whom don't have a high net worth. Other common clients of Truist include charitable organizations, retirement plans, businesses and other entities.
The minimum investment requirements at Truist Wealth typically vary by service. Here's a breakdown:
- Financial planning: no stated minimum
- Investment consulting: no stated minimum
- AMC Advantage Program: $100,000
- AMC Allocation Plus: $100,000
- AMC Advise: $50,000
- AMC Annuity: $50,000
- AMC Trust Invest: $5,000
- AMC Fund Select Tactical: $50,000
- AMC Fund Select Tactical (Focus): $10,000
- AMC Pinnacle: $50,000
- AMC Premier: $100,000 (varies by manager)
- Envestnet Sentry: $100,000 (varies by manager)
Services Offered by Truist Wealth
Truist Wealth is a large advisory firm that offers its clients many services. These include financial planning and investment consulting offerings, as well as in-house and third-party investment management programs. The firm also provides services to retirement plan sponsors and participants.
- Financial planning
- Retirement planning
- Investment planning
- Short-term goal planning
- Long-term goal planning
- Financial situation analysis
- Investment consulting
- Asset allocation development
- Investment recommendations
- Performance monitoring
- Cash flow analysis
- Portfolio model programs
- AMC Advantage
- AMC Allocation Plus
- AMC Advise
- AMC Annuity
- AMC Truist Invest
- AMC Fund Select Tactical
- AMC Fund Select Tactical (Focus)
- AMC Pinnacle
- AMC Premier
- Envestnet Sentry
- Risk-adjusted asset allocations
Truist Wealth Investing Philosophy
Before helping clients with their investments, or even their financial plans, advisors at Truist Wealth will work with them to determine exactly what their financial goals and situation look like. This involves doing a deep dive into the client's risk tolerance, long- and short-term goals, time horizon, income needs and any other pertinent characteristics. By the conclusion of these discussions, your advisor will build a personalized investment policy statement, or IPS, for you, which will essentially detail how your portfolio will be managed.
When it comes to specific investment strategies, Truist will use some combination of short-term purchases (held for less than a year), long-term purchases (held for at least a year), trading (sold within 30 days), margin transactions and option writing. There are many different investments that the firm is open to using in client portfolios. These include common and preferred stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), options, warrants, fixed-income securities, notes and bills.
Fees Under Truist Wealth
Each of the services available through Truist Wealth comes with its own fee schedule. Although most investment fees at Truist are shown in annual rates, they are typically charged quarterly, in advance. Below, we review each service's set of fees:
| Truist Wealth Fee Schedule | |
| Service | Fees |
| Investment consulting | 1.45% - 2.25% of AUM annually |
| All AMC programs | 1.45% - 2.25% of AUM annually |
| Envestnet program | 1.45% - 2.25% of AUM annually |
| Truist Invest | 0.85% annual fee ($90 minimum) |
What to Watch Out For
Truist Wealth has many disclosures on its SEC-filed Form ADV. These include one criminal and 33 regulatory disclosures. Each of these disclosures stem from advisory affiliates of Truist, with many of these being attributed to BB&T Securities, the investment advisory arm of the former BB&T Bank. Only one regulatory disclouse involves the firm directly.
Also, since some of the on-staff advisors at Truist can sell insurance and other financial products on a commission basis, a potential conflict of interest arises. Despite this arrangement, the firm's fiduciary duty means it must act in clients' best interests at all times.
Opening an Account With Truist Wealth
To become a client of Truist Wealth, you can visit the firm's website and use its "Find an Advisor" tool. Alternatively, you can reach the firm's Atlanta headquarters over the phone at (404) 827-6461.
All information is accurate as of the writing of this article.
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