The Signature Bank hires Nadia Cavner

On that day, longtime U.S. Bancorp Investments financial adviser Nadia Cavner became part of The Signature Bank’s team. The board voted unanimously to hire Cavner’s securities team in a special meeting that evening, The Signature Bank Chairman and CEO David Kunze said.

“This is a huge coup for our bank,” Kunze said the next morning. “It’s a great day for our clients and for all of our bank.”

Cavner heads the bank’s new brokerage division. She was named an executive vice president and will sit on the boards of the bank and its holding company, City Bancorp Inc. Her compensation package was not disclosed.

Cavner had been with U.S. Bancorp and its predecessors for 14 years, building $470 million in assets under management. She opened Nadia Cavner Group at The Signature Bank Investment Services on Sept. 6 inside the bank’s 2620 E. Sunshine branch.

Cavner’s 3,000 clients have the choice of following her to The Signature Bank or sticking with U.S. Bancorp.

“I carefully considered this move,” Cavner said from her new office. “It has been Kunze’s leadership and integrity that most influenced my decision.”

Kunze said the bank had been recruiting Cavner for six years. He personally interviewed and hired each member of Cavner’s seven-person team, two of which are Series 6-licensed.

Cavner plans to continue selling Franklin Templeton, Putnam, Oppenheimer, Hartford and other funds she previously offered. She has added broker-dealer Cambridge Investment Research Inc.’s family of funds at The Signature Bank.

“It’s really a great catch for Signature Bank,” Franklin Templeton Distributors President Peter Jones said from Florida. “Nadia is one of the great planners in the country.”

Cavner is Franklin Templeton’s top producer among banking channels. The past two years Cavner was chosen among Barron’s Top 100 Brokers in the Nation and Research Magazine’s Top Ranked Women Financial Advisors in the Nation. In 2004, she was among U.S. Banker’s 25 Women to Watch, and in 2000, she was a Springfield Business Journal Women in Business honoree.

“Nadia takes our bank to the next level,” Kunze said.

The Signature Bank board member Ron Neville said the benefits of Cavner’s hiring are twofold for shareholders. Neville expects greater fee income as well as account growth because Cavner’s U.S. Bancorp clients traditionally did a lot of business with U.S. Bank.

“She has such a franchise … all over the country,” Neville said. “It’s just a big book of business.”

The price the bank paid to acquire Cavner’s expertise and widespread network was not released, but Neville said a hefty signing bonus was included in the offer.

“That’s standard in these things,” he said. “It’s a lot of money, but this was such a potential coup for us. She is one of the top people for what she does in the country. If it works out, it’s going to be a big lift to the bank’s bottom line and that means that our stock presumably will be worth more money. This is a no-brainer.”

Two days into her new operations, Cavner said clients’ responses had been “overwhelming.”

Kunze said lobby activity has spiked since Cavner’s arrival.

“I haven’t seen our bank lobby this busy since opening day eight years ago,” he said.

The Signature Bank had an investments side under financial adviser Gail Noggle, though Noggle was not an employee of the bank and leased her office space.

That relationship was severed in May when Noggle sold to Joplin broker Michael Richardson.