Fiduciary Trust CEO leaves to start new venture at Merrill Lynch

Teresa Valdés-Fauli Weintraub, who has served as president and CEO of Fiduciary Trust International of the South’s Coral Gables office since 1998, joined Merrill Lynch as managing director on Monday.

Weintraub specializes in financial and estate planning. She said Merrill Lynch will offer her and her clients a bigger platform on which to do business.

“Merrill is humongous,” Weintraub said. “We’re very excited about the resources and technology we can bring to the table.”

Wealth management has become a lucrative business in South Florida because of the number of wealthy people who live and vacation here. An influx of Latin American money has helped fuel the boom. The local financial services field is growing with 63 wealth-management firms and more than 200 family offices based in the Miami area in 2015, a survey found.

Weintraub will work with a new hand-picked team, including her son, Robert Weintraub, who has worked at Merrill since 2010, in the company’s Coral Gables office. Gabriella Adessi, previously at Fiduciary, also joined Weintraub at Merrill on Monday.

“Teresa is one of the most prolific successes in Miami’s financial services market,” said Josh Moody, who runs Merrill’s operations in the Miami market. “She’s an absolute pillar of the community with a fantastic reputation.”

Weintraub is also president of the International Women’s Forum, a global organization dedicated to women in leadership, and co-chair of Leave a Legacy’s Miami-Dade County chapter, which encourages philanthropy and helps nonprofits grow.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Fiduciary Trust CEO leaves to start new venture at Merrill Lynch."