Citigroup’s Wealth At Work Unit Evolves

For professionals in areas such as finance, law, consultancy and more, their wealth needs and those of their businesses can be very specific. Tying all these strands into a coherent package explains the US bank’s “Wealth at Work” business area. FWR recently spoke to Citigroup, which also has announced its second-quarter financial results.

When it comes to business segmentation, beyond the simple metrics
of minimum investments or deposit size, there are other ways to
reach specific clients.

Already, several banks will, for example, pitch their offerings
at sportsmen and women, entertainers and media figures – as
covered
in this article. Perhaps with less razzmatazz, however, are
those segments that concentrate on people earning a living in
law, asset management, consultancy, accountancy, executive
recruitment, life sciences and biotech, industrial leadership,
and other senior figures in areas such as technology and venture
capital.  

Such individuals tend to work long hours and want to make the
most of their leisure time with their families and friends.
Personal and professional financial needs eat into that time –
which is where a bank such as Citigroup comes in.

The Law Firm Group, part of Citi Wealth, was established 56 years
ago, serving those working in law firms as they built careers,
and as they went through significant financial events, such as
becoming a partner, having to recruit talent, handling succession
planning, selling a firm, etc.

In 2021, Citigroup expanded its efforts in this sphere,
creating the Wealth at Work group. This covers professional
services, such as consulting and accountancy in addition to asset
managers and entrepreneurs.

“They are busy individuals and super-ambitious. They have their
individual lives too. They want someone to partner with,” Kristen
Bitterly, head of Citi Global Wealth at Work, told Family
Wealth Report.

This news service recently met Bitterly at the bank’s offices in
Manhattan. 

“We always lead with planning…the connection is about getting to
know clients, their balance sheet, their goals and when they want
to retire. This is not something that can be done by machines,”
she said. 

“In our model, within Wealth, we have an area called `integrated
client engagement’, which focuses on enhancing the partnership
between the banking, markets and wealth businesses – all to
deliver cohesive advice and solutions to Citi’s clients while
also driving incremental commercial opportunity through the
collaboration,” Bitterly said. 

Bitterly said asset managers and their staff are an important
source of future clients.

“We see opportunities in the asset management space because of
all the relationships we have there already at Citi,” she
said. 

“We naturally become involved in the needs of a business. In our
Law Firm Advisory Services area, we do surveys with many of the
American Law 200 firms to measure firms’ profitability, demand,
inventory levels etc, on a periodic basis – both on a national
and regional level. This is important leading industry research –
it helps firms make strategic decisions and this is something
that we are very well known for,” she continued. 

As an example, in late December 2024, Citi Global Wealth at Work
issued the 33-page 2025 Citi Hildebrandt Client
Advisory, which discussed the forces driving demand for
lawyers’ services, and delved into the impact of AI. The report
noted that in the first nine months of 2025, law firms’ revenue
grew 11.9 per cent versus the first nine months of 2024. A
critical factor in this growth was the 3.2 per cent rise in
demand.

Whether it is law firms, accountants, consultants, asset and
wealth managers, the employees of these organizations require
financial planning help. In their own businesses, such
persons need help with lending, revenue generation, and
investment.

The trend of firms taking longer to list on the stock market,
along with those de-listing, has changed the ways in which
staff are rewarded and incentivized – and wealth managers
must keep up with that change. “Many employees feel overwhelmed
with the choices they have,” Bitterly said.

What the Wealth at Work model does is speak to how large,
integrated banks stress the value of their size.

The corporate/commercial side of Citigroup also feeds into the
private banking/wealth side; these parts of the bank
come to the wealth business seeking wealth management solutions
for companies’ employees and teams, Bitterly said. 

“These [services] are talent retention tools…firms want their
people to focus on their highest priorities. You almost need that
‘nudge’, and this is about how are we nudging people to get
outcomes,” she said. 

It appears that the Wealth at Work business is delivering for
Citigroup’s bottom line. In its
second-quarter earnings, the bank said that Wealth revenues
of $2.2 billion increased 20 per cent, with Wealth at Work,
alongside Citigold and the Private Bank, making an impact. Wealth
at Work revenues, at $221 million, rose 13 per cent on a year
before.

Talent

Talk of talent led FWR to ask Bitterly about Citigroup’s
approach to building capabilities.

“We grow a lot of our own talent,” she said. There is a mix of
financial capability and experience in client-facing roles, she
said.

With the business-to-business model at Citigroup, subject-matter
expertise, such as a specific firm that a client might work in,
can be learned. “We have a business model where you already have
good connections and data,” she said.

Technology, for example, will give Citi more scale and reach
for anticipating and serving client needs. 

“We see opportunities in the asset management space because of
all the relationships we have there already at Citi.”

Another trend is the requirements of employees etc at firms that
are staying private for longer prior to IPO, or de-listing, etc.
“Many employees feel overwhelmed with the choices they have.”