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MBL Advisors
MBL Advisors traces its origin to 1985, when Hugh L. McColl, Jr. founded a boutique regional insurance advisory firm serving the McColl and Lockwood families.
MBL Advisors
MBL Advisors traces its origin to 1985, when Hugh L. McColl, Jr. founded a boutique regional insurance advisory firm serving the McColl and Lockwood families. Luther Lockwood merged his Atlanta-based practice into the firm in 1996, joining six existing partners. The firm spent nearly a decade under bank ownership after its 1999 sale to Wachovia, and it re-gained independence in 2009 when it was acquired from Wachovia/Wells Fargo during the financial crisis — renamed MBL Advisors to reflect the new ownership structure. The firm's advisory work spans wealth management, private client insurance solutions, business exit planning, and executive and corporate retirement benefits. It historically joined the M Financial Group in 1987, a strategic partnership that provides high-net-worth clients access to institutional insurance products. While the firm does not publicly disclose a strategy in venture capital, private equity, or direct investing, its posture centers on designing customized strategies to accumulate, manage, and preserve balance sheet wealth across its clients' businesses and personal estates. The firm does not publish a list of portfolio companies or direct deals. MBL Advisors operates from the 1100 suite at 301 S. McDowell Street in Charlotte, North Carolina, with no known additional offices. The firm does not disclose its total assets under advisement or the size of its professional staff. In recent years, the firm has not published operational changes, fund closes, or new service lines, keeping a deliberately low profile that makes its current scale difficult to assess. What distinguishes MBL Advisors structurally is its origin as a single-family office that transitioned through mergers, bank ownership, and back to independence without losing its founding-family anchor. The firm's current ownership model describes itself as having the flexibility to create customized solutions — a legacy of its journey from family office to bank subsidiary and back, shaped by the relationships of a former Bank of America CEO.
General information
Firm type
Single Family Office
Year founded
1985
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Charlotte
Corporate office
301 S. McDowell Street Suite 1100, Charlotte, NC 28204, United States
Principals
Hugh L. McColl, Jr
Founder
Luther Lockwood
Partner (joined 1996)
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at MBL Advisors?
MBL Advisors does not publicly name a Chief Investment Officer or an investment committee. The firm frames its services as providing objective advice in wealth management, insurance solutions, and corporate benefits alongside business exit planning. Ownership and governance ultimately tie back to Hugh L. McColl, Jr., who founded the firm after his tenure as Chairman and CEO of Bank of America.
How is MBL Advisors related to Bank of America?
MBL Advisors was established by Hugh L. McColl, Jr., the former Chairman and CEO of Bank of America, as the family office for the McColl and Lockwood families. The firm operated independently until it was sold to Wachovia Bank in 1999, where it remained for nearly a decade. In 2009, it was reacquired from Wachovia/Wells Fargo and renamed MBL Advisors, severing its corporate banking ownership ties. Its current relationship to Bank of America is limited to a historical connection through its founder.
Does MBL Advisors participate in fund commitments or direct deals?
The firm does not publicly disclose any participation in fund commitments, direct co-investments, or proprietary deal activity. Its stated service lines — wealth management, private client insurance, business exit planning, and corporate retirement benefits — do not list venture capital, private equity, or direct lending. The firm's model focuses on advisory services to help clients preserve and manage existing wealth rather than deploying capital into operating companies.
Where does the underlying wealth of MBL Advisors' founding families come from?
The originating wealth traces to Hugh L. McColl, Jr., who spent his career building Bank of America into a national banking franchise, culminating in his role as Chairman and CEO. Luther Lockwood, who merged his practice into the firm in 1996, represents the other founding family, though the specific Lockwood wealth origin is not publicly detailed beyond his advisory practice in Atlanta.
What investment stages or vehicles does MBL Advisors typically target?
MBL Advisors does not operate like a venture firm or a traditional multi-family office that funds managers. It advises on wealth management, insurance, and corporate retirement benefits but does not describe a program for allocating capital into external managers or direct company investments. The firm's literature focuses on designing strategies to accumulate, manage, and preserve balance sheet wealth rather than on specific investment stages.
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