Mr. Wade has assisted banks, trust companies, investment advisers, and other financial institutions in planning for, and creating, collective investment funds, proprietary mutual funds, and other investment management vehicles, products, and services for individual and institutional investors, including employee benefit plans subject to ERISA. He has also assisted these institutions in addressing legal problems arising under ERISA and other fiduciary laws and applicable banking regulations. Mr. Wade was a member of Bank of America's Office of General Counsel for more than ten years, where his responsibilities included advising the bank's trust and investment management departments and affiliates.
Mr. Wade is a nationally recognized expert on the subject of bank-sponsored collective investment funds. He is the author of the Business Lawyer article entitled "Bank-Sponsored Collective Investment Funds: An Analysis of Applicable Federal Banking and Securities Laws," one of the first and few comprehensive analyses of the subject, which has been cited by at least one federal Circuit Court of Appeals and by the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission in its comprehensive Investment Company Act study "Protecting Investors: A Half Century of Investment Company Regulation," among other authorities. He also obtained one of the first rulings permitting national banks to maintain "closed end" collective trust funds. In addition, Mr. Wade obtained one of the first prohibited transaction exemptions under ERISA permitting the "conversion of bank collective trust funds into proprietary mutual finds" and one of the first exemptions permitting "in-kind redemptions" of proprietary mutual fund shares by the bank’s in-house plan. He also is the author of "The Group Trust – An Essential Product for Money Managers," appearing in The Investment Lawyer, among other articles on the subject of bank investment management activities.