Community Bank Trust Services changes name to Nottingham Trust

DeWITT, N.Y. — Community Bank Trust Services, the personal trust and custodial services provider subsidiary of Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE: CBU), underwent a name change in August to Nottingham Trust.

The change comes almost a year after the creation of Nottingham Wealth in late 2022. Nottingham Wealth combined the financial planning and investment capabilities of Community Bank Trust Services and Nottingham Advisors into a single offering. Community Bank System, which is also parent of Community Bank, N.A., acquired Nottingham Advisors in 2000.

The name change better aligns the brands and services offered, says Charles J. Perrillo, Jr., president of Nottingham Trust. The company opted to use Nottingham instead of the Community name because it’s common in the footprint the company serves, and it wanted something different.

The change is also part of a strategy to build synergies between Community Bank System’s various wealth-management subsidiaries — Community Bank Trust Services, Nottingham Advisors, and The Carta Group, an estate-planning and wealth-protection firm.

Those synergies include sharing expertise across the three business lines to better serve clients and attract new ones, Perrillo says. Customers can expect the same high level of customer service they’ve always experienced, he adds.

“Traditionally, most of our business is self-sourced,” he says. Now, the firm hopes to cross market between the three entities to provide more services to existing clients. Additionally, existing customers that use one of them may have needs one of the other entities can serve as well, Perilla adds.

Nottingham Trust has offices in Olean, Hornell, Elmira, Oneida, Oneonta, Albany, and Potsdam in New York state, as well as locations in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Williston and Manchester, Vermont.

Community Bank System’s wealth-management and employee-benefits businesses are collectively known as Community Bank Wealth Management (CBWM).

CBWM employs more than 120 people and has $8.5 billion in assets under management.