Suffolk Bancorp sells wealth management business

Suffolk Bancorp has spun off its small wealth management business to a New Jersey bank, the two companies announced this week.

Riverhead-based Suffolk, the parent of the 26-branch Suffolk County National Bank, sold the business to the Beacon Trust Company of Morristown, N.J., a subsidiary of The Provident Bank. Beacon administers $1.04 billion in assets, the announcement said.

Beacon will operate out of the Bohemia office in which Suffolk's wealth management business is based.

Suffolk's president and chief executive, Howard C. Bluver, said in a statement, "We recently completed a strategic review of all business lines, and concluded that the marginal contribution of the wealth management business, together with its relatively small scale, did not justify the expense, management and compliance resources that this business requires."

Specific terms of the sale were not disclosed.