To Increase Revenue, Banks Go After Affluent Last year, JPMorgan opened 246 Chase Private Client locations, mostly in existing branches. In Larchmont, N.Y., here, it opened its first standalone center, and 20 more are planned. LARCHMONT, N.Y. - Wine and cheese in the vault. After-hours appointments to suit busy schedules. And loads of marble and mahogany with not a teller in sight. Directly across the street from a workaday Chase bank here is another Chase branch, one that's out of reach for some customers even in this affluent Westchester town. Glimmering appearances aside, it's not the very rich that Chase is after, though. The real target is what bankers call the "mass affluent," a much larger group that JPMorgan Chase and giant rivals like Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo all covet as they earn less from ordinary savers. Whether it's standalone buildings or separate lounges or even chocolate cookies, banks are more aggressively targeting people with assets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, not just millions. The aim is to sell higher-margin products like mutual funds, stocks and retirement advice to depositors who have traditionally looked to their local bank only for checking and savings accounts. This shift raises delicate issues at a time when existing savers are fed up with fees, and income inequality has become a hot-button issue. Despite the controversy, the appeal of the mass affluent segment is clear - they can generate nearly twice the revenue of ordinary customers. Bank executives say they are committed to serving all their clients, but experts on the industry say new government restrictions that slashed once-lucrative fees for services like debit cards and overdraft protection will accelerate the trend of catering to the mass affluent. "The traditional banking model is being fractured," said Mark T. Williams, a former Federal Reserve bank examiner who now teaches courses on banking at Boston University. Some lower-margin customers will have to go elsewhere to find the same level of service. This year, the bank will add 750 sites. And while the Larchmont branch is its first standalone center, roughly 20 more are planned. The amenities are not the point, said Barry Sommers, chief of Chase Wealth Management, who attended the wine and cheese opening party in Larchmont in November. "It's not just about nice carpets or cool mints," Mr. Sommers said. Customers want good products and good service in a private setting. Last year, Bank of America put 600 Financial Solutions advisers in branches, and plans to add 400 this year. Citigroup has dedicated Citigold lounges in flagship branches in Union Square in Manhattan and the Foggy Bottom neighborhood in Washington, and it plans to add Citigold advisers in roughly 50 branches this year, bringing the total to about 200. Besides being more lucrative, accounts serving affluent clients also face less of a pinch under new government regulations than do those of ordinary savers. According to a presentation to analysts by JPMorgan Chase late last month, the rules mean only a 5 percent reduction in revenue for the bank from households with $500,000 in assets or more compared with a 35 percent decline in what the bank earns from customers with balances of $5,000 or less. Rather than the familiar split between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, in this case it is more like the much larger top 10 percent that's being segmented away from everyone else, said Charles Wendel, a former McKinsey consultant who now heads his own firm, Financial Institutions Consulting, in New York. "Big banks are going after millions of customers as opposed to a few hundred thousand," he said. "They've got to make money somewhere," Mr. Wendel added. If you walk into JPMorgan with $50,000, they're not going to say get out, but you're not going to get the level of service or product breadth that you might like. Banks cannot be all things to all people. Banks have long sought out the well-heeled, but in the past the posh treatment was more restricted to the wealthy, typically people with assets over $5 million. Just who qualifies as mass affluent varies by bank, with JPMorgan Chase's minimum for Private Client accounts generally at $500,000, although executives say customers with less can also qualify. Citigold offers access to customers beginning at $50,000. A study by Forrester Research estimates that 40 million people in America have assets of $100,000 to $1 million, not including the value of their home. One-third of all retail investment assets are held by the mass affluent, Forrester says, compared with 63 percent in the hands of people with more than $1 million, and just 4 percent belonging to those with less than $100,000.