Muni Industry Loses Veteran Salesman Brad Tazewell

The municipal bond industry late last month lost long-time institutional salesman Edmund Bradford “Brad” Tazewell 3d. He was 54.

Mr. Tazewell spent most of his 25-year career in municipal institutional sales at Wells Fargo and some of its predecessor firms in Richmond, Va.

Over his years spent there, he helped expand the municipal bond departments.

Mr. Tazewell started out at Wheat First Butcher Singer, and remained at his desk through subsequent mergers, such as with First Union, Wachovia Corp., and finally Wells Fargo & Co.

But to those who worked with him, Mr. Tazewell was most known for applying his congenial manner to his institutional client relationships.

“In a competitive industry often defined by ambition, Brad’s business flourished because of the strength of relationships he forged with those that knew him, valued him and loved him,” according to Chris Harshman, a senior portfolio manager at Eaton Vance and a former co-worker of Mr. Tazewell’s.

Hugh McGuirk, head of T. Rowe Price’s municipal bond department, first started working with Tazewell almost 20 years ago.

Mr. Tazewell, as one of the best muni bond salesmen McGuirk said he’s ever worked with, started by being a good listener.

“He heard you and he understood what it was if you were looking for a specific bond or a specific type of bond,” he said. “He got the nuances, and he understood the needs as quickly and as easily as anybody could. And that just made him that much more effective.

And Mr. Tazewell sometimes knew what would work best for the firm before T. Rowe Price itself did.

“But even more than that, Brad was a true friend in the business, with a positive, upbeat spirit. We will miss him,” McGuirk said.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Mr. Tazewell was born in Norfolk, Va., and grew up in Virginia Beach. He graduated from Old Dominion University.

Mr. Tazewell is survived by his wife of 22 years, Nancy Wallace Tazewell, according to the Times-Dispatch; his children, Ann Wallace Tazewell, Edmund Bradford Tazewell 4th, and ¬William Waller Tazewell; two sisters, Margaret Armistead Tazewell and Elizabeth Littleton Tazewell; his father, Edmund Bradford Tazewell Jr. and wife, Mary Lou; as well as his mother, ¬Margaret T. Alston and her husband, John.

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