Two of the most legendary families in financial history, the Rothschilds of Europe and the Rockefellers in the U.S., have decided to put their names together to buy other asset managers or their portfolios and develop wealth management services.

Business Standard carries details of the deal:

 Rothschild’s RIT Capital Partners, a £1.9-billion, London-listed investment fund, is buying a 37 per cent stake in Rockefeller Financial Services from Société Générale. The 130-year-old US firm started as the founder oil baron’s family office and now manages $34 billion for his descendants, other wealthy clans and institutions. It’s, perhaps, surprising the two patriarchs, acquainted for five decades, took so long to do business together.

The transaction "puts together two names, two families that represent long-term stewardship of family resources—and that's at the core of our value proposition," said Reuben Jeffery, CEO of Rockefeller & Co. The deal, expected to close in September, was reported by the Financial Times on Wednesday.

The alliance of these two families will broaden its overseas investments, including China.

Jeffery indicated that although Rockefeller now has investments in China in several areas, the partnership with the Rothschilds will focus on private family wealth management.

“In the short term we’ll focus on financial services for rich families in the area of conserving wealth value and increasing asset value,” said Jeffery.

Currently, Rockefeller spreads its investment projects across China. In June 2010, the Rock Rose Partners LLC (a unit of the Rockefeller family) entered the Chinese market in a partnership with local enterprises. Later, the fund invested in new energy, IT, bio-pharmaceuticals.

In August 2011, Rockefeller completed its first PE deal in China, hooking up with Tianjin Innovative Finance Investment to raise $2 billion in yuan and U.S. dollars for commercial property investment in the financial district of the coast city of Tianjin.

This latest venture, however, will target wealthy Chinese with wealth management services.According to Jeffery, the new entity may set up a new fund or acquire another wealth management company.

Jeffery said they expect to present rich Chinese with investment opportunities in both domestic and international markets.

Jimmy Chang, executive director of Rockefeller Financial Services, told the 21st Century Business Herald that many Chinese families have successfully accumulated wealth and that the first generation of such wealth creators is eager to find a way to preserve the value of their assets and pursue wealth growth.

Therefore, he said, wealth management will be a major market to develop in China.

The number of dollar millionaire households in China climbed 31 percent in 2010 to 1.11 million, ranking the country third behind the U.S. and Japan, according to a Boston Consulting Group.

“The potential of the Rothschild and Rockefeller names to attract new money from brand-conscious markets such as China is obvious,” wrote Financial Times journalist Jonathan Guthrie.