Wealth Management’s Biggest Losers
It's time for the client's annual portfolio review--and time to take market share, the advisers think. They know the client, a wealthy family, spreads its assets around the Street. And their firm's results have been exceptional this year. So they bring out the...
When It’s Time to Discuss Charity
The phone rings. Your hard-charging client says, "I sit on the board of trustees of a charity that..." What follows sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher. "Whaa-whaa-whaa." Here we go. He or she is a) moving money out, thereby cutting your fees or b) asking your firm to...
Bitcoin’s Place in Wealth Management
Every financial adviser knows this story in one form or another. It is Friday afternoon, 10 minutes to the market close. Your biggest client calls with a problem. "My daughter lost her wallet. She's traveling in India. She has no cash, no credit card, no bank account,...
How Not to Be a Rookie
A friend of mine recently passed the Series 7, completed his brokerage firm's training program, and became a full-fledged investment rep. Through a combination of hard work and good, old-fashioned luck, he immediately stumbled across a massive wealth-management...
Norb Vonnegut
The New York Times describes my novels as “money porn,” “a red-hot franchise,” and “glittery thrillers about fiscal malfeasance.” Through fiction I explore the dark side of money and the motivations of those who have it, want more, and will steamroll anybody who gets in their way.