Money Talks: Why does everyone want to manage your wealth?
Money Talks from The Economist
The Economist
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 7 September 2023
⏱️ 41 minutes
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Summary
Wealth managers occupy a unique place in their clients’ lives. Not only do they advise on picking assets and tax-efficient investment strategies—they often find out about illicit affairs and which heirs might be a problem child. These services were once the preserve of those worth $10m or more but new technology means they are accessible to people with as little as $100,000 in the bank. And now banks are fighting to be the ones to advise the moderately wealthy.
On this week’s podcast, hosts Alice Fulwood, Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird ask why wealth managers want to do business with the not-so-wealthy. Helen Watson, who’s head of UK wealth management at Rothschild & Co, shares the secrets of managing other people’s fortunes. And Markus Habbel, a consultant at Bain, explains why 250m people might soon be in need of a wealth manager.
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Transcript
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| 1:03.7 | Wealth managers are not just interested with looking after their clients' fortunes. |
| 1:09.8 | They also often end up looking after their client's secrets. In order to help pick assets, |
| 1:16.1 | minimize investment taxes and plan for passing on wealth, they also often need to learn about |
| 1:22.1 | illicit affairs and which heirs might be the problem child. Their proximity to the inner |
| 1:28.5 | lives of the rich mean wealth managers are usually a pretty tight-lipped bunch. But last year, |
| 1:34.8 | Marlene Ason, who had managed hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to two |
| 1:38.7 | erasers to the Getty Family fortune broke ranks. After serving the sisters for eight years, |
| 1:44.8 | she was abruptly fired and then sued by the pair who alleged she had jeeped them into paying her |
| 1:50.0 | a multimillion dollar bonus and thereby breached her fiduciary duty, a legal obligation to act |
| 1:56.1 | in her client's best interests. She countersued, claiming her sacking was retaliation for not supporting |
| 2:04.4 | the Getty families, quote, dubious tax avoidance scheme, to dodge $300 million worth of Californian |
| 2:12.0 | inheritance taxes. This skirmish embodies the stereotype that many might hold about what wealth |
| 2:19.2 | managers do and who their clients are. But the industry is changing quickly. |
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