If part of your work involves educating others on how consumption can affect their ability to build and maintain wealth, looking for outside patterns of data and trends might be a way to bring an “ah-ha” moment to clients, children, friends, or family members. A string of articles in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal wove an interesting pattern for me, and the interpretation might prove educational for consumers and clients. First, this: Holiday Shoppers Were …
Race through your work, and loudly proclaim you are finished. Such is the pattern of some elementary school students (and adults, by the way). You’ll undoubtedly see this tonight: kids racing up to a door, quickly getting their reward (and hopefully saying thank you…or at the least, “trick or treat”), and then they are off to the next task, the next house. A wise teacher in one of my children’s classes is teaching that in …
Back in 1999, I worked as a consultant to a large fiber-optic cable company that was staffing a new plant in Pennsylvania. For months, our crew of grad students and industrial psychologists administered validated tests, interviews, and work samples to thousands of potential candidates to fill manufacturing roles. In the work sample, applicants had to coil thin, translucent cables into circles and pack them into thick, zipper-top bags while racing against a clock. Only some …
Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s private banking group went through another layoff as it shifted its business strategy and increased its minimum investible assets from $5 million to $10 million. The rationale, as explained in the article, is that wealthy clients require much more attention, generate more fees, and have less risk than less lower income, middle class clients. The article continues: Wealthy clients also typically generate …
Using an arbitrary minimum asset level for clients unduly limits the market for financial services providers to those who have already “made it,” and ignores the substantial number of prospects that are ultimately headed for financial success. For advisors, using minimums often means excluding the coveted Millennial group because they do not meet asset requirements . . . yet. So why does the industry continue to focus on current asset levels? Defining target markets by …