high net worth

253 results

pages: 358 words: 104,664

Capital Without Borders
by Brooke Harrington
Published 11 Sep 2016

In response to this common obstacle to the formation of trusting client relationships, wealth managers—along with professionals in allied realms—have sought to institutionalize solutions. There has been particular interest in accommodating the cultural preferences of high-net-worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific region, who share norms of patriarchal authority with Latin Americans but represent a much bigger client base: Asians are the fastest-growing population of high-net-worth individuals in the world, and already possess more than twice the wealth of the high-net-worth population of Latin America.59 In response to this growing market power, some jurisdictions have purposely created laws to address the conflicts over control that have been so problematic with Asian clients.

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In fact, recent crackdowns on offshore tax avoidance have resulted in a record number of citizenship renunciations.42 Just like firms that give up their onshore incorporation in order to reincorporate offshore and save on taxes, an increasing number of high-net-worth individuals have responded to states’ efforts to impose the duties of citizenship by fleeing the “sovereign national cage.”43 In a process usually directed by wealth managers, high-net-worth individuals simply acquire a more convenient citizenship, usually in low- or no-tax jurisdictions.44 Thus, through the intervention of professionals like Louis, high-net-worth individuals gain many of the same tools for avoiding tax and regulation as multinational corporations, and therefore the ability to amass power rivaling that of nation-states.

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The professionals’ task—signaling trustworthiness—is made particularly challenging because of the extreme wariness and skepticism of others’ motives that characterizes many high-net-worth individuals.5 Robert, a wealth manager working in Guernsey, observed that “a major downside of wealth that we see … is that people who have a lot of money can become very suspicious and isolated, because they become convinced that everyone who meets them is trying to take advantage of them.” Often this suspicion is born of experience rather than paranoia. Many of the professionals interviewed for this study mentioned how wealth makes high-net-worth individuals the target of a variety of threats. As Mark put it, “People want to con them, scam them, rob them, kidnap them.”

pages: 363 words: 28,546

Portfolio Design: A Modern Approach to Asset Allocation
by R. Marston
Published 29 Mar 2011

For the last dozen years, I have been academic director of a unique program at Wharton for ultra-high net worth investors, the Private Wealth Management Program. In this program, which Charlotte Beyer of the Institute for Private Investors and I founded in 1999, the investors themselves come to Wharton for a week to learn about how to invest their wealth. As of 2010, almost 600 ultra-high net worth investors have taken part in this program. This program has given me perspective from the investor’s side of the advisor-investor relationship. I have also had extensive experience as an advisor to the family offices of ultra-high net worth investors and as a consultant to pension funds and endowments.

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The first section of the chapter considers what we might term alternative investments for the ordinary investor as recommended by a leading institutional investor. The second section then introduces what we might term more exotic alternative investments, namely hedge funds, commodity futures, and private equity. The investments are evaluated in portfolios designed for high net worth and ultra-high net worth investors, respectively. The third section then examines the extraordinary record of one institutional investor, the Yale University Endowment, over the period since 1985 when David Swensen took over its direction. The analysis of the Yale endowment will be designed to disentangle the effects of asset allocation from the superior access to managers provided by the Yale Endowment.

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Forty percent of the stocks (or 30 percent of the portfolio) is invested overseas with one-third of the foreign stocks invested in emerging markets. This portfolio is illustrated on the left side of Figure 13.3. When alternative assets are added to the portfolio, domestic and foreign stocks remain in the same proportion as in the benchmark portfolio. HIGH NET WORTH (HNW) PORTFOLIOS Several portfolios with alternative investments are examined. The first two portfolios are designed for high net worth investors who are willing to invest in hedge funds and commodity futures as well as in real estate, stocks, and bonds. Both HNW portfolios have 25 percent invested in bonds, 50 percent in stocks, and 25 percent in alternative investments (including real estate).

The Handbook of Personal Wealth Management
by Reuvid, Jonathan.
Published 30 Oct 2011

When Mr Market makes that difficult, capital-protected instruments that can generate returns on flat, falling or rising markets have provided, and continue to provide, a useful alternative to cash. 45 1.5 Advisory services Mary Schwartz, Jonathan Binstock and Glenn Kurlander, Citi Private Bank Introduction In addition to offering standard investment advice, wealth managers often serve the needs of their high-net-worth clients with distinctive advisory services. These services are established to harmonize the clients’ personal and professional wellbeing while maximizing their financial assets. Clients benefit from a ‘one-stop shop’ enabling them to manage their affairs quickly and efficiently through a small group of people. Family advisory services Family advisers provide clients with access to professional advice and expertise on inheritance, succession planning, issues of family unity, raising children in affluence, and supporting foundations, all of which may affect a high-net-worth individual’s long-term financial strategy.

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Consequently, however expedient the arrival of the private foundation may seem from a fiscal point of view, it is an innovation whose place in our statute book could soon seem to be an appropriate expression of the natural order of things. 57 Part 2 Real estate and forestry 58 59 2.1 UK commercial property review Tim Bowring, Citi Private Bank Why high-net-worth individuals invest in real estate as an asset class Real estate is tangible. In times of great uncertainty the lure of ‘bricks and mortar’ is stronger than ever, and even though the market has recently seen a dramatic collapse high-net-worth investors (HNWIs) still feel comfortable with this asset class. And rightly so; even if the let investment loses value they will always have the value of the land, which remains in limited supply.

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35; How a typical structured product works 37; Understanding the fixed-interest element 38; The derivative strategy 40; Taxation 43; Charges 43; Conclusion 44 1.5 Advisory services Mary Schwartz, Jonathan Binstock and Glenn Kurlander, Citi Private Bank Introduction 45; Family advisory services 45; Other advisory services 47 7 17 25 35 45 ឣ VIII CONTENTS __________________________________________________________ 1.6 Jersey’s troika offering: the company, the trust and the foundation Christopher Scholefield, Viberts What makes a foundation different? 53; How do foundations work in detail? 53; Corporate status can avoid problems 54; Royal Court supervision 55; Conclusions 56 51 Part 2: Real estate and forestry 57 2.1 UK commercial property review Tim Bowring, Citi Private Bank Why high-net-worth individuals invest in real estate as an asset class 59; Who invests in which type of real estate structure? 60; Typical ownership structures 60; Why UHNWs invest in the UK commercial property market 62; Current market conditions 63; Causes of the downturn 64; So what next and where do the opportunities lie for HNW investors?

pages: 454 words: 127,319

Billionaires' Row: Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers
by Katherine Clarke
Published 13 Jun 2023

As the fallout from the financial crisis became clear, they were levied with billion-dollar fines and forced into a largely defensive position in the market. As a result, a shadow lending market developed in which unorthodox and less regulated lenders made up the financing shortfall when traditional banks were tapped out. These included everything from private equity and hedge funds to sovereign wealth funds and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. This new breed of lender, hungry for high returns and more willing to dispense with banks’ strict underwriting requirements, was sometimes willing to “loan-to-own,” an industry term for a company’s acquiring debt on a property and eventually foreclosing, taking ownership of the property itself.

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The young Arab had personally helped negotiate the bailout of Barclays Bank alongside Qatar in 2008 and had gobbled up stakes in major corporations such as Daimler-Benz, the parent company of the German luxury car brand Mercedes-Benz, and Virgin Galactic, the British billionaire Richard Branson’s commercial spaceline. Now he was turning his attentions to luxury real estate. Barnett had been introduced to executives at Aabar via a mutual friend, a private medical doctor whom he had met in New York and who had treated high-net-worth individuals from the Middle East. He had struck a deal before the financial crisis with one of al-Qubaisi’s predecessors to finance a $1.4 billion condo project he was erecting on Manhattan’s West 57th Street, just across from Carnegie Hall. Barnett had envisioned a ninety-story tower, a combination hotel and condo that would rise to more than a thousand feet.

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It all but guaranteed a sharp increase in prices. * * * — AL-QUBAISI TOOK LITTLE convincing about moving ahead with Barnett’s plans. If Barnett was proposing a new species of skyscraper for New York, he was all in. The circles in which he moved internationally were filled with ultra-high-net-worth individuals to whom he knew the pitch would appeal. Al-Qubaisi reassured Barnett. “It’s the best site in New York City. Of course we’re moving ahead with it,” he said. Barnett left the meeting with his coffers replenished. Aabar Investments and Tasameem would up their investment in the building to around $650 million, on top of the $50 million Extell was putting up.

pages: 273 words: 78,850

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy
by Thomas Stanley and William Danko
Published 15 Nov 2010

Instead, they want to be well educated, to be respected by their peers, and to occupy a high-status position. For many of these sons and daughters, the variations in income and wealth among occupations are much less important than they are for their parents. The typical first-generation affluent American is a business owner. He has a high net worth but often low self-esteem. The low-status, high-net worth parent often livesvicariously through his well-educated adult children who occupy highstatus professions. Ask a self-made millionaire a simple question: “Mr. Ross, tell me about yourself.” A prototypical multimillionaire (a high school dropout) recently answered this way: I was just a kid, a teenager, when we got married … never finished high school.

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Much of this research was developed from the most recent survey we conducted that, in turn, was developed from studies we had conducted over the previous twenty years. These studies included personal and focus group interviews with more than five hundred millionaires and surveys of more than eleven thousand high-net worth and/or high-income respondents. More than one thousand people responded to our latest survey,* which was conducted from May 1995 through January 1996. It asked each respondent about his or her attitudes and behaviors regarding a wide variety of wealth-related issues. Each participant in our study answered 249 questions.

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With his high-consumption lifestyle, how long do you think Dr. Ashton could sustain himself and his family if he were no longer employed? Perhaps for two, at most three, years. HOW TO DETERMINE IF YOU’RE WEALTHY Whatever your age, whatever your income, how much should you be worth right now? From years of surveying various high-income/ high-net worth people, we have developed several multivariate-based wealth equations. A simple rule of thumb, however, is more than adequate in computing one’s expected net worth. Multiply your age times your realized pretax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be.

pages: 121 words: 34,193

The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens
by Gabriel Zucman , Teresa Lavender Fagan and Thomas Piketty
Published 21 Sep 2015

As a point of comparison, the total public debt of Greece—which plays a central role in the current European crisis—is about $350 billion. As we have seen, the assets held in Switzerland are as high as $2.3 trillion—or close to a third of the total amount of offshore wealth. The rest is located in other tax havens that provide private banking services for high net-worth individuals, the main players being Singapore, Hong Kong, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Jersey (see fig. 3). Remember, though, that the distinction between Switzerland and other tax havens doesn’t really make much sense: a large part of the assets registered in Singapore or Hong Kong are in reality managed by Swiss banks, sometimes directly from Zurich and Geneva.

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First, the figure of $7 trillion greatly overestimates the value of the bank deposits held by households in tax havens. It includes many legitimate corporate bank accounts: German companies sometimes need to have an account in Paris, and hedge funds in the Cayman Islands often keep their cash in London or New York. This may represent spectacular amounts of money, but it has nothing to do with the tax fraud of high net-worth individuals. The BIS doesn’t tell us what percentage of the $7 trillion in international bank deposits belongs to potential defrauders. This is unfortunate, but it is not a reason to ignore the problem or assume that 100% of the money belongs to them. Financial globalization cannot be summed up by tax evasion.

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This includes yachts registered in the Cayman Islands, as well as works of art, jewelry, and gold stashed in freeports—warehouses that serve as repositories for valuables. Geneva, Luxembourg, and Singapore all have one: in these places, great paintings can be kept and traded tax-free—no customs duty or value-added tax is owed—and anonymously, without ever seeing the light of day. High net-worth individuals also own real estate in foreign countries: islands in the Seychelles, chalets in Gstaad, and so on. Registry data show that a large chunk of London’s luxury real estate is held through shell companies, largely domiciled in the British Virgin Islands, a scheme that enables owners to remain anonymous and to exploit tax loopholes.

pages: 162 words: 50,108

The Little Book of Hedge Funds
by Anthony Scaramucci
Published 30 Apr 2012

But instead of dissecting an animal, we are going to dissect the colloquial and controversial definitions presented over time by the experts. Let’s start with a technical definition provided by Jack Gain, president of the Managed Fund Association: A pragmatic definition would be a private investment pool with a limited number of high-net-worth individual and institutional investors on the one hand and, on the other, a manager with the utmost flexibility. Hmm . . . that definition doesn’t say much, now does it? Besides, I’ve never been one for pragmatism. Let’s keep moving. According to the Alternative Investment Management Association’s Roadmap to Hedge Funds: A hedge fund constitutes an investment program whereby the managers or partners seek absolute returns by exploiting investment opportunities (taking risk) while protecting principle from financial loss.

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And when they do, there will be countless stories written about his investing genius, skillful prowess, big and contrarian trades, overabundant and luxurious real estate, one-of-a-like art collections, and board memberships. Against this backdrop, the industry will continue to grow; the best and the brightest from top-tier Ivy League business schools will continue to flock to an industry that was started by a mysterious journalist who developed a legendary investing (and payment) scheme; high-net-worth investors will continue to pour money into these private pools in the hopes of achieving alpha-like returns that will fulfill their champagne wishes and caviar dreams; and mainstream Americans will continue to be fascinated by a cloaked industry whose mystique paradoxically lures the attention it was intended to avert.

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(In 1999, David Swensen wrote a groundbreaking book entitled Pioneering Portfolio Management, where he shared his insights and careful analysis with fellow investors.) And so, higher education administrators, who now saw hedge funds as a legitimized and credible cash cow, saved the day. As a result, hedge funds began to see a shift in audience—no longer were they only used by high-net-worth, wealthy individuals; institutions wanted a piece of the action, too. And who can blame them? While the market fell approximately 40 percent after the dot-com collapse, the average hedge fund did not lose money. Still sore from these self-inflicted wounds, institutional investors were happy to pay the notoriously high “two-and-twenty” hedge fund fee for downside protection against market turbulence.5 A Piece of the Pie Since then, a rising number of institutional investors—such as public pension funds, endowments, private pension funds, and foundations—have been allocating larger portions of their portfolios to hedge funds so as to improve returns while reducing systematic risk.

pages: 233 words: 64,702

China's Disruptors: How Alibaba, Xiaomi, Tencent, and Other Companies Are Changing the Rules of Business
by Edward Tse
Published 13 Jul 2015

even by 2010, the CEF only had 50 members: For a full list of the CEF’s early members, see the Harvard Business School case study “The China Entrepreneurs Forum” by William C. Kirby, G. A. Donovan, and Tracy Yuen Manty, revised May 14, 2012, pages 10–12. Current estimates of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in China: For estimates of the numbers of China’s high-net-worth individuals and their wealth, see http://www.bain.com/about/press/press-releases/chinese-high-net-worth-individuals-shift-wealth-management-focus-from-growing-to-preserving-assets.aspx; http://ex[prt.gov/china/build/groups/public/@eg_en/documents/webcontent/eg_cn_036898.pdf; http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/11/prweb11353349.htm (all accessed October 13, 2014).

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REACHING CHINA’S NEW RICH In finance, we have already seen how Alibaba is transforming saving and widening the lending opportunities available to small and medium-sized businesses. Another company changing this sector is Noah Wealth Management, a Shanghai-based money-management firm serving China’s fast-growing high-net-worth population. Noah’s founder, Wang Jingbo, was born in 1972 in Sichuan. After completing a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in management at Chengdu’s Sichuan University, she moved to Shanghai in 1992 to work in the city’s financial industry, which had recently opened its first post-Mao stock market.

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Using this money, she expanded the company’s network by more than 60 branches over the next six years, which in turn enabled Noah to sign up more than 50,000 of China’s rich, who have invested 113 billion yuan (about $18 billion) through her company, almost all in China. To protect itself from the possibility of handling money acquired from graft, Noah does no business with officials. Instead, it focuses on the fast-growing segment of self-made businesspeople and traders, mostly in their 40s, 50s, or 60s. Current estimates of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in China put the total at between 700,000 and 1.4 million people, with estimates of their total wealth ranging from $3.5 trillion to $5 trillion. The number of HNWIs has doubled since 2008, and is now increasing by around 20 percent a year, while their wealth is growing even faster.

pages: 215 words: 59,188

Seriously Curious: The Facts and Figures That Turn Our World Upside Down
by Tom Standage
Published 27 Nov 2018

It sounds like the sort of problem a government in southern Europe would be delighted to have. In Sweden, however, officials would much prefer taxpayers to cool it – and pay a bit less in tax. Mapping the world’s mega-rich High-net-worth individuals Global wealth*, $trn Source: Capgemini *Individuals with at least $1m of investable assets The global number of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) grew by 7.5% to 16.5m in 2017, according to the World Wealth Report by Capgemini, a consulting firm. HNWIs have at least $1m in investable assets, excluding their main home, its contents and collectable items.

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For more explainers and charts from The Economist, visit economist.com Index A Africa child marriage 84 democracy 40 gay and lesbian rights 73, 74 Guinea 32 mobile phones 175–6 see also individual countries agriculture 121–2 Aguiar, Mark 169 air pollution 143–4 air travel and drones 187–8 flight delays 38–9 Akitu (festival) 233 alcohol beer consumption 105–6 consumption in Britain 48, 101–2 craft breweries 97–8 drink-driving 179–80 wine glasses 101–2 Alexa (voice assistant) 225 Algeria food subsidies 31 gay and lesbian rights 73 All I Want for Christmas Is You (Carey) 243 alphabet 217–18 Alternative for Germany (AfD) 223, 224 Alzheimer’s disease 140 Amazon (company) 225 America see United States and 227–8 Angola 73, 74 animals blood transfusions 139–40 dog meat 91–2 gene drives 153–4 size and velocity 163–4 and water pollution 149–50 wolves 161–2 Arctic 147–8 Argentina gay and lesbian rights 73 lemons 95–6 lithium 17–18 Ariel, Barak 191 Arizona 85 arms trade 19–20 Asia belt and road initiative 117–18 high-net-worth individuals 53 wheat consumption 109–10 see also individual countries Assange, Julian 81–3 asteroids 185–6 augmented reality (AR) 181–2 August 239–40 Australia avocados 89 forests 145 inheritance tax 119 lithium 17, 18 shark attacks 201–2 autonomous vehicles (AVs) 177–8 Autor, David 79 avocados 89–90 B Babylonians 233 Baltimore 99 Bangladesh 156 bank notes 133–4 Bateman, Tim 48 beer consumption 105–6 craft breweries 97–8 Beijing air pollution 143–4 dogs 92 belt and road initiative 117–18 betting 209–10 Bier, Ethan 153 Bils, Mark 169 birds and aircraft 187 guinea fowl 32–3 birth rates Europe 81–3 United States 79–80 black money 133–4 Black Power 34, 35 Blade Runner 208 blood transfusions 139–40 board games 199–200 body cameras 191–2 Boko Haram 5, 15–16 Bolivia 17–18 Bollettieri, Nick 197 bookmakers 209–10 Borra, Cristina 75 Bosnia 221–2 brain computers 167–8 Brazil beer consumption 105, 106 Christmas music 243, 244 end-of-life care 141–2 gay and lesbian rights 73 murder rate 45, 46 shark attacks 202 breweries 97–8 Brexit, and car colours 49–50 brides bride price 5 diamonds 13–14 Britain alcohol consumption 101–2 car colours 49–50 Christmas music 244 cigarette sales 23–4 craft breweries 98 crime 47–8 Easter 238 gay population 70–72 housing material 8 inheritance tax 119 Irish immigration 235 life expectancy 125 manufacturing jobs 131 national identity 223–4 new-year resolutions 234 police body cameras 191 sexual harassment 67, 68, 69 sperm donation 61 see also Scotland Brookings Institution 21 Browning, Martin 75 bubonic plague 157–8 Bush, George W. 119 C cables, undersea 193–4 California and Argentine lemons 95, 96 avocados 90 cameras 191–2 Canada diamonds 13 drones 188 lithium 17 national identity 223–4 capitalism, and birth rates 81–2 Carey, Mariah 243 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 21 cars colours 49–50 self-driving 177–8 Caruana, Fabiano 206 Charles, Kerwin 169 cheetahs 163, 164 chess 205–6 Chetty, Raj 113 Chicago 100 children birth rates 79–80, 81–3 child marriage 84–5 in China 56–7 crime 47–8 and gender pay gap 115–16, 135–6 obesity 93–4 Chile gay and lesbian rights 73 lithium 17–18 China air pollution 143–5 arms sales 19–20 avocados 89 beer consumption 105 belt and road initiative 117–18 childhood obesity 93 construction 7 dog meat 91–2 dragon children 56–7 flight delays 38–9 foreign waste 159–60 lithium 17 rice consumption 109–10 Choi, Roy 99 Christian, Cornelius 26 Christianity Easter 237–8 new year 233–4 Christmas 246–7 music 243–5 cigarettes affordability 151–2 black market 23–4 cities, murder rates 44–6 Citizen Kane 207 citrus wars 95–6 civil wars 5 Clarke, Arthur C. 183 Coase, Ronald 127, 128 cocaine 44 cochlear implants 167 Cohen, Jake 203 Colen, Liesbeth 106 colleges, US 113–14 Colombia 45 colours, cars 49–50 commodities 123–4 companies 127–8 computers augmented reality 181–2 brain computers 167–8 emojis 215–16 and languages 225–6 spam e-mail 189–90 Connecticut 85 Connors, Jimmy 197 contracts 127–8 Costa Rica 89 couples career and family perception gap 77–8 housework 75–6 see also marriage cows 149–50 craft breweries 97–8 crime and avocados 89–90 and dog meat 91–2 murder rates 44–6 young Britons 47–8 CRISPR-Cas9 153 Croatia 222 Croato-Serbian 221–2 D Daily-Diamond, Christopher 9–10 Davis, Mark 216 De Beers 13–14 death 141–2 death taxes 119–20 democracy 40–41 Deng Xiaoping 117 Denmark career and family perception gap 78 gender pay gap 135–6 sex reassignment 65 Denver 99 Devon 72 diamonds 13–14, 124 digitally remastering 207–8 Discovery Channel 163–4 diseases 157–8 dog meat 91–2 Dorn, David 79 Dr Strangelove 207 dragon children 56–7 drink see alcohol drink-driving 179–80 driverless cars 177–8 drones and aircraft 187–8 and sharks 201 drugs cocaine trafficking 44 young Britons 48 D’Souza, Kiran 187 E e-mail 189–90 earnings, gender pay gap 115–16, 135–6 Easter 237–8 economy and birth rates 79–80, 81–2 and car colours 49–50 and witch-hunting 25–6 education and American rich 113–14 dragon children 56–7 Egal, Muhammad Haji Ibrahim 40–41 Egypt gay and lesbian rights 73 marriage 5 new-year resolutions 233 El Paso 100 El Salvador 44, 45 emojis 215–16 employment gender pay gap 115–16, 135–6 and gender perception gap 77–8 job tenure 129–30 in manufacturing 131–2 video games and unemployment 169–70 English language letter names 217–18 Papua New Guinea 219 environment air pollution 143–4 Arctic sea ice 147–8 and food packaging 103–4 waste 159–60 water pollution 149–50 Equatorial Guinea 32 Eritrea 40 Ethiopia 40 Europe craft breweries 97–8 summer holidays 239–40 see also individual countries Everson, Michael 216 exorcism 36–7 F Facebook augmented reality 182 undersea cables 193 FANUC 171, 172 Federer, Roger 197 feminism, and birth rates 81–2 fertility rates see birth rates festivals Christmas 246–7 Christmas music 243–5 new-year 233–4 Feuillet, Catherine 108 films 207–8 firms 127–8 5G 173–4 flight delays 38–9 Florida and Argentine lemons 95 child marriage 85 Foley, William 220 food avocados and crime 89–90 dog meat 91–2 lemons 95–6 wheat consumption 109–10 wheat genome 107–8 food packaging 103–4 food trucks 99–100 football clubs 211–12 football transfers 203–4 forests 145–6, 162 Fountains of Paradise, The (Clarke) 183 fracking 79–80 France career and family perception gap 78 Christmas music 244 exorcism 36–7 gender-inclusive language 229–30 job tenure 130 sex reassignment 66 sexual harassment 68–9 witch-hunting 26, 27 wolves 161–2 G gambling 209–10 games, and unemployment 169–70 Gandhi, Mahatma 155 gang members 34–5 Gantz, Valentino 153 gas 124 gay population 70–72 gay rights, attitudes to 73–4 gender sex reassignment 65–6 see also men; women gender equality and birth rates 81–2 in language 229–30 gender pay gap 115–16, 135–6 gene drives 153–4 Genghis Khan 42 genome, wheat 107–8 ger districts 42–3 Germany beer consumption 105 job tenure 130 national identity 223–4 sexual harassment 68, 69 vocational training 132 witch-hunting 26, 27 Ghana 73 gig economy 128, 130 glasses, wine glasses 101–2 Goddard, Ceri 72 Google 193 Graduate, The 207 Greece forests 145 national identity 223–4 sex reassignment 65 smoking ban 152 Gregg, Christine 9–10 grunting 197–8 Guatemala 45 Guinea 32 guinea fowl 32–3 guinea pig 32 Guinea-Bissau 32 Guo Peng 91–2 Guyana 32 H Haiti 5 Hale, Sarah Josepha 242 Hanson, Gordon 79 Hawaii ’Oumuamua 185 porn consumption 63–4 health child obesity 93–4 life expectancy 125–6 plague 157–8 and sanitation 155 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) 53 Hiri Motu 219 holidays Easter 237–8 St Patrick’s Day 235–6 summer holidays 239–40 Thanksgiving 241–2 HoloLens 181–2 homicide 44–6 homosexuality attitudes to 73–4 UK 70–72 Honduras 44, 45 Hong Kong 56 housework 75–6, 77–8 Hudson, Valerie 5 Hungary 223–4 Hurst, Erik 169 I ice 147–8 Ikolo, Prince Anthony 199 India bank notes 133–4 inheritance tax 119 languages 219 rice consumption 109 sand mafia 7 sanitation problems 155–6 Indonesia polygamy and civil war 5 rice consumption 109–10 inheritance taxes 119–20 interest rates 51–2 interpunct 229–30 Ireland aitch 218 forests 145 St Patrick’s Day 235–6 same-sex marriage 73 sex reassignment 65 Italy birth rate 82 end of life care 141–2 forests 145 job tenure 130 life expectancy 126 J Jacob, Nitya 156 Jamaica 45 Japan 141–2 Jighere, Wellington 199 job tenure 129–30 jobs see employment Johnson, Bryan 168 junk mail 189 K Kazakhstan 6 Kearney, Melissa 79–80 Kennedy, John F. 12 Kenya democracy 40 mobile-money systems 176 Kiribati 7 Kleven, Henrik 135–6 knots 9–10 Kohler, Timothy 121 Kyrgyzstan 6 L laces 9–10 Lagos 199 Landais, Camille 135–6 languages and computers 225–6 gender-inclusive 229–30 letter names 217–18 and national identity 223–4 Papua New Guinea 219–20 Serbo-Croatian 221–2 Unicode 215 World Bank writing style 227–8 Latimer, Hugh 246 Leeson, Peter 26 leisure board games in Nigeria 199–200 chess 205–6 gambling 209–10 video games and unemployment 169–70 see also festivals; holidays lemons 95–6 letter names 217–18 Libya 31 life expectancy 125–6 Lincoln, Abraham 242 lithium 17–18 London 71, 72 longevity 125–6 Lozère 161–2 Lucas, George 208 M McEnroe, John 197 McGregor, Andrew 204 machine learning 225–6 Macri, Mauricio 95, 96 Macron, Emmanuel 143 Madagascar 158 Madison, James 242 MagicLeap 182 Maine 216 Malaysia 56 Maldives 7 Mali 31 Malta 65 Manchester United 211–12 manufacturing jobs 131–2 robots 171–2 summer holidays 239 Maori 34–5 marriage child marriage 84–5 polygamy 5–6 same-sex relationships 73–4 see also couples Marteau, Theresa 101–2 Marx, Karl 123 Maryland 85 Massachusetts child marriage 85 Christmas 246 Matfess, Hilary 5, 15 meat dog meat 91–2 packaging 103–4 mega-rich 53 men career and family 77–8 housework 75–6 job tenure 129–30 life expectancy 125 polygamy 5–6 sexual harassment by 67–9 video games and unemployment 169 Mexico avocados 89, 90 gay and lesbian rights 73 murder rate 44, 45 microbreweries 97–8 Microsoft HoloLens 181–2 undersea cables 193 migration, and birth rates 81–3 mining diamonds 13–14 sand 7–8 mobile phones Africa 175–6 5G 173–4 Mocan, Naci 56–7 Mongolia 42–3 Mongrel Mob 34 Monopoly (board game) 199, 200 Monty Python and the Holy Grail 25 Moore, Clement Clarke 247 Moretti, Franco 228 Morocco 7 Moscato, Philippe 36 movies 207–8 Mozambique 73 murder rates 44–6 music, Christmas 243–5 Musk, Elon 168 Myanmar 118 N Nadal, Rafael 197 national identity 223–4 natural gas 124 Netherlands gender 66 national identity 223–4 neurostimulators 167 New Jersey 85 New Mexico 157–8 New York (state), child marriage 85 New York City drink-driving 179–80 food trucks 99–100 New Zealand avocados 89 gang members 34–5 gene drives 154 water pollution 149–50 new-year resolutions 233–4 Neymar 203, 204 Nigeria board games 199–200 Boko Haram 5, 15–16 population 54–5 Nissenbaum, Stephen 247 Northern Ireland 218 Norway Christmas music 243 inheritance tax 119 life expectancy 125, 126 sex reassignment 65 Nucci, Alessandra 36 O obesity 93–4 oceans see seas Odimegwu, Festus 54 O’Reilly, Oliver 9–10 Ortiz de Retez, Yñigo 32 Oster, Emily 25–6 ostriches 163, 164 ’Oumuamua 185–6 P packaging 103–4 Pakistan 5 Palombi, Francis 161 Papua New Guinea languages 219–20 name 32 Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) 203 Passover 237 pasta 31 pay, gender pay gap 115–16, 135–6 Peck, Jessica Lynn 179–80 Pennsylvania 85 Peru 90 Pestre, Dominique 228 Pew Research Centre 22 Phelps, Michael 163–4 Philippe, Édouard 230 phishing 189 Phoenix, Arizona 177 Pilgrims 241 plague 157–8 Plastic China 159 police, body cameras 191–2 pollution air pollution 143–4 water pollution 149–50 polygamy 5–6 pornography and Britain’s gay population 70–72 and Hawaii missile alert 63–4 Portugal 145 Puerto Rico 45 punctuation marks 229–30 Q Qatar 19 R ransomware 190 Ravenscroft, George 101 Real Madrid 211 religious observance and birth rates 81–2 and Christmas music 244 remastering 207–8 Reynolds, Andrew 70 Rhodes, Cecil 13 rice 109–10 rich high-net-worth individuals 53 US 113–14 ride-hailing apps and drink-driving 179–80 see also Uber RIWI 73–4 robotaxis 177–8 robots 171–2 Rogers, Dan 240 Romania birth rate 81 life expectancy 125 Romans 233 Romer, Paul 227–8 Ross, Hana 23 Royal United Services Institute 21 Russ, Jacob 26 Russia arms sales 20 beer consumption 105, 106 fertility rate 81 Rwanda 40 S Sahara 31 St Louis 205–6 St Patrick’s Day 235–6 salt, in seas 11–12 same-sex relationships 73–4 San Antonio 100 sand 7–8 sanitation 155–6 Saudi Arabia 19 Scotland, witch-hunting 25–6, 27 Scott, Keith Lamont 191 Scrabble (board game) 199 seas Arctic sea ice 147–8 salty 11–12 undersea cables 193–4 secularism, and birth rates 81–2 Seles, Monica 197 self-driving cars 177–8 Serbia 222 Serbo-Croatian 221–2 Sevilla, Almudena 75 sex reassignment 65–6 sexual harassment 67–9, 230 Sharapova, Maria 197 sharks deterring attacks 201–2 racing humans 163–4 shipping 148 shoelaces 9–10 Silk Road 117–18 Singapore dragon children 56 land reclamation 7, 8 rice consumption 110 single people, housework 75–6 Sinquefeld, Rex 205 smart glasses 181–2 Smith, Adam 127 smoking black market for cigarettes 23–4 efforts to curb 151–2 smuggling 31 Sogaard, Jakob 135–6 Somalia 40 Somaliland 40–41 South Africa childhood obesity 93 diamonds 13 gay and lesbian rights 73 murder rate 45, 46 South Korea arms sales 20 rice consumption 110 South Sudan failed state 40 polygamy 5 space elevators 183–4 spaghetti 31 Spain forests 145 gay and lesbian rights 73 job tenure 130 spam e-mail 189–90 sperm banks 61–2 sport football clubs 211–12 football transfers 203–4 grunting in tennis 197–8 Sri Lanka 118 Star Wars 208 sterilisation 65–6 Strasbourg 26 submarine cables 193–4 Sudan 40 suicide-bombers 15–16 summer holidays 239–40 Sutton Trust 22 Sweden Christmas music 243, 244 gay and lesbian rights 73 homophobia 70 inheritance tax 119 overpayment of taxes 51–2 sex reassignment 65 sexual harassment 67–8 Swinnen, Johan 106 Switzerland sex reassignment 65 witch-hunting 26, 27 T Taiwan dog meat 91 dragon children 56 Tamil Tigers 15 Tanzania 40 taxes death taxes 119–20 Sweden 51–2 taxis robotaxis 177–8 see also ride-hailing apps tennis players, grunting 197–8 terrorism 15–16 Texas 85 Thailand 110 Thanksgiving 241–2 think-tanks 21–2 Tianjin 143–4 toilets 155–6 Tok Pisin 219, 220 transgender people 65–6 Trump, Donald 223 Argentine lemons 95, 96 estate tax 119 and gender pay gap 115 and manufacturing jobs 131, 132 Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin 183 Turkey 151 turkeys 33 Turkmenistan 6 U Uber 128 and drink-driving 179–80 Uganda 40 Ulaanbaatar 42–3 Uljarevic, Daliborka 221 undersea cables 193–4 unemployment 169–70 Unicode 215–16 United Arab Emirates and Somaliland 41 weapons purchases 19 United Kingdom see Britain United States and Argentine lemons 95–6 arms sales 19 beer consumption 105 chess 205–6 child marriage 84–5 Christmas 246–7 Christmas music 243, 244 drink-driving 179–80 drones 187–8 end of life care 141–2 estate tax 119 fertility rates 79–80 food trucks 99–100 forests 145 gay and lesbian rights 73 getting rich 113–14 Hawaiian porn consumption 63–4 job tenure 129–30 letter names 218 lithium 17 manufacturing jobs 131–2 murder rate 45, 46 national identity 223–4 new-year resolutions 234 plague 157–8 police body cameras 191–2 polygamy 6 robotaxis 177 robots 171–2 St Patrick’s Day 235–6 sexual harassment 67, 68 sperm banks 61–2 Thanksgiving 241–2 video games and unemployment 169–70 wealth inequality 121 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) see drones V video games 169–70 Vietnam weapons purchases 19 wheat consumption 110 Virginia 85 virtual reality (VR) 181, 182 Visit from St Nicholas, A (Moore) 247 W Wang Yi 117 Warner, Jason 15 wars 5 Washington, George 242 Washington DC, food trucks 99 waste 159–60 water pollution 149–50 wealth getting rich in America 113–14 high-net-worth individuals 53 inequality 120, 121–2 weather, and Christmas music 243–5 Weinstein, Harvey 67, 69 Weryk, Rob 185 wheat consumption 109–10 genome 107–8 Wilson, Riley 79–80 wine glasses 101–2 Winslow, Edward 241 wireless technology 173–4 witch-hunting 25–7 wolves 161–2 women birth rates 79–80, 81–3 bride price 5 career and family 77–8 child marriage 84–5 housework 75–6 job tenure 129–30 life expectancy 125 pay gap 115–16 sexual harassment of 67–9 suicide-bombers 15–16 World Bank 227–8 World Health Organisation (WHO) and smoking 151–2 transsexualism 65 X Xi Jinping 117–18 Y young people crime 47–8 job tenure 129–30 video games and unemployment 169–70 Yu, Han 56–7 Yulin 91 yurts 42–3 Z Zubelli, Rita 239

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Mastering Private Equity
by Zeisberger, Claudia,Prahl, Michael,White, Bowen , Michael Prahl and Bowen White
Published 15 Jun 2017

To define the asset class properly is not as simple as looking it up in a dictionary or conducting a quick search on the internet. To do so would give you some version of private equity is capital that is invested privately. Not on a public exchange. The capital typically comes from institutional or high-net worth investors who can contribute substantially and are able to withstand an average holding period of seven years. But private equity is so much more than its literal definition. The way I would describe private equity, or PE, today is an asset class delivering market-beating investment returns that has grown college endowments and enhanced the retirement security of millions of pension beneficiaries, including teachers, firefighters, police and other public workers.

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These regulations address to whom PE funds can market and how they can make their funds known in the investor community. For the former, while rules vary from country to country, in nearly all instances the PE fund must raise capital via private placements to qualified investors only (often defined by having a minimum of investable assets or being registered as qualified individuals). Marketing to high-net worth and sophisticated investors is permitted in some jurisdictions, while any general public offering of the fund or marketing to retail investors is usually prohibited. GPs must therefore personally approach the appropriate investors and may not employ mass-communication methods to market a fund.

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The maturation of the industry has also triggered innovation on the GP front. Listed PE vehicles have offered GPs a way to reduce their dependence on, and time commitment to, the fundraising process. At the same time, listed PE provides retail investors with access to an asset class traditionally open only to institutional investors and high net-worth individuals. Segregated accounts and funds with substantially longer lifespans are other ways in which GPs are addressing specific investors’ needs. We round up the book with a comment by the authors on the past, present and future challenges of the PE industry. SECTION OVERVIEW CHAPTER 21.

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Bank 3.0: Why Banking Is No Longer Somewhere You Go but Something You Do
by Brett King
Published 26 Dec 2012

The problem for banks is that increasingly this group of de-banked customers who use non-bank value stores for power purchasing are not the poor underprivileged struggling with unemployment and with dismal credit ratings (as banks imagine they might be). Increasingly these are technology-enabled professionals, university graduates with prime credit ratings. Valuable future customers for sure, but hardly unattractive today either. You might argue that the most profitable high-net-worth customers or mortgage holders are hardly going to unhinge themselves entirely from the banking system. You’d be correct. But the problem with the unhinging of the bank account is not that you’ll lose the high-end, investment-class business. The problem is that you lose the day-to-day connection with the customer.

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For branch banking and design, different strategies need to be adopted for customers who are financially and cognitively less resourceful, and those who are wealthier, but time-poor. If you are catering for those customers who are less profitable but also less inclined to use digital channels, you have a cost burden for carrying legacy behaviour. If you are targeting mass-affluent and high-net-worth customers with $100k+ or more in ready cash to invest, the very nature of their busy lifestyles means that coming to a “space” is a luxury they can rarely afford. For many bankers this might seem counterintuitive. The dilemma then is that the most profitable customers you want to get into a branch are increasingly likely to try a direct channel first because their time is their most valuable commodity, which prevents them from seeking out a rich, face-to-face experience.

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Branches are often very high cost because of the rental/rates, but the brand exposure alone from the presence makes a certain amount of sense. So how should the institution utilise these high-cost locations effectively? The flagship stores emerging today are generally going to be a mass retail brand space, or a high-net-worth luxury service space. We hear of a myriad of “branch of the future” concepts and so forth often, but there’s no use making a branch that is chock-a-block full of technology gadgetry if you don’t send the right brand message—remember the psychology involved. You don’t make me trust your brand by shoving digital screens and coffee machines in the space, you build trust through a great, personalised experience.

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Getting a Job in Hedge Funds: An Inside Look at How Funds Hire
by Adam Zoia and Aaron Finkel
Published 8 Feb 2008

In general, the fundraiser will be responsible for raising assets from the high net worth and family office investing community. Responsibilities • Arrange for and conduct fund-raising meetings with clients and their respective investment consultants. • Provide leadership and day-to-day management of firmwide marketing initiative. • Create and/or redesign existing marketing literature. Requirements • Minimum of five years of fund-raising experience from a fund of hedge funds, hedge fund, or private client division of a large bank. • Extensive and active high-net-worth investor Rolodex. • Strong leadership and communication skills. • Strong teamwork skills. • Top-tier undergraduate degree.

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I ended up working there for about two years and left soon after the firm was bought by a major media company. Fortunately, I had stayed in contact with former colleagues from my banking program and through someone I met there was able to join the private equity group of an investment firm that managed the capital of a high net worth individual. During my time there (almost six years), I was able to work on some public market investments, which I found I enjoyed more than private equity. This firm was value focused and maintained a long-term bias with a three- to six-year time horizon. I wasn’t necessarily looking to join a hedge fund.

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The first began in a private bank where she had direct exposure to hedge funds. The second person was able to land a more senior position after working on both the buy- and sell-sides in marketing capacities. Case Study 17: A Classic Fund Marketer This person took one of the classic routes into hedge fund marketing—beginning at a private bank. By working with high-net-worth clients and researching hedge funds she set herself up perfectly to move into a hedge fund IR role. ■■■ c06.indd 81 1/10/08 11:07:14 AM 82 Getting a Job in Hedge Funds Although I was interested in finance and graduated with a degree in economics from an Ivy League school (class of 2002), I didn’t want to go into an investment banking program—the long hours were not for me.

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Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change
by Ronald Cohen
Published 1 Jul 2020

Green Bond A green bond is a traditional bond, essentially a loan made by a large number of lenders, including individuals, to a company for the purpose of funding one or more environmental projects. Green bonds are now being followed by blue (oceans), education, social and gender bonds. High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) High net worth individual (HNWI) is a classification used by the financial services industry to denote an individual or a family with assets above a certain figure. Impact Capitalism An economic system, which is driven not just by profit but by impact and profit together, so that it delivers systemic social and environmental improvement.

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Going further, Megan Starr, the global head of impact for the Carlyle Group, announced that ‘it’s no longer possible to generate high rates of return unless you invest for impact. It reflects the economic reality’.55 These firms’ impact funds are being supported by big institutional investors, as well as high-net-worth individuals and their family offices. According to the 2017 Global Family Office Report, 40 per cent of family offices were planning to increase their allocation to impact investing in the next year.56 Sara Ferrari, head of the global family office group at UBS, has said that this shift reflects the increasing influence of millennials over their families’ affairs.

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By harnessing the full potential of our assets … we can activate the power of our investments to achieve the future we all want and deserve.’64 Silicon Valley alumni Charly and Lisa Kleissner’s KL Felicitas Foundation is going all-in by dedicating its total assets of approximately $10 million to impact investing,65 and they are encouraging their peers to do the same. Under the umbrella of Toniic, a global action community of impact investors, the Kleissners co-founded the ‘100 per cent Impact Network’, a collaborative group of more than one hundred family offices, high-net worth individuals and foundations (23 per cent are family foundations, according to their 2018 report)66 who have each pledged to dedicate their portfolios to impact investment. The group has a collective $6 billion of assets, with more than $3 billion already deployed,67 and aims to create an international movement of impact investors.68 The New Kids on the Block A new crop of foundations, led by individuals who have achieved great success in business and technology, are the primary drivers of a new philanthropic model.

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Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story
by Greg Smith
Published 21 Oct 2012

That evening, I flew to Singapore, had dinner with two Goldman Sachs MDs at the Ritz Carlton buffet, and went to the Marina Bay Sands, an incredible new casino by the water with a futuristic Sky Park, Sky Bar, and infinity pool all on the roof overlooking the entire city-state. On Tuesday, I went to visit five different clients in Singapore. That evening, I flew to Dubai for a conference of Middle Eastern high-net-worth individuals—high-net-worth enough that Lloyd Blankfein also made the trip. The next morning, I flew back to London. The travel was brutal but exhilarating. It was the corrosive atmosphere in the London office that, slowly but surely, started to wear me down. My travels taught me many things. Client bases varied widely from region to region, and national characteristics often came into play, in almost stereotypical ways.

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Hedge fund: An investment fund that can undertake a wide range of strategies, including using leverage and derivatives, both going long (buying) and getting short (selling, without actually owning the asset). Because hedge funds are not highly regulated, they are only open to very large investors, such as pension funds, university endowments, and high-net-worth individuals. High-net-worth individuals: A polite term for people who are mega-rich or loaded. Hit a bid: To sell something at the price the market maker is willing to pay for it (i.e., the bid price). Hit the tape: Complete the trade; or the announcement of some news. It originates from the ticker tape that was used to transmit stock price information from 1870.

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Hedge funds are investment funds that can undertake a wide range of strategies, both going long (buying an asset with the view that it will rise in value) and getting short (selling an asset without actually owning it, betting it will go down in value). Because these funds are not highly regulated, they are open only to very large investors such as pension funds, university endowments, and high-net-worth individuals. Macro hedge funds—named for their tendency to bet on big-picture events such as movements in interest rates and currencies, as opposed to stock prices—command exceptional respect. Daffey’s client portfolio was almost like the Cowboys, the Giants, the 49ers, and the Patriots. He knew all the big guns: Tudor Investment Corporation, run by southern investing legend Paul Tudor Jones, manages more than $10 billion.

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Big Capital: Who Is London For?
by Anna Minton
Published 31 May 2017

They are clustered around Hyde and Regent Parks, and are the only areas that wealthy non-domiciled London residents would consider living in.13 The demand driving the housing market in these areas, and trickling down throughout the city and the rest of the country, is coming from a very particular market of what are known as ‘High Net Worth Individuals’ – of whom there are estimated to be in excess of 500,000 in the UK, mostly in London – and ‘Ultra High Net Worth Individuals’, who have in excess of $30 million, and billionaires. Academics call these super-rich groups ‘transnational elites’, whose wealth is invested internationally, who travel intensively and who have globally based social networks.

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Estate agents refer to these centrally located ‘super prime’ areas as the ‘golden postcodes’. They have long been wealthy places, home to monied communities from all over the world as well as the English upper classes, but in the past, like most of London, they were also mixed areas. Now even the wealthy are displaced from Kensington by multimillionaire ‘Ultra High Net Worth Individuals’, who in turn displace others from central London to suburban areas, creating a domino effect that ripples out through the city, with the consequence that average-income earners and the poor move to the periphery or out of the capital altogether, placing pressure on housing and prices around the country.

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Knight Frank’s survey of super-rich clients also asked what could change London’s position, and respondents were clear that tax and regulation were top of the list, with changes to taxation in first place, followed by changes to financial regulation. Terrorism was another factor which ranked as marginally more of a problem in New York than in London.16 THE MONACO GROUP In Kensington and Chelsea, home to around 4,900 Ultra High Net Worth Individals,17 I had arranged to meet Daniel Moylan. Moylan was formerly deputy leader of the council and a past adviser to Boris Johnson and remains a councillor of twenty-seven years’ standing. Walking down Kensington High Street on my way to meet him, I passed what used to be Ken Market, once a bohemian magnet for punks with their pink mohicans, who lolled about outside the indoor market when I was a child.

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Investing to Save the Planet: How Your Money Can Make a Difference
by Alice Ross
Published 19 Nov 2020

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, there has been a boom in wealth. The top 1 per cent have been getting richer, as low interest rates in the past decade incentivised them to invest more, while savers earned less on their money. According to the Knight Frank wealth report, the number of so-called ultra-high-net-worth individuals around the world – those with a net worth of $30m or more – rose by 6.4 per cent in 2019 to 513,200, an extra 31,000 people from the year before alone. Extreme wealth is helpful when it comes to backing new technologies, as this involves greater risk, though with the potential for greater reward.

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Some of the most innovative solutions to climate change – emission-friendly meat grown in labs; hydrogen-powered aircraft; eco-friendly air conditioners – are thought up by entrepreneurs and are still only at the start-up stage. Private companies like this depend on early-stage investors, whether venture capitalists in San Francisco, enlightened institutional investors, or high-net-worth individuals looking to back the next big thing. Some families are so wealthy that they set up family offices. These are investment companies, often with $1bn or more in assets, that have only one client: the family. Think of a billionaire and they are very likely to have their own family office: George Soros has Soros Fund Management; Google founder Sergey Brin has Bayshore Global Management; Bill Gates has Cascade Investments.

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Angel investing Angel investing is a less formalised version of venture capital, and involves individual investors giving money to a start-up. If a friend started a company and asked you to invest, you’d probably be classed as an angel investor. There are certain rules around to protect angel investors, as this is an extremely high-risk form of investment. In the UK, investors have to be classed as high-net-worth individuals – for example, by having an income of at least £100,000 a year. But most new companies, even those that have great ideas, find it hard to make a good idea profitable – or profitable on a wide scale. The rate of failure is extreme: about 90 per cent of angel investments don’t make any money at all.

Investment: A History
by Norton Reamer and Jesse Downing
Published 19 Feb 2016

These constraints include individual risk preferences, tax considerations, a need for accumulation early in life to support spending during retirement, a length of life that is limited and uncertain, and possibly the need to provide a bequest. To complicate matters further, different individuals also have different investment alternatives available to them. High-net-worth individuals, for example, have access to investment advisers and alternative investments, but those not meeting certain wealth or income thresholds typically cannot participate in certain investment structures. The plight of the individual investor is distinct from the situation confronted by an institution or a corporation.

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More New Investment Forms 257 ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS: HEDGE FUNDS, PRIVATE EQUITY, AND VENTURE CAPITAL The realm of alternative investments is vast and includes not just hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital but also commodities, real estate, and infrastructure. These investment vehicles have captured the attention of many, fueled in great part by stories of brilliant managers and stellar returns. Undoubtedly, the awe and reverence some investors have for these sophisticated vehicles derives in part from the fact that they have long been limited to high-net-worth individual investors and institutional investors, rendering them somewhat inscrutable to the public. The truth is more nuanced. Snapshot of Alternatives Alternative investments have been available to institutional and professional investors since the 1970s. While the term alternative investments generally refers to nontraditional investments in securities such as equities, bonds, property, or more esoteric assets, the term is a catch-all of sorts and can refer to investments made in hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, real estate, and other ﬁnancial contracts and derivatives.

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Difficult conditions in equities markets, combined with a more complicated and expensive listing process, produced a barrier to initial public offerings, frequently the ultimate exit of a venture deal.41 The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) was founded as an industry association in 1973, and over the next several decades the dollar amounts ﬂowing into venture capital as an alternative investment class ballooned signiﬁcantly (see ﬁgure 8.1 and table 8.2). The industry is now seen as a leading alternative investment class for institutional and high-net-worth investors looking for ways to diversify their portfolios. Venture capital is intimately tied to Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay area. This area—blessed with a conﬂuence of some of the world’s top research universities and technology companies— was a natural place for the venture capital industry to emerge and grow, given the initial near-synonymy of venture capital ﬁrms with Capital under management U.S. venture funds ($ billions), 1985– 2011 350 300 ($ billions) 250 200 150 100 50 0 ‘85‘86‘87‘88‘89‘90‘91‘92‘93‘94‘95‘96‘97‘98‘99‘00‘01‘02‘03‘04‘05‘06‘07‘08‘09 ‘10 ‘11 Year Figure 8.1 Capital Under Management U.S.

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The Gone Fishin' Portfolio: Get Wise, Get Wealthy...and Get on With Your Life
by Alexander Green
Published 15 Sep 2008

And significant saving requires a measure of fiscal discipline. 2. A high percentage of American workers are not adequately saving, which impacts the likelihood of a sound retirement. 3. Participating in a 401(k) or IRA program is a great route to savings. But you should also save at least 10% of your after-tax income. 4. Most high-net-worth individuals did not strike it rich, but, rather, had the discipline to live beneath their incomes and save the difference between their net income and expenses. 5. Finding that perfect balance between saving and spending is key to living happily now and in retirement. 6. Saving generally means prioritizing financial freedom over high living.

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So don’t let your full-service broker give you a low whistle and a shake of the head. Listen to those with a more independent frame of mind.• Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson has said, “It is not easy to get rich in Las Vegas, at Churchill Downs, or at the local Merrill Lynch office.” • Investment commentator Ben Stein writes, “Are you by chance a ‘high-net-worth’ individual? That special handling everyone is giving you is merely the anesthetic that precedes the surgical removal of your wallet.” • In What Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know, Larry Swedroe says, “Wall Street does not have the best interests of investors at heart. Wall Street wants to keep individual investors in the dark about both the academic evidence on how markets really work and the dismal track record of the vast majority of active managers

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” • Author Michael Lewis wrote in the December 2007 issue of Condé Nast Portfolio,“Wall Street, with its army of brokers, analysts, and advisers funneling trillions of dollars into mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity funds, is an elaborate fraud.” • Author and investment advisor Phil DeMuth writes on his Web site (www.phildemuth.com/) “Sadly, the high-net-worth individual is often treated as little more than a cow hooked up to Wall Street’s milking machine.” • Not to be outdone, William Bernstein writes in The Four Pillars of Investing, “The stockbroker services his clients in the same way that Bonnie and Clyde serviced banks.” You may find some of these judgments harsh.

Commodity Trading Advisors: Risk, Performance Analysis, and Selection
by Greg N. Gregoriou , Vassilios Karavas , François-Serge Lhabitant and Fabrice Douglas Rouah
Published 23 Sep 2004

Although some chapters are technical in nature, we have asked the contributors of those chapters to emphasize the impact of their analytical results on managed futures investing, rather than to focus on technical topics. We, therefore, believe this book can serve as a guide for institutional investors, pension funds managers, endowment funds, and high-net-worth individuals wanting to add CTAs to traditional stock and bond portfolios. T ix Acknowledgments T he editors would like to thank Richard E. Oberuc Sr. of Laporte Asset Allocation System (www.laportesoft.com) and Sol Waksman of the Barclay Trading Group, Ltd. (www.barclaygrp.com) for providing data and software.

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However, with a proper choice of risk factors, a significant proportion of CTA returns can be explained and the abnormal performance of each strategy can be assessed properly. Performance 3 Chapter 7 applies the basic, cross-evaluation, and superefficiency DEA models to evaluate the performance of CTA classifications. With the everincreasing number of CTAs, there is an urgency to provide money managers, pension funds, and high-net-worth individuals with a trustworthy appraisal method for ranking CTA efficiency. Data envelopment analysis can achieve this, with the important benefit that benchmarks are not required, thereby alleviating the problem of using traditional benchmarks to examine nonnormal returns. CHAPTER 1 Managed Futures and Hedge Funds: A Match Made in Heaven Harry M.

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CHAPTER 2 Benchmarking the Performance of CTAs Lionel Martellini and Mathieu Vaissié he bursting of the Internet bubble in March 2000 plunged traditional market indices (stocks, bonds, etc.) into deep turmoil, leaving most institutional investors with the impression that portfolio diversification tends to fail at the exact moment that investors have a need for it, namely in periods when the markets drop significantly.1 At the same time, most alternative investments (e.g., hedge funds, CTAs, real estate, etc.) posted attractive returns. They benefited from large capital inflows from high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) and institutional investors, who were both looking for investment vehicles that would improve the diversification of their portfolios. At the same time, many recent academic and practitioner studies have documented the benefits of investing in alternative investments in general, and hedge funds in particular (see Amenc, Martellini, and Vaissié 2003; Amin and Kat 2002, 2003b; Anjilvel Boudreau, Urias, and Peskin 2000; Brooks and Kat 2002; Cerrahoglu and Pancholi 2003; Daglioglu and Gupta 2003a; Schneeweis, Karavas, and Georgiev 2003).

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The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class?and What We Can Do About It
by Richard Florida
Published 9 May 2016

Figure 3.2 charts the global locations of a wider pool of wealthy people, so-called ultra-high net worth individuals with $30 million or more in assets. Across the world, there are 173,000 of these multimillionaires—a 0.002 percent slice of the global population that controls a total of roughly $20 trillion in wealth.12 On this metric, London comes out on top, with 4,364 of these ultra-rich. Tokyo is second, followed by Singapore, with New York in fourth place and Hong Kong in fifth. Figure 3.2: Locations of Ultra-High Net Worth Households Note: Households $30 million or more in assets. Source: Martin Prosperity Institute, based on data from Knight Frank, The Wealth Report—2015, www.knightfrank.com/research/the-wealth-report-2015-2716.aspx.

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Although rarely occupied trophy apartments and lights-out buildings certainly make certain neighborhoods less vibrant, there are simply not enough super-rich people to deaden an entire city or even significant parts of it. New York City, after all, has more than 8 million inhabitants and some 3 million housing units, and its 116 billionaires and 3,000 or so ultra-high net worth multimillionaires wouldn’t fill half the seats in Radio City Music Hall. The global real estate buying spree that occurred in the wake of the 2008 economic and financial crisis had abated somewhat by 2016, as the world’s emerging economies—and especially the oil-rich nations—came on harder times themselves and their currencies lost ground, and the United States has cracked down on foreign real estate transactions, some of which amount to money laundering.

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middle class and, 63 myths of, 12, 58 negative consequences of, 72–75 in New Urban Crisis, 59 in New York City, 57–58, 61–62, 64, 66–72, 68 (fig.), 70 (fig.), 71 (table), 74–77 people displaced by, 65, 72–75 in Philadelphia, 73–75 plutocratization, 6, 39 poverty and, 56, 59, 72–75, 77–78 race and, 63, 65, 75–78 in San Francisco, 48, 60–61, 63–64, 67, 68 (fig.), 74 suburbanization following, 67 in superstar cities, 67–72, 68 (fig.), 70 (fig.), 71 (table), 74–75, 78 transit influencing, 65–66, 72 urban policy for, 78 in Washington, DC, 59–60, 67 working class and, 56 George, Henry, 194 Gilbert, Dan, 141 Glass, Ruth, 59 Global Metro Monitor, 171, 176 global super-rich billionaires, 40–41, 40 (fig.) in cities, 38–42, 40 (fig.), 41 (fig.) ultra-high net worth households, 41–42, 41 (fig.) global urban policy, 210–211 global urbanization crisis Africa and, 169, 172, 182 bottom-up approach to, 179–180 China and, 169–170, 178–179 connectivity and, 181–183 economic data missing in, 170–171 economic output and, 170–172, 174 future of, 215 gentrification in, 4 inequality in, 4, 175 Integration Segment on Sustainable Urbanization and, 167–168 mega-slums in, 172–174 poverty in, 168–169, 172–173, 177–181 solutions to, 11, 179–184, 210–211 sprawl in, 181 transit and, 182 urban productivity in, 175–177, 177 (fig.)

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The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism Is the World Economy's Only Hope
by John A. Allison
Published 20 Sep 2012

By the way, I learned an interesting lesson about the fundamental difference between institutional shareholders and high-net-worth individual shareholders through this process. Unfortunately, many institutional shareholders are short-term-oriented and care little about principles. Their incentive systems drive them toward short-term investment. The worst institutional shareholders are state pension plans (especially CalPERS), which confuse the political correct notion of the day with meaningful principled action. The best shareholders are older high-net-worth individuals who have earned their money by running an operating business. They have a longer-term perspective, appreciate the role of principles, and have business wisdom.

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They have a longer-term perspective, appreciate the role of principles, and have business wisdom. If you manage a business, attract all the self-made, high-net-worth individual shareholders you can. 10 How Freddie and Fannie Grew to Dominate the Home Mortgage Lending Business AN INTERESTING QUESTION IS, HOW DID FREDDIE AND FANNIE come to dominate the home mortgage lending business? This government control of house finance is relatively recent and highly unusual. The U. S. home lending market is one of the most statist markets in the world, far more so than markets in western European semi-socialist economies.

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This sale set a precedent for a new lower commercial real estate valuation in this relatively small market. The three partners all filed personal bankruptcy. (I assume the Obama administration is now worried about them, as they are truly low income and will be so for years.) If BB&T could have worked with this high-net-worth borrower under our traditional program, our loan would ultimately have been paid in full, and the secondary negative consequences would not have occurred. Frankly, the regulators do not care about this type of issue. They have their rules, some less harmful than others, but they individually and the regulatory system as a process are unable to use judgment regardless of the destructive consequences of their actions.

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MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom
by Tony Robbins
Published 18 Nov 2014

Sure, this dollar-doubling, dollar-draining scenario is based on returns you’ll never see in the real world—but it illustrates what can happen when we neglect to consider the impact of taxes in our financial planning. Given the way things are going in Washington, do you think taxes are going to be higher or lower in the coming years? (You don’t even have to answer that one!) In section 5, I’m going to give you the “in” that until now was available only to sophisticated investors or ultra-high-net-worth individuals. I’m going to show you what the smartest investors already do—how to take taxes out of the equation, using what the New York Times calls “the insider’s secret for the affluent.” It’s an IRS-approved method to grow your money tax free, and you don’t have to be rich or famous to take advantage of it.

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As of February 2014, the S&P 500 is up 43.8%, while the five hedge funds are up 12.5%. There are still a few years left, but the lead looks like the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, running against a pack of Boy Scouts. (Note: for those unfamiliar with what a hedge fund is, it is essentially a private “closed-door” fund for only high-net-worth investors. The managers can have total flexibility to bet “for” the market and make money when it goes up, or “against” the market, and make money when it goes down.) THE FACTS ARE THE FACTS ARE THE FACTS Industry expert Robert Arnott, founder of Research Affiliates, spent two decades studying the top 200 actively managed mutual funds that had at least $100 million under management.

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You don’t get to capture or participate in all of the gains. Most are in disbelief when I explain that there are tools out there that can guarantee that you don’t lose while still giving you the ability to participate in market “wins.” Why haven’t you heard of them? Because they are typically reserved for high-net-worth clients. I will show you one of the only places where the average investor can access these. Imagine your friends with their baffled and even suspicious looks when you tell them you make money when the market goes up but don’t lose money when it goes down. This strategy alone can completely change the way you feel about investing.

pages: 481 words: 120,693

Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else
by Chrystia Freeland
Published 11 Oct 2012

In its 2011 edition, Credit Suisse noted the difference between the world’s rising middle class, which remains rooted in and defined by nationality, and the increasingly shared and global character of people at the very top: The base of the wealth pyramid is occupied by people from all countries of the world at various stages of their life-cycles; in contrast, HNW [high net worth, defined as people with an investable income of between $1 million and $50 million] and UHNW [ultra high net worth, defined as people with an investable income of at least $50 million] individuals are heavily concentrated in particular regions and countries, sharing a much more similar lifestyle. Even members at other locations tend to participate in the same global markets for high coupon consumption items.

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In the course of those years, the top 25 percent of this group became 4.3 times wealthier, while the bottom 75 percent of them got “only” 2.1 times richer. In 2011, in its annual report on the world’s rich, Credit Suisse, the international investment bank, noted that the number of super-rich—whom it delicately dubs “ultra high net worth individuals,” or UHNWIs, with assets above $50 million—surged: “Although comparable data on the past are sparse, it is almost certain that the number of UHNW individuals is considerably greater than a decade ago. The general growth in asset values accounts for some of the increase, along with the appreciation of other currencies against the U.S. dollar.

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This nascent split between probusiness, promoney Americans of the bottom of the 1 percent and the 0.1 percent is in many ways more potentially incendiary than the antiestablishment idealism of Occupy Wall Street. We always knew the left was suspicious of high finance. What is surprising is that Wall Street’s yeomen have become suspicious of their bosses. Here’s how Joshua Brown, a New York–based investment adviser to high-net-worth individuals, charitable foundations, and retirement plans responded to complaints by a number of Wall Street chiefs that they are being unjustly vilified in America today. Brown’s tirade, which he posted on his blog, The Reformed Broker, quickly went viral: “Not only do we not ‘hate the rich’ as you and other em-bubbled plutocrats have postulated, in point of fact, we love them,” Brown wrote.

pages: 466 words: 116,165

American Kleptocracy: How the U.S. Created the World's Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History
by Casey Michel
Published 23 Nov 2021

It didn’t take long to outline just how Citibank had actively aided and abetted Salinas’s sprawling money laundering network.31 As Levin and his team uncovered, Salinas had relied heavily on one Citibank banker in particular, named Amy Elliott. Elliott helped steer Citibank’s “private banking” arm—a department that specifically catered to high-net-worth individuals, no matter the source of their income. Elliott opened up myriad Citibank bank accounts for Salinas’s operations, in New York and Switzerland alike. Whenever Salinas or his wife presented cashier’s checks from other Mexican banks to Citibank’s Mexico City branch, the local branch manager would promptly wire the funds to New York—where Elliott would then take the reins, funneling the funds on to Switzerland or London for Salinas’s use.

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Everything about the family’s corruption is blindingly obvious. Riggs couldn’t simply plead ignorance. But for most American bankers dealing with kleptocrats—for most middle managers, for most tellers, even for most executives—things would never be quite so obvious. Other kleptocratic figures simply blended in with the rest of the high-net-worth clients they were servicing. They could slip their dirty money in with the tides of legitimate finance continually flowing into the country. Differentiating the two was all too often above the pay grade of a banker dealing with dozens of clients per week—difficult to parse, even on the best of days.

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Baddin would later claim there were “no red flags” obvious to him.21 As Baddin would tell Senate investigators years later, the real estate agent “had no legal obligation to [inquire about Teodorin’s finances,] and such questions made most clients uncomfortable.”22 And he was right. As with the banks before them, for real estate firms, kleptocrats and other high-net-worth clients could appear little different on paper. Dirty money entered the slipstream of capital flowing into American real estate, often looking indistinguishable from other finances tied to celebrities, to media moguls, to billionaires achieving their American dreams. Real estate agents, thanks to the Patriot Act exemption, were under no compunction to check under the hood of the finances—to see if they could track down where it came from, and whether their client was actually a kleptocrat searching out their own American dream.

Termites of the State: Why Complexity Leads to Inequality
by Vito Tanzi
Published 28 Dec 2017

The explicit, visible redistributive role of the state in recent decades, which is promoted with progressive taxes and with redistributive social spending, and which attracts much of the attention of commentators, has led conservatives to challenge it on the ground that, in State and Distribution of Income 201 a market economy, the results of the market have ethical justification and should not be changed by the government. In recent years the globalization of economic activities, and the growing mobility of financial capital and of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), has given these economists other arguments in favor of calls for reducing marginal tax rates, especially on incomes from capital sources, the incomes that are of greater importance to high-income individuals. As a consequence of these arguments, the marginal tax rates were significantly reduced in recent decades, contributing to widening income disparity (see Tanzi, 2014c).

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Complexities in tax systems can also be exploited by individuals who have high incomes and can get advice from good tax lawyers and accountants. These experts can navigate the complex laws and can find opportunities for their clients that complex tax systems often offer for “tax planning.” These high-income individuals, or high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), find it easier than average workers to restructure the incomes that they receive to take advantage of lower rates on some income sources or in other countries. Tax planning has become increasingly important in recent decades. It involves showing more incomes in low-tax countries or in lower-tax-rate income sources.

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The Last Three Decades of the Twentieth Century During the last three decades of the twentieth century, the importance of services in advanced economies grew, economies opened up to trade with other countries, and their structures changed rapidly. Multicountry activities by both multinational enterprises and increasingly individuals with high net worths or individuals with particular skills became common. A global financial market was created, new communication technologies appeared, and their use and influence spread rapidly and influenced more and more the economic activities. Internet shopping appeared and grew in importance, and together with new technologies started creating increasing 386 Termites of the State challenges for many traditional jobs and activities.

pages: 202 words: 72,857

The Wealth Dragon Way: The Why, the When and the How to Become Infinitely Wealthy
by John Lee
Published 13 Apr 2015

Bill Gates is rich because he has so many assets. One of his assets just happens to be a company called Microsoft, which, according to a January 2014 report in Forbes, has a market capitalization value of $200 billion! The term high net worth has been creeping into the popular vernacular in recent years. People seem more inclined to refer to themselves as being high net-worth people, or high net-worth families, rather than as rich people or rich families. This is related to the fact (as we described at the beginning of this book) that wealth has less to do with money in the bank and more to do with a favourable balance of assets against liabilities.

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See also Investors; Loans Flipping Forbes Ford, Henry Foreign currency market Forex Framestore Franchises Friends, negativity as roadblock to success Frost, Robert Frugality Fuller, Thomas Gambling Gates, Bill Generosity financial abundance and of rich people undesirable truths about Wealth Dragon principle Germany, economic success based on past failures Get-rich-quick schemes Gibran, Khalil Gladwell, Malcolm Goals Goals to Gold: Trading the Football Pitch for the Financial Markets (Sandford) Golden rules of property investing Great Britain dragon folklore economic success frugality in higher education in laziness in lottery Greed Gretzky, Wayne Hamlet (Shakespeare) Happiness Hard work fear of get-rich-quick schemes vs wealth and Wealth Dragon principle Harford, Tim Harry Potter series Hawking, Stephen Higher education High net-worth people Hill, Napoleon Holland, lease option legalization Home equity Hourly wage calculation How to Get Rich (Dennis) Hsieh, Tony Humiliation Individual voluntary agreements (IVAs) Infinite wealth, path to Information gathering Intangible assets Investments control over financial planner cautions in securities vs. property strategy for See also Property investment Investors finding structuring deals with types of Isaacson, Walter Jeffers, Susan Jobs, Steve Jordan, Michael Kiyosaki, Robert Kutcher, Ashton Lake District property deal Law of attraction Laziness Leads Learning curve Lease options Lee, Bruce Lee, John abundance vs. scarcity thinking Bruce Lee influence education family background and childhood financial abundance financial planners learning curve more money mindset negative people personal crisis philanthropy property investment beginnings property investment deal making tips property investment experiences property investment marketing tactics rat race trap relationship with Vincent Wong spending money taking action Wealth Dragon origins working smarter Legal work Lewis, C.

pages: 345 words: 75,660

Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
by Ajay Agrawal , Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb
Published 16 Apr 2018

If the customer dissatisfaction cost is less than $180, it makes sense to decline the transaction (10 percent of $180 is $18, the same as 90 percent of $20). For many customers, being declined for a single transaction does not lead to the equivalent of $180 in dissatisfaction. A credit card network also must assess whether that is likely to be the case for a particular customer. For example, a high-net-worth platinum cardholder may have other credit card options and might stop using that particular card if declined. And that person may be on an expensive vacation, so the card network could lose all of the expenditures associated with that trip. Credit card fraud is a well-defined decision process, which is one reason we keep coming back to it, yet it’s still complicated.

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By contrast, for many other decisions, not only are the potential actions more complex (not just a simple accept or decline), but the potential situations (or states) also vary. Judgment requires an understanding of the reward for each pair of actions and situations. Our credit card example had just four outcomes (or eight if you distinguish between high-net-worth customers and everyone else). But if you had, say, ten actions and twenty possible situations, then you’re judging two hundred outcomes. As things get even more complicated, the number of rewards can become overwhelming. The Cognitive Costs of Judgment People who have studied decisions in the past have generally taken rewards as givens—they simply exist.

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Thinking through what you really want to achieve or what the costs of customer dissatisfaction might be takes time spent thinking, reflecting, and perhaps asking others for advice. Or it may be the time spent researching to better understand payoffs. For credit card fraud detection, thinking through the payoffs of satisfied and unsatisfied customers and the cost of allowing a fraudulent transaction to proceed are necessary first steps. Providing different payoffs for high-net-worth customers requires more thought. Assessing whether those payoffs change when those customers are on vacation requires even more consideration. And what about regular customers when they are on vacation? Are the payoffs in that situation different? And is it worth separating work travel from vacation?

pages: 183 words: 51,514

Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration
by Buzz Aldrin and Leonard David
Published 1 Apr 2013

Their analysis indicates that about 8,000 high-net-worth individuals (with net worth exceeding $5 million) from across the globe are sufficiently interested and have spending patterns likely to result in the purchase of a suborbital flight at current prices. Roughly one-third of these consumers are from the United States. About 925 individuals currently have reservations on SRVs, the report says. Tauri’s study estimates that about 40 percent of the interested, high-net-worth population—3,600 individuals—will fly within the ten-year forecast period. Also, space enthusiasts outside the high-net-worth population are expected to generate modest additional demand (about 5 percent more).

Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage
by Roger L. Martin
Published 15 Feb 2009

The result was a boon for the consulting industry, as the big banks tried to integrate the structure and culture of their new brokerage arms. One such bank asked me to develop a strategy for its high-net-worth customers. Previously, the bank had been limited to providing these customers with checking accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, mortgages, and traditional retail banking products. Now that it could offer brokerage services to these same customers, the bank wanted an integrated strategy for serving this lucrative segment. When they thought about the bank’s high-net-worth customers, the bank executives visualized customers who looked a lot like themselves: corporate execs, lawyers, and partners at the biggest professional service firms.

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As my team and I dug into the data, it became clear to us that this group, though undeniably affluent, were not a desirable set of customers. They selected a limited and quite vanilla-flavored suite of services, and they were picky, demanding, and price sensitive. But there was another group of high-net-worth individuals who were underserved and seemed willing to pay for a broader array of services. They were entrepreneurs and partners from small legal and accounting firms, often living and working in the suburbs that ringed Canada’s larger cities. These folks had a much more complex set of needs and refused to observe any dividing line between their personal and business finances.

pages: 335 words: 94,657

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
by Taylor Larimore , Michael Leboeuf and Mel Lindauer
Published 1 Jan 2006

The purpose of the study was to determine what factors influence the accumulation of wealth. As you might suspect, Venti and Wise found some households with high lifetime earnings and relatively low net worth at retirement. Conversely, they also found households with modest lifetime earnings and relatively high net worth at retirement. Their next step was to determine why some people accumulated more wealth than others. Was it because some people enjoyed better health? Were some people smarter or luckier in their choice of investments? Was it due to receiving large inheritances? The economists concluded from their research that none of these factors had a significant impact on wealth at retirement.

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Stevens wrote that article, nursing home costs have risen substantially. In some parts of the country, average nursing home costs are approaching $100,000 per year and will surely continue to rise in the future. Long-term care isn't for everyone. Two groups of people will never need it-those with very high net worth and those with little or no net worth. Those with multi-million dollar portfolios can probably self-insure and pay for long-term care out of pocket. Those with little or no savings qualify for Medicaid, which means the government will pay for your nursing home care. Medicaid is the nursing-home equivalent of welfare, which means you won't likely get the best of care, but you won't be paying for it, either.

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Because of the sunset provision written into the current estate tax law, in 2011 the exemption limits and tax rates will revert back to the lower equivalent exemption and higher tax rates that were in effect in 2002, unless Congress acts to extend repeal or make it permanent. Due to these changing estate tax laws, high-net-worth individuals who would be subject to the estate tax may want to think about stipulating in their advance healthcare directive that, should they be on life support and declared by doctors to be in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery late in the year 2009, they wish to be kept alive until the very beginning of 2010 before the life-support machines are disconnected.

pages: 218 words: 62,889

Sabotage: The Financial System's Nasty Business
by Anastasia Nesvetailova and Ronen Palan
Published 28 Jan 2020

Telephone preference rules are ignored – the practice breaches data protection but we are told it’s an acceptable risk and they will just pay the fine if they get caught.’19 Maybe this helps explain why, despite its official commitment since 2014 to become the ‘most trusted’ bank in the country, RBS remains the ‘least popular’ bank in the UK.20 In the summer of 2018, after a four-year investigation, the UK Financial Conduct Authority concluded that it could not take any action against RBS over GRG because commercial lending was unregulated.21 5 ‘OUR PEOPLE ARE OUR GREATEST ASSET’ Goldman’s Abacus For a giant like RBS operating in an unregulated area, it was easy to gain profits by sabotaging small businesses and retail clients. But what if you are a more sophisticated institution? Why restrict yourself to individual borrowers? Let us take Goldman Sachs, a premier member of the world’s banking elite which has a reputation for scale and foresight. A friend of ours who happens to be a high-net-worth individual had assets and estate managed by Goldman for some time. After one of her conversations with us about the nature of business in finance she decided to ask her personal bank manager at Goldman to explain what specifically she was being charged for. The manager remained evasive and repeatedly refused to explain the structure of the fees.

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It was well after 2009 that Wells Fargo made up over one and a half million fake clients and moved some of real clients’ money into fictional accounts. It is well after 2009 that wealth managers trick their special clients into hidden fee structures and unneeded products. And even if you are not particularly sympathetic towards the plight of high-net-worth individuals, consider millions of customers of new lending platforms, including in the fintech sector, that promise astronomical returns to their investors, only for the new crypto managers to melt into the ether of the Internet, together with the invested funds. It must tell us something that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created in 2010 in the US as part of the post-crisis reform, was the most difficult measure to pursue politically.

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We saw our task in this book as that of translators, interpreting the good work that has been and is being done by academics and the professional media investigating the dynamics of the financial sector. We spoke with people in finance, especially those able to take a broader, systemic view of the industry. We also talked to academics and customers of the financial sector, including a few high-net-worth individuals. We have learned a lot. We then decided to look back at the history of the regulation of the financial industry, starting with the Pecora Report. We came across an intriguing dialogue that took place in 1934 between Senator Ferdinand Pecora and a certain Mr Whitney, during the investigation into a range of manipulative devices used by financiers in the run-up to the 1929 crash and subsequent depression: Pecora: ‘And by a free and open market you do not mean a controlled market, do you?’

pages: 192 words: 72,822

Freedom Without Borders
by Hoyt L. Barber
Published 23 Feb 2012

Their services may vary, but the following services can be found: managed investment accounts offering excellent returns; precious metals trading accounts and physical bullion storage; investment banking, some specializing in areas like natural resource companies; investment brokerage accounts, in such areas as market access to stock, options, futures, forex, commodities, bonds, and precious metals in markets worldwide; and asset management and financial services to high-net-worth individuals, families, corporations, and trusts. Typically, and in compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) rules required by most financial institutions worldwide in compliance with money-laundering regulations, certain personal identity documents, also known as due diligence documents (DDDs), are required.

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Switzerland has had a lot to offer foreign investors in the form of sophisticated banking, with a wide array of banking services, financial accounts, investment knowledge, and personalized service. Switzerland’s financial community has attracted approximately one-quarter to one-third of the world’s private assets as a result of its banking and investment expertise. Today, its main focus is investment management of high-net-worth individuals from around the world, the crème de la crème of the banking world. Other countries, such as Singapore, are competing with Switzerland for the same business and have had some success; by doing so, they help to keep capital within their own region, and certainly under their control.

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Website: www. juliusbaer.com. Swiss personal portfolio management. Minimum opening portfolio $500,000. Richard Colombik, International Tax Associates, 1111 Plaza Drive, Suite 430, Schaumburg, IL 60173. Telephone (847) 619-5700. Fax (847) 619-0971. E-mail: rcolom bik@colombik.com. Asset management for high net worth individuals. Unique offshore insurance strategies. Neil J. George, Jr., Leeb Brokerage Services, 500 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3120, New York, NY 10110. Telephone (212) 246-3696. E-mail: njgeorge@leeb.net. Global markets. Adrian Hartmann/Mr. Robert Vrijhof, Weber Hartmann Vrijhof and Partners Ltd., Zurichatrasse 110B, CH-8134 Adilswil, Switzerland.

pages: 249 words: 66,383

House of Debt: How They (And You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It From Happening Again
by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi
Published 11 May 2014

Savers give money to the bank either as deposits, debt, or equity, and are therefore the ultimate owners of the mortgage bank. When we say that the mortgage lender has the senior claim on the home, what we really mean is that savers in the economy have the senior claim on the home. Savers, who have high net worth, are protected against house-price declines much more than borrowers. Now let’s take a step back and consider the entire economy of borrowers and savers. When house prices in the aggregate collapse by 20 percent, the losses are concentrated on the borrowers in the economy. Given that borrowers already had low net worth before the crash (which is why they needed to borrow), the concentration of losses on them devastates their financial condition.

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The borrower has the junior claim on the home and therefore experiences the first losses associated with any decline in house prices. Borrowers tend to be households that have low net worth, which is exactly the reason they have to borrow to buy a home. Savers tend to be households that have high net worth. In the model, the savers lend directly to the borrowers, which is equivalent to saying the rich lend to the poor. In reality, of course, the savers put their money into a bank, a money-market fund, or direct holdings of financial assets such as stocks. That money finds its way into mortgages for the borrower.

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The decline in non-tradable jobs catering to local demand was much larger in indebted counties experiencing the biggest drop in household net worth. But the decline in tradable jobs catering to national demand was widespread across the country. Figure 5.1 plots the pattern graphically. Just as in chapter 3, high net-worth-decline counties are the 20 percent of counties that experienced the largest drop in housing net worth during the recession, and low net-worth-decline counties are the 20 percent with the smallest drop. As the left panel illustrates, the drop in non-tradable jobs was much larger in counties getting hammered by the housing shock.

pages: 404 words: 106,233

Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World
by Brett Chistophers
Published 25 Apr 2023

To raise funds for Progress Residential, its housing investment vehicle, Pretium had approached, among others, high-net-worth individuals – ‘people wealthy enough to put up at least $2 million’. The reporters found that two particular individuals who committed funds for this venture, for example, were Vikrant Bhargava, who made his fortune in online gambling, and, via a Cayman Islands trust, Stephen Bronfman, the Canadian heir to the Seagram spirits dynasty.21 Meanwhile, alongside high-net-worth individuals, the three other most important categories of investor in real-asset funds (aside from pension schemes) are all institutional actors.

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In the event, demand from clients exceeded expectations, and when the fund was closed to new investors in December 2019 some $22 billion had been committed to it, making it the largest infrastructure fund ever raised.2 In total, 240 external investors from around the world put money into GIP IV, including public and private pension plans (the New York State Common Retirement Fund committed $500 million, for example, in one of the largest single investments), sovereign wealth funds, and insurance companies. Approximately 70 per cent of these external investors were existing GIP clients, having invested in previous GIP funds. Although high-net-worth individuals and family offices sometimes feature among investors in real-asset funds, the vast bulk of investors, as in the case of GIP IV, are always institutional, and are typically led by pension plans. There is nothing mysterious about this: investing in such funds requires not just large amounts of capital but a willingness to commit it for several years, and pension plans are the world’s largest custodians of capital meeting these two criteria.

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See fiscal extractivism Factiva, 97, 263, 264 Fairbairn, Madeleine, 121, 122 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, 103, 268 Farmer, Stephanie, 175, 178, 179, 180 farmland, 120–3, 168 asset managers, 111, 122, 183, 196, 288 Australia, 111, 158 Brazil, 154, 158 Brookfield, 154, 278 climate crisis, 265 Eastern Europe, 111, 122 financial crisis, 121, 122, 123, 261 financialisation of, 183, 214 Global South, 111, 154 investment in, 123 Latin America, 154 Mexico, 154 Nuveen, 111 Peru, 154 rent, 125 Russia, 122 UK, 74, 88, 121 Ukraine, 122 fibre-optic networks, 37, 128, 129, 204 Fidere Patrimonio, 50, 245, 247 Fifteen Group, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 84, 166 financial crisis (2007–9), 82, 103, 121, 145, 222, 267, 269 asset management, 12, 102, 109, 132, 265 banks, 11, 245, 254 central banks, 96 farmland, 121, 122, 123, 261 food price, 121–2 foreclosure crisis, 2 Germany, 68 post–financial crisis, 94–104, 106, 113, 118, 123, 132, 144, 145, 149, 182, 198, 204, 245, 250, 253, 261, 268, 286, 290 private equity, 11 rents, 2, 4, 118 Terra Firma, 85 financial engineering, 59–66 financialisation, 166, 180–5 farmland, 183, 214 housing, 214, 283–4 Financial Times (newspaper), 101, 152, 206, 246, 252, 253, 288, 293 Fink, Larry, 99, 282, 284–5, 294 fiscal capacity, 105, 177 fiscal extractivism, 239–50 fiscal mutualism, 239–50 Flatt, Bruce, v, 211, 220, 293, 295 Florida, 33, 200 Ford, Jonathan, 206, 207, 208, 209, 243, 294, 295 foreclosures, 2, 102, 103, 145, 270, 283–4 fossil fuels, 125, 265 asset managers, 123, 124, 261 BlackRock, 282 Brookfield, 154 climate change, 265, 275, 276, 278 electricity, 125 plants, 101, 102 replacement of, 265, 276, 277 fractional ownership, 40, 41, 42 France Amundi, 30, 30 Tab. 1.1, 31, 143 APRR, 86 asset-manager society, 30, 147 AXA, 118, 120, 143 banks, 286 housing, 117, 120, 143, 145, 264 infrastructure, 86, 139 Meridiam Infrastructure, 110, 187 toll-road concessions, 127 Franklin Templeton, 30 Tab. 1.1, 135 Gabor, Daniela, 107, 142, 145, 173, 184, 258, 261–2 Germany, 117, 137, 139, 144, 145, 146, 149, 264, 272, 273, 286 AIF Capital, 24, 25, 28 Allianz, 30 Tab. 1.1, 32, 42, 45, 50, 87, 131, 143, 192 AviaRent Invest, 135 BayWa, 51 Blackstone, 67–9, 149 Deutsche Annington Immobilien GmbH, 85 East Germany, 67 E.ON, 59 RWE AG, 87, 131 Thames Water, 87, 131 Vonovia, 57, 146, 184, 205 Ghana, 173 Global Infrastructure Investor Association (GIIA), 164–5, 213, 215, 216, 227, 230 Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), 18, 24–6, 27, 30 Tab. 1.1, 31, 35, 44, 55, 102, 110, 122, 148 Global North, 8, 94, 96, 100, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 112, 125, 229, 239 climate change, 279, 284 Covid-19, 253, 255, 258, 259, 260, 261, 270 Global South, 8, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 125, 262, 284 climate change, 279, 284 Covid-19, 259, 261 Goldman Sachs, 30 Tab. 1.1, 32, 83, 144, 193 government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), 103, 268 Graham, Stephen, 166–7, 168, 169, 177 Great Depression, 278–9, 284 Greencoat Capital, 51–2 greenfield assets, 13, 35, 91, 140 Green New Deal (GND), 255, 279–84 Greystar Investment Management, 24, 25, 27, 30 Tab. 1.1, 33–4, 117, 118, 144, 199, 289 Grosvenor Group, 30 Tab. 1.1, 33, 34 G20 countries, 107, 123, 125, 277 Gupta, Atul, 201, 202 Haigh, Gideon, 62, 77–8 Haldane, Andrew, 12–13 Hands, Guy, 59, 85 HarbourVest Partners, 24, 25, 27 Harris, Kamala, 283 Harris, Lee, 256–7 Harrison Street, 18, 135 Harvey, David, 73, 168, 169, 173 Hastings Fund Management, 76, 78 Hawaii, 129 Hembla, 205, 206 high-net-worth individuals, 25, 212, 231, 232 hospitals, 7, 19, 116, 132, 134, 158, 197, 201n77 Calderdale Royal Hospital, 194 cleaning, 197 New Deal, 279 New Karolinska Solna hospital, 242–3, 244, 247, 248 PFI, 92, 93, 171, 203 PPP, 52, 242 Swedish Hospital Partners (SHP), 242–3, 244, 247, 248 housing affordable housing, 227, 251, 274–5 asset managers, 7, 8, 9, 17, 18, 30, 31, 36, 40, 67–8, 71, 83, 88, 94–5, 115, 116, 119–20, 286, 291, 293, 295, 296 asset-manager society, 163–4, 165–6, 178, 180, 182, 184, 213, 231 Australia, 154 Big Three universal owners, 16 Blackstone, 50, 83, 84, 95, 113–14, 116, 144, 148–51, 166, 198, 201, 204, 285 Brazil, 227 Brookfield, 152–5 closed-end funds, 190, 194, 198, 203, 204, 206 Colony Capital, 84 crisis, 121, 145, 250, 251, 252, 254, 263–84 debt, 64–5, 243 degraded housing, 113 Europe, 85, 142, 146 financialisation of, 214, 283 fixed-term assets, 189 foreclosure, 121, 283–4 geography, of asset investments, 142–7 geography, of asset managers, 136 Germany, 85, 143, 146 Global South, 112 Greystar, 24, 25 Hembla, 205 inflation, 288, 289, 290 interest rates, 290, 291 Invitation Homes, 63, 198 Ireland, 274 leverage, 60, 61 long-dated assets, 186, 188 Macquarie, 81, 155–9 manufactured-housing, 7, 118, 119, 144, 149, 154 mobile homes, 118 multi-family housing, 5, 7, 24, 31, 36, 74, 83, 84, 116, 117, 118, 129, 143, 144, 145, 149, 154 New York, 84 Obama administration, 284 pension funds, 117 prognosis, 287, 292 public housing, 72, 75, 256, 257, 258, 266 real assets, 14, 15, 19, 32, 44, 88, 96, 166, 191, 194, 202, 216, 217, 287–8 REITs, 244–5 rental housing, 7, 24, 44, 53, 58, 62, 69, 71–2, 73, 74, 82, 102, 125, 151, 172, 200, 294 revenue, 33 risk, 166–72 senior housing, 118, 144, 154 single-family housing, 34, 37, 38, 46, 63, 102, 103, 104, 117, 118, 120, 144, 146, 149, 154, 198, 201, 244, 268, 269, 274, 284 Spain, 145, 146, 247 student housing, 7, 18, 118, 143, 144, 145, 149, 154 Sweden, 146 Tricon Housing Partners, 30 Tab. 1.1, 33, 34 housing crisis, 121, 145, 250, 251, 252, 254, 263–84 Inderst, Georg, 76, 88, 133–4 India fossil fuels, 24, 124, 264 infrastructure, 106, 111, 141, 157, 158 Mumbai, 128, 141 renewables, 109 roads, 42, 43, 50, 127 telecommunications, 128 Visakhapatnam, 124 Indonesia, 106, 107 inequality, 34, 228 inflation, 82, 106, 180, 220, 258, 263, 286–92 rent, 74, 269, 272 risk, 82, 133 US Inflation Reduction Act, 250, 280 Infrared Capital Partners, 131, 173, 193 infrastructure gap, 97, 98, 105, 140, 263 Innisfree, 19, 43, 52–3, 92–4, 135, 193, 239, 242, 243, 244, 247, 248 INREV, 94, 120 insurance companies, 6, 25, 26, 32, 54, 68, 70, 71, 79, 142, 224–5, 228, 233, 235, 293 interest rates, 11, 12, 63, 96, 121, 170, 242, 243, 244, 253, 254, 259, 266, 286, 287, 290, 291, 294 internal rate of return (IRR), 61, 64, 162, 195, 238 International Finance Corporation (IFC), 108–9, 110 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 167, 259, 281n56, 284, 295 investment risk, 100, 101, 106, 234 aversion to, 176–7 investment strategy, 48, 150, 239 Ireland housing, 36, 117, 145, 149, 150, 272, 273–5 infrastructure, 51, 52 Italy, 137, 173 Japan Covid-19, 287 housing, 37, 85, 117, 143, 145, 149 infrastructure, 136, 157 renewables, 286 Kennedy Wilson, 4–5, 9, 166 Kenya, 110, 286 Kerry, John, 281, 285 Keynesianism, 72, 97, 254, 259, 293 KKR, 11, 28, 30 Tab. 1.1, 56, 111, 132, 146, 161–2, 165, 166, 171, 185–6, 289 Klagge, Britta, 106, 108 Kohl, Sebastian, 142, 145, 184 Kuwait, 208, 233 Latin America, 136, 157 Legal & General Investment Management, 18, 30, 32, 58n34 leverage (financial), 91, 113, 236, 242–3, 294 leveraged buyout, 11, 61 listed investment funds, 27, 156, 192 lobbying (of governments, by asset managers), 98 locations of asset managers, 138, 142–4 locations of investment by asset managers, 75–94, 105–12, 138–41, 144–7, 168–9 London, 10, 41, 87, 145, 147, 149 long-term contracts, 42, 133 Luxembourg, 19, 50, 242, 247 Macquarie, 21, 38, 42, 57, 113, 114, 155–9, 181, 212, 216, 220, 243, 244 airports, 158, 192–3 debt investment, 245 Europe, 157, 159 farmland, 122 housing, 30 Tab. 1.1, 32 infrastructure, 8, 18, 30 Tab. 1.1, 32, 64, 77–8, 80, 81, 86, 90, 116, 135, 141, 148, 278 Korea, 156, 157, 171–2, 174 MIRA, 37, 42, 45, 46, 57, 138, 155–8 parking, 127 risk, 62 roads, 50, 63, 84, 111, 127 Spain, 245, 246 telecommunication, 129 Thames Water, 131, 207–8, 209, 212, 248 UK, 87, 89, 248 macroeconomic environment, 95, 96, 101 mainstream asset management, 14 Malaysia, 109 management fees, 54–9, 153, 181, 218, 221, 223, 224, 225 manufactured housing, 7, 119, 144, 149, 154 mobile homes, 118 Manulife Investment Management (MIM), 36, 47, 48, 122 market failure, 72, 168, 276 Marvin, Simon, 166–7, 168, 169, 178 maturity profile (of assets and liabilities), 79, 186 McCarthy, Kathleen, 275 McKinsey report, 105, 106, 251, 252, 254, 263 Mexico, 105, 156, 157 Meyer, Gregory, 121–2 Middle East, 136, 233 Minaya, Jose, 122, 123 mobile homes.

pages: 292 words: 76,185

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
by Jenny Blake
Published 14 Jul 2016

I ran the numbers: I could support up to 35,000 Googlers at the time through internal career development programs, or I could leave and try to expand my reach and global impact to a far greater number, following my personal mission to be as helpful as possible to as many people as possible. Some people measure their lives in terms of money, orienting their careers around acquiring wealth and material markers of success. Those who have accumulated financial wealth are considered high net worth individuals. But for the vast majority of people I encounter, money is not the number one driver of purpose and fulfillment. It is only a partial means to that end. A study by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton confirms this: once people surpass $75,000 in annual net income ($82,000 in today’s dollars), they experience no statistically significant bump in their day-to-day emotional well-being.

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The people I am talking about, and the ones for whom this book will resonate most, are those who are unwilling to settle for a career of phoning it in. They are willing to pay dues, but are not prepared to sit stalled for long, unable to see the value or impact of their work. These individuals optimize for high net growth and impact, not just high net worth. I call them impacters for short. Impacters love learning, taking action, tackling new projects, and solving problems. They are generous and cooperative, and imbued with a strong desire to make a difference. Impacters aim first and foremost for a sense of momentum and expansion. They ask, “Am I learning?”

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See also other people fauxspiration, 156–57 fear of change, 8–9, 20, 119 as consuming thinking, 113 of failure, 197–213, 238 and finances, 83 FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and, 238 FONT (Fear of Not Trying) and, 238 and mindset, 20, 23, 28, 29 Ferriss, Tim, 20, 108 Ferry, Jenny, 166 Fields, Jonathan, 114, 117 finances and bridge income, 79–80, 81, 84, 85 burn rate and, 79 as constraint on pivot, 35 and duration of pivot, 15 and emergency fund, 78 and income-anxiety seesaw awareness, 84–85 last resort and, 237–38 mindset and, 18, 21, 26, 29–30, 83–84 and monthly nut, 77–78, 85 risk and, 76, 78, 81 runway for, 78, 79, 157, 174 and savings, 79–80 side hustles and, 80–82 and yearly nut, 78 folding: and knowing when to fold, 185–91 Frank, Thomas, 163–64 friendtors, 100–101, 146 Gaiman, Neil, 107 Garnett, Laura, 69–70 Gaspay, Nerissa, 124 Geisel, Theodor, 150–51 get scrappy, 143–44 Gillian (sister-in-law), 56–57 Give-Receive-Achieve framework, 58–59 givers, 23, 58, 94, 104–5, 116–17, 125, 126–27, 217 Gladwell, Malcolm, 60 Godin, Seth, 81 Golofaro, Christian, 21, 22, 210–11 Gower, Bob, 148–50 Gramaglia, Casey, 51, 52 Grant, Adam, 94 Grant, Alexis, 102–3 Grayeb, Jennifer, 224, 225 greener grass, 135–36 Grey, Nick, 129 Grose, Laura, 225, 232 Grosz, Stephen, 8 grounded theory, 114–15, 116, 232 Guarriello, Tom, 233 happiness, 39, 46–47, 52, 124, 135, 202–5 happiness formula, 47 Harold (grandfather), 151–52 Harris, Dan, 51 Heller, Rachel S.F., 190 Hellstrom, Travis, 21–22 Hendricks, Gay, 69 Henry, Shawn, 93, 200 high net growth, 18–30, 221, 236 high net worth, 18–30 Hill, John, 3, 6, 54 hobbies, 110–11 hotter/colder, 41, 167 hypothesis: assumptions versus, 142 illusory superiority, 118 impacters aim/purpose of, 18, 70 and career operating modes, 68–69 characteristics of, 19–23 and courageous life, 238–39 and discoverability, 126, 132 as givers, 94 and mindset, 19–23, 24–25, 28 self-doubt of, 118–19 strengths of, 68–69 income-anxiety seesaw, 84–85 incremental pilots, 152–53 Insight Timer app, 50 instinct and intuition, 174, 179–81, 192–93, 205, 206, 237 interests: importance of, 221–23 internal mobility and programs, 229–32 intrapreneurs, 17 Jacobson, Jeff, 55 JennyBlake.me (website), 11, 23, 29, 116 jobs disengagement from, 4 impact of technology on, 4 reasons for leaving, 219–23 See also careers Jobs, Steve, 11, 49 John-Reader, Courtney “CJ,” 222 Jones, Brian (alias), 3, 6–7, 177–78, 235–36 Justin (client), 40–41 Kahneman, Daniel, 19 Kaufman, Josh, 108 Kelleghan, Daniel, 127–28 Kelly, Kevin, 126 Kit (friend), 81 knots, 235–36, 239 known and unknown variables, 62–63 Koenig, Lora, 102 Kondo, Marie, 128 Kotler, Steven, 114 Krishnamurti, J., 173 Krohn, Tricia, 171–72, 203–4 last resort, 237–38 Launch stage approvals in, 182 and “being scrappy,” 143–44 benchmarks in, 17 courage and, 173–95 and evaluation of launch, 209–11 and failure, 173, 179, 180, 195, 197–213 and fear, 171, 182, 184–85, 197–213 and finances, 171, 174–76, 177, 184–85, 187, 190, 202 and other people, 174, 181–82, 202–6 overview of, 13, 14, 171–72 perfect conditions for, 207 and Pivot Scales, 194–95 progress milestones in, 174, 178–79 and risk, 173, 180, 182, 184–85, 188, 194–95, 208–9 and success, 171, 200, 209–11 launch timing criteria, 174–82, 185, 209 Lead stage and career development, 219–33 listening during, 219–33 overview of, 15, 217 leadership and mindset, 23 and “servant leader” perspective, 115 thought, 60, 93, 126 lean pilots, 148–49 leapfrog approach, 130–32 learning discernment about, 119–20 and evaluation of Pilot stage, 167 failure and, 111, 201 and how to learn, 108–9 importance of, 137 levels of, 109–10 mindset and, 21, 25, 28 and MVP, 143 letting others know you are looking, 133–35 leverage existing strengths, 7, 8, 14, 29–30, 61–62, 65–73, 89, 112, 119, 128–29 Levine, Amir, 190 Life After College (Blake), 3, 11, 18, 26, 29, 45, 154 listening active, 118 exercise about, 117–18 to gut, 135, 136 investigative, 114–18 and networking, 117 Little, Brian R., 124 Lucius Seneca, 91 make-or-break marker, 82–83 managers, career conversations with, 223–25 Marbin, Seth, 152–53 marketable skills, 71–72 Martin, Roger, 49 Martin, Steve, 18 Maslow, Abraham, 8 mastermind groups, 101–3, 146 McAfee, Andrew, 119 McCarthy, Monica, 9, 65–66 meditation, 50–52 Meitner, Amanda and Tom, 176 mentors, 94–97, 99, 100–101, 146, 232 Miceli, Carlos, 134–35 mind map, 43–44, 45, 62 mindset abundance, 84 and finances, 18, 21, 26, 29–30, 83–84 growth, 18–30, 221, 236 pivot, 16–17 MIPs (Most Important People), 204–5 Momentum (online community), 116–17 monthly nut, 77–78, 85 Mullainathan, Sendhil, 83 MVP (minimum viable product), 143, 144, 148.

pages: 229 words: 75,606

Two and Twenty: How the Masters of Private Equity Always Win
by Sachin Khajuria
Published 13 Jun 2022

Put simply, they now rely on private equity firms to manage their money. People are living longer and the global population is increasing, and with these demographic trends come political and social imperatives to maintain pension entitlements and to invest wisely for retirees. To keep producing retirement income. Sovereign wealth funds, high-net-worth families, and large college endowments need to preserve and grow assets for the benefit of future generations. They cannot afford to get it wrong. Consider, for example, a retirement system for public sector employees that consistently needs annual investment returns of around seven percent.

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David has the heady task of compiling data across the Firm on how this master plan is going and analyzing the financial impact on the Firm’s current trajectory. * * * — There are two parts to Endgame, David’s assigned project. Both strategies aim to increase the Firm’s penetration of the total amount of money available to invest from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and high-net-worth families—and ultimately from mom-and-pop investors too, who can’t currently invest in the Firm’s funds directly. The Firm estimates that the potential pool of this cash is tens of trillions of untapped dollars. The first part of the project team’s strategy is developing platforms that do not offer a natural or preset moment when investors’ money is to be withdrawn or redeemed.

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In my view, for the leading firms in particular, there has in recent years been serious and visible progress in big topics such as diversity, sustainability, and disclosure. It’s also likely that as the firms continue to grow, the level of engagement will also grow as part of the flight path to invest, not only for institutions and high-net-worth families but also for the mass affluent market and, if regulators allow, for mom-and-pop retail investors. Private capital is too big to ignore. More engagement would cast a favorable light on private equity and private capital, especially for the top firms. The private equity industry is now mainstream.

pages: 149 words: 43,747

How I Invest My Money: Finance Experts Reveal How They Save, Spend, and Invest
by Brian Portnoy and Joshua Brown
Published 17 Nov 2020

Tim Utech is a CFA, and managed active large cap mutual funds before switching to personal finance. His one request to come and work for me is that I had to throw myself wholly into the passive camp. And so I did. My other belief that I’m sometimes on the fence about is individual bonds versus bond funds. Our clients are high net worth and we use mostly individual bonds to fill the fixed income side of their portfolio. Why? I like the known cash flows and capital preservation. We hold bonds to maturity and don’t have to worry about the interest rate fluctuations. Tim does a great job explaining to the clients how bonds work and they are happy with the approach.

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It left me with the realization that investing can be a form of expression. And I was reminded that I am here to make music, not to accumulate notes on a page, but to turn them into life. Joshua Rogers Joshua D. Rogers is the founder and CEO of Arete Wealth, a firm specializing in wealth management for high-net worth individuals and institutions. Joshua brings 20 years of experience to his leadership of over 30 offices and more than 140 advisors nationwide. The firm boasts year-over-year revenue growth under his tenure. Prior to financial services, Joshua left Georgetown Law to pursue innovation and co-invented patents including the ‘Name Your Own Price’ e-commerce concepts that drive Priceline.com.

pages: 138 words: 41,353

The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen
by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
Published 14 Jul 2015

Kalin has worked with the nations of Malta, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. Henley & Partners also caters to individuals, including Bashar Kiwan’s cohort in the Middle East and their contemporaries in Russia, China, India, and beyond. These people are referred to with an unwieldy acronym: UHNWIs, or ultra-high net worth individuals. The UHNWIs often arrive at Henley’s doorsteps via their financial advisers, who over the past decade or so have added citizenship and residence planning to their laundry list of wealth management and preservation strategies. The language that they use is telling. It’s not about buying passports; it’s about self-actualizing as a global citizen.

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Vogt, a Swiss-Kittitian and an alum of the world’s most expensive boarding schools in the Alps, recently became the chairman of A Small World, a kind of Myspace for jet-setters—a socialite network, basically. “For the past few hours and days we’ve been talking about global citizens,” he began. “We’ve learned they’re ultra-high-net-worth individuals, they’re well traveled, they’re entrepreneurs, they have families, they have higher educations. They have it all. They are literally almost supernatural. But there’s one thing I think we shouldn’t forget,” Vogt continued. “They’re also just human beings. We talk about them like data, but they’re human beings, they have interests, they have passions.

pages: 348 words: 82,499

DIY Investor: How to Take Control of Your Investments & Plan for a Financially Secure Future
by Andy Bell
Published 12 Sep 2013

The UCITS Kitemark means you have a certain level of investor protection and allows EU-based fund managers meeting its criteria to market their funds anywhere within the EU. UCITS funds are designed for the retail investor as they are not considered complex. UCITS funds are not to be confused with the similarly labelled UCIS funds, which stands for unregulated collective investment scheme – typically riskier funds that are targeted at sophisticated and high net-worth investors. UCITS funds have to be overseen by a regulator in an EU state, and are often based in Ireland or Luxembourg. This combination of regulatory oversight and investment flexibility has led many hedge fund managers to offer UCITS versions of their offshore hedge funds to a retail audience.

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All these factors make ETFs an attractive way for DIY investors to access a broad range of markets. ETFs are particularly suitable for charge-conscious passive investors as they keep costs down to an absolute minimum. As with funds, not all ETFs are UCITS funds aimed at the retail investor. Some are UCIS funds aimed at the sophisticated and high net-worth investor (see Chapter 9 to remind yourself of the difference). There are two different structures of exchange-traded products – physical and synthetic. Physical A physical ETF mimics an index by holding the same investments that make up the index. There are two main methods by which physical ETFs track an index – full replication and partial replication.

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For example, with a time horizon of 10 to 20 years and a medium appetite for risk, it suggests a portfolio made up of: Large-cap stocks – 35 per cent Bonds – 25 per cent Small-cap stocks – 20 per cent Overseas stocks – 20 per cent In all likelihood, as a DIY investor you need not follow these portfolio construction ideas to the letter, or rather the number. The more complex ones are generally designed for high net-worth individuals with a lot of money. As long as you get a decent level of diversification, across three or four sectors, your portfolio will be in the right ballpark. These portfolios, constructed from equities, ETFs, OEICs, investment trusts, bonds and gilts, are suitable for your core investment holdings.

pages: 304 words: 86,028

Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream
by Alissa Quart
Published 14 Mar 2023

“Someone is always clearing out the runways for us White guys.” He felt he had to do better, and he acted on that feeling, supporting youth programs and local Democratic candidates and, perhaps most importantly, publicly speaking out about taxing the wealthy at higher rates. He joined the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth individuals whom you will read more about later; they are leading a rebellion against how the richest Americans are taxed and raising the collective consciousness about it. “Tax cuts for the rich at the expense of the working class is not a sustainable system for our economy,” he writes in an op-ed for the Guardian, one of his many media appearances as he participated in a pro–tax-the-rich campaign that his wealthy peers would say was against his own self-interest.

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Yet for all of this gentle nerd-ocratic-ness, his calm, reasoned sentences can’t cloak his doctrinal intensity or the certitude of the group he represents, the Patriotic Millionaires. It’s a nonprofit consortium of the self-aware rich or, as I call them, the “transparent rich.” Their website describes members as “traitors to their class” and elaborates: “Patriotic Millionaires are high-net-worth Americans, business leaders, and investors who are united in their concern about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in America.” Pivotal to their work is the idea that a primary barrier to those with privilege becoming more societally generous was that they were not publicly honest—even with themselves—about their money and where it flowed from.

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After all, by August 2021, America’s billionaires could have covered a $3,400 check to all 330 million–plus Americans and still be richer than they were at the start of the pandemic: they had had a wealth gain of $1.8 trillion. Just let those numbers wash over you. In the meantime, Big Philanthropy—that collective of high-net-worth individuals and foundations—should further democratize their giving. The greater need for this is something I have experienced personally, as someone running a compact nonprofit that was parceling out grants during the pandemic’s early months. Back then, it was all about supporting writers and photographers when they needed it and not making them “pull themselves up” when they were down.

pages: 314 words: 122,534

The Missing Billionaires: A Guide to Better Financial Decisions
by Victor Haghani and James White
Published 27 Aug 2023

Utility from Wealth, in and of Itself We suspect that, in most cases, individuals who claim that the utility they get from their wealth is separate and distinct from what they will spend it on may not have devoted enough time thinking about the uses to which they will put their wealth. In the same vein, we are skeptical of the “score‐keeping” story we've heard from a few high‐net‐worth individuals, wherein they claim to view most of their wealth as “play money.” While it's true that wealth is tied to status, wealthy families who do not spend, gift, or donate their wealth can hardly claim to be maximizing their status. In any case, the utility maximization construct can handle most of these alternative objective functions based on wealth as a number rather than what wealth can be used for.

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Of course, it doesn't take a logician to see that a very profitable business can be built to take advantage of these preferences, borrowing from people in the future and lending to the same people when the future arrives. While hyperbolic discounting is a very interesting and real phenomenon (for very small amounts of money), we think it is not representative of the time preferences of high‐net‐worth, financially sophisticated individuals and families. All these different behavioral phenomena make it difficult to pinpoint an individual's personal level of time preference, which we've already touched on in our discussion in the previous chapter on endowment spending. Further thickening the plot is the relationship between average time preference of all individuals in aggregate and the level of interest rates in the economy.

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It's a high hurdle for an investor, and that's just to break even with the low‐fee, tax‐efficient stock market investment.22 The financial press frequently reminds us of alternative investment managers who have delivered consistently stellar returns on a pretax basis. Perhaps they should be viewed more as the “exception that proves the rule.” And that exceptionalism usually means that very few of these recognized star managers are open for investment to individual investors, even very high‐net‐worth ones. Turning to the question of estimating risk, your authors can personally attest that some of these active, alternative strategies involve significant amounts of leverage, which logically should result in return distributions with fatter tails than generated by more diversified, long‐only, unleveraged strategies.

pages: 431 words: 132,416

No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller
by Harry Markopolos
Published 1 Mar 2010

Their report acknowledged that Madoff had lied, or as they described it, “did not fully disclose” to the examiners “the nature of the trading conducted in the hedge fund accounts or the number of such accounts.” But even then they concluded, “The staff found no evidence of fraud. The staff did find, however, that BLM acted as an investment advisor to certain hedge funds, institutions and high net worth individuals in violation of the registration requirements of the Advisors Act. The staff also found that Fairfield Greenwich Group disclosures to its investors did not adequately describe BLM’s advisory role and described BLM as merely an executing broker to FFG’s accounts. As a result of discussions with the staff, BLM registered with the Commission as an investment advisor and FFG revised its disclosures to investors to reflect BLM’s advisory role.

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And continue waiting. I never lost interest; whenever I had the opportunity I’d take a look at his returns—and always shake my head in disbelief. As I finally had to admit to Neil, “I hate to say it, but Bernie’s pulled off the perfect crime. He finds HFOFs that need his return stream to sell their stupid (high net worth) clients. He’s got to be managing at least $30 billion.” And as long as he was able to raise more money each month than he had to pay out, he could keep going indefinitely; by offering such a high and steady return, presumably he had attracted many clients who were using their investment with him as a savings account.

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Corporate Headquarters is located at 555 Theodore Fremd Avenue; Rye, New York 10580; T: (914) 925-1140 F: (914) 921-3499. Tremont oversees on an advisory and fully discretionary basis over $10.5 billion in assets. Clients include institutional investors, public and private pension plans, ERISA plans, university endowments, foundations, and financial institutions, as well as high net worth individuals. Tremont is owned by Oppenhiemer Funds Inc. which is owned by Mass Mutual Insurance Company so they should have sufficient reserves to make investors whole. Mass Mutual is currently under investigation by the Massachusetts Attorney General, the Department of Justice, and the SEC. e.

pages: 520 words: 134,627

Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal
by Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz
Published 20 Jul 2020

“I’m exceptionally blessed and excited to be a part of the Banyan Foundation,” Singer said, dressed up for the occasion, for him, in a gray sweater over a white collared shirt. He was helping the kids. And by aligning himself with a handsome, personable wealth manager who had a long list of high-net-worth clients, ran a foundation, and sat on the board of a prestigious private school, Singer was also helping himself. * * * • • • WERDESHEIM, WHO’D GRADUATED FROM USC and landed a job at Oppenheimer, had built a full life. His wife, Janelle, an interior decorator, had designed their Studio City home, which was featured in Ventura Boulevard magazine.

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Dana Pump, who had met Singer years earlier through basketball coaching, knew this well. He and his brother, David, had founded the Harold & Carole Pump Foundation, which raised millions for cancer research and treatment and threw an annual banquet that drew A-list actors, sports legends, and recording moguls. “When you’re dealing with high-net-worth people, and you’re going to ask them for money—you take care of anyone’s child, and you’ve got a layup,” he once told Entrepreneur magazine. Many donors were nervous about helping their kids through the college application process. Pump considered Singer to be an extremely knowledgeable, experienced college counselor and connected him to around ten families for legitimate counseling.

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“Reading it during middle school was the first time I’d ever heard of such a place as Ha Fu and other ‘Ivy League’ universities,” Zara Zhang, who made it to Harvard, wrote while at the university in 2015. “It helped me realize that if I aspire to receive the best education in the world, the United States is the place to be.” The infatuation grew as wealth exploded across the country. China had more than a million millionaires by 2013, and the high-net-worth families had plenty of ideas on how to spend their money. Gucci belts and Burberry coats with plaid popped collars proved they’d made it, and the same went for college as parents sought to heap privileges on their only children. The number of students from China enrolled at U.S. colleges would soar to roughly 370,000 by the 2018–19 academic year, up nearly sixfold over fifteen years.

pages: 302 words: 95,965

How to Be the Startup Hero: A Guide and Textbook for Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Entrepreneurs
by Tim Draper
Published 18 Dec 2017

For a startup, we were spending a lot of money just to get into business! Our engineers put together a platform for the masses, so that anyone could participate. Then we got word from our attorneys that our platform could only be used for high net worth clients and qualified institutions. We had to rewrite the software to clear customers in advance to make sure they were considered high net worth. This was in addition to all the regulations built around KYC (know your customer), fraud checking and AML (anti-money laundering). It was a lot of red tape that stood in the way of our progress. In the meantime, we were testing the market for our product.

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The JOBS Act passed into law, allowing the small investor to participate in private company investing. And although years have gone by and the rules and regulations are still not clear, it seems that there is an opening there. Some new platforms are being built for private companies to be traded. At Draper Associates, we have backed Equidate and EquityZen, two promising platforms for high net worth investors to trade private stocks, and AngelList, Crowdfunder, and others may be working toward allowing investors in private companies to become more liquid. Electronic share companies like eShares and Capshare may be able to easily manage the logistics of trading private shares. And ICOs, since they are currencies rather than securities, may also pave a new path to funding and liquidity for creative entrepreneurs for their endeavors.

pages: 337 words: 89,075

Understanding Asset Allocation: An Intuitive Approach to Maximizing Your Portfolio
by Victor A. Canto
Published 2 Jan 2005

But, it’s also flexible and robust enough to merge with, enhance, or outright revolutionize the approaches of various asset management firm types. In what follows, I summarize some investment advisors’ (with whom I am close friends) experiences to illustrate the CAA’s versatile approach. 144 Case Study: An Asset Management Firm for High-Net-Worth Individuals A financial-management firm based in Hawaii is our first case study. This firm’s investment philosophy is fairly straightforward, using a focused approach to produce consistent and rewarding performance for clients. Although this group offers a variety of portfolio-management approaches— including equity, balanced, fixed-income, and aggressive-growth options—it is best known for its balanced approach to meeting client objectives.

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In the process, if she convinces the committee of the outlying forecast’s likelihood, the probabilities are revised accordingly. 146 UNDERSTANDING ASSET ALLOCATION Style Size Value Large 50% 70% Growth Chapter 8 The Cyclical Asset Allocation Strategy’s Versatility 50% Asset Type Benchmark/ETFs S&P BARRA Value S&P BARRA Growth Value Domestic Equities Mid 50% 50% 20% Growth 50% S&P 400 Value S&P 400 Growth Value World Small 50% 10% Growth 50% 100% S&P 600 Value S&P 600 Growth Cash Equivalent 25% Money Market Fund Short Term Fixed Income 25% 50% Intermediate Term 25% Lehman 1–3-Year Treasury Bond Lehman 7–10-Year Treasury Bond Long Term 25% Figure 8.1 Lehman 20+-Year Treasury Bond Strategic asset allocation for a manager of high-net-worth individuals. 147 Table 8.1 Investment advisory committee quarterly questionnaire. Economic Drivers Inflation Rate Rising Stable Falling Real Interest Rates Rising Stable Falling Taxes and Regulation Rising Stable Falling FX Dollar Value Rising Stable Falling P/E Ratio Expanding Stable Contracting Relative Attractiveness of Asset Class (10 Is Highest Likelihood) T-Bonds > Cash 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Equities > T-Bonds 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Value > Growth 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Large-Cap > Mid-Cap 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Mid-Cap > Small-Cap 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Large-Cap > Small-Cap 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 U.S. > International 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 Are We a Consensus?

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See cyclical asset allocation California energy crisis example (location effect), 194-198, 273 cap-weighted indexes versus equal-weighted indexes, 175-180, 242-245 capital asset pricing model (CAPM), 2-3, 19, 113, 253 capital gains, 72-73, 76-79, 83-84. See also return-delivery vehicles capital tax sensitivity (CATS), 213-214 capitalized earnings model (CEM), 90-100 CAPM (capital asset pricing model), 2-3, 19, 113, 253 Carhart, Mark, 165 case studies financial-management firm for high-net-worth, 145-146, 149 global financial management plan, 149-152 hedge funds, 157-161 lifecycle funds, 152-157 309 CATS (capital tax sensitivity), 213-214 CEM. See capitalized earnings model Clinton, William J., 55, 73, 76, 83, 90, 95, 238 commodities prices, location effect and, 201 consol, 91 consolidation, incentive for, 185 corporate behavior, tax-rate changes and, 68-70 capital gains, 76-79 debt financing, 73-76 incentive structure effects, 70-73, 80-84 corporate debt, 72-76.

pages: 317 words: 106,130

The New Science of Asset Allocation: Risk Management in a Multi-Asset World
by Thomas Schneeweis , Garry B. Crowder and Hossein Kazemi
Published 8 Mar 2010

In brief, standard deviation offers an estimate of the degree to which (e.g., the probability) a bad or good outcome is greater or less than the expected outcome. A 20 Measuring Risk 21 It is probably important in a chapter on risk and a book that emphasizes risk management to lay one’s cards on the table early. Most of today’s retail investor and high net worth industry based asset allocation models are centered on too simple an approach to return and risk estimation. For the most part they are based on portfolio return and risk estimates derived from historical performance with the assumption that the future risk of an asset or a portfolio mirrors that of the past.

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They appeal to a central neurosis of the capitalist psyche—the world is fair, all information is understandable, and all asset allocation models exist in an efficient market of ideas in which each model is well reviewed and tested such that—while differing in emphasis—each approach stands on solid ground of academic theory and practitioner experience. Many asset allocation programs are developed to meet the expectations of a retail and high net worth market that simply does not have the statistical or theoretical background to use more advanced asset allocation procedures, all of which have their own unique advantages and disadvantages. In the previous chapter we focused primarily on the evolution of return estimation and the necessity of concentrating on the conditional nature of expected returns; that is, if risk changes then return changes.

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The better the understanding, the higher the risk level an investor will accept. For instance, even though according to objective measures of risk, hedge funds are less risky than long equity positions, individual investors may avoid any allocation to hedge funds because of their lack of familiarity. An important task of a financial consultant is, therefore, to educate high net worth individuals about the risk-return characteristics of the various private equity opportunities and hedge fund strategies. ■ Positive Experience: Positive experiences with different asset classes in the past increase the willingness to take new risks (i.e., invest in unfamiliar asset classes). 119 Core and Satellite Investment: Market/Manager Based Alternatives BarCap US Corporate High-Yield Private Equity Index SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF S&P GSCI FTSE NAREIT ALL REITS CISDM EW HF Index CISDM CTA EW Index PowerShares Listed Private Equity Portfolio iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust iShares FTSE NAREIT Real Estate 50 Index Fund HF Replication CTA Replication 0.95 0.94 0.99 0.99 0.94 Lipper HI Cur Yld Bd Private Equity MF Lipper Nat Res Fd IX Lipper Real Estate Fd HF Investable (Mgr.

pages: 173 words: 53,564

Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn
by Chris Hughes
Published 20 Feb 2018

But even with all of these unprecedented opportunities, a third force fueled Facebook’s rise: the massive amount of financial capital made available to us by venture capitalists. A historically unprecedented run-up in the markets—combined with historic lows in tax rates—put large amounts of capital in the hands of high-net-worth individuals, pension funds, and university endowments in the 1980s and 1990s. Venture capital firms in particular promised high-net-worth individuals and institutions eye-popping returns from high-risk, low-tax investments, for a not-so-small fee. Venture capitalists plan for seven out of ten of their investments to fail, two to break even, and one to explode in value, wiping out all of the other losses and guaranteeing a high return.

pages: 182 words: 55,234

Rendezvous With Oblivion: Reports From a Sinking Society
by Thomas Frank
Published 18 Jun 2018

It was wise because it would “induce the rich man to attend to the administration of wealth during his life,” and if he didn’t, then the tax would return most of his hoardings to the “community from which it chiefly came.” Vestiges of the Carnegie attitude survive to this day. A 2009 study of high-net-worth individuals by Barclays Wealth (“a leading global wealth manager”) confirmed that American philanthropists tend to understand their giving in a context in which the state is either absent or irrelevant. And, of course, there are plenty of nice plutocrats who don’t fidget or doodle when talking to strangers, and who have no problem endowing a ward or a wing in return for a commemorative plaque.

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We elect politicians who slice away at the estate tax because we feel the fortunes of the rich ought to go unencumbered by that burden. Our leaders in Washington are perennially considering cutting Social Security because retaining it might require the rich to chip in more than their current percentage. If it’s a choice between us spending our dotage in helplessness and filth and our high-net-worth friends having to forgo next year’s Learjet, Americans will choose the personal sacrifice every time. By withholding niceness for a day we might, surprisingly, inculcate niceness in our charges. So let’s teach the rich to listen. Not because we have anything interesting to say, of course. Not for our own sake.

pages: 376 words: 110,796

Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight
by Chris Dubbs , Emeline Paat-dahlstrom and Charles D. Walker
Published 1 Jun 2011

In the tourism sector, two companies, Zegrahm Expeditions and Space Adventures (sA), commenced marketing suborbital flights in 1997, using their experience selling and marketing in the adventure travel business, just as SE had done more than a decade earlier. Zegrahm Expeditions is a luxury adventure travel company, founded in 199o, that offers high-end soft adventure programs on seven continents. Years of experience and luxury service had endeared the company to a loyal group of high-net-worth clients. Its president, Werner Zehnder, and vice president, Scott Fitzsimmons, had both worked for SE in the r98os. Zegrahm established its own space division, Zegrahm Space Voyages, and began offering its suborbital space flight program in 1997 by collecting $9,000 dollar deposits ($5,000 deposit + $4,000 flight insurance) for a $98,000 suborbital ride.

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This contact with dozens of potential candidates gave him an understanding of the type of individual attracted to suborbital flights. "Everybody had a passion for space for slightly different reasons," Moltzan recalls. They were mostly male, in their mid-thirties and older. There were thrill seekers, pilots, and wanna-be astronauts who had significantly high net worth. Some were lured by the prospect of becoming the first citizen from their country to fly in space. By 2004 Moltzan was serving as director of business development. Traveling to Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and South America, he managed relationships with international organizations such as the Japanese advertising agency Dentsu and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

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The company's suborbital booking structure is very similar to Zegrahm's and sA's. Clients wanting to be at the front of the line when flights become available are called Founders and are invited to book the first one hundred seats. Founders pay the full $200,000 upfront and are entitled to numerous perks and privileges, not to mention access to a social network of high-net-worth individuals. Other categories include Pioneers and Voyagers. Pioneers pay a deposit of $100,000 to $175,000 and are expected to fly within the first year of Virgin Galactic's operations. Voyagers, who pay $zo,ooo deposits, will follow the Pioneers, estimated to be after one thousand seats have gone up.

pages: 354 words: 26,550

High-Frequency Trading: A Practical Guide to Algorithmic Strategies and Trading Systems
by Irene Aldridge
Published 1 Dec 2009

Occasionally, broker-dealers also deal directly with other broker-dealers, particularly for less liquid instruments such as customized option contracts. Broker-dealers’ transacting clients are investment banking clients (institutional clients), large corporations (corporate clients), medium-sized firms (commercial clients), and high-net-worth individuals (HNW clients). Investment institutions can in turn be brokerages providing trading access to other, smaller institutions and individuals with smaller accounts (retail clients). Until the late 1990s, it was the broker-dealers who played the central and most profitable roles in the financial ecosystem; broker-dealers controlled clients’ access to the exchanges and were compensated handsomely for doing so.

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This hierarchical structure existed from the early 1920s through much of the 1990s when the advent of the 11 Evolution of High-Frequency Trading Commercial Clients Investment Banking Broker-Dealers Exchanges or Inter-dealer Brokers Corporate Clients Private Client Services Private Bank Institutional Investors High-Net-Worth Individuals Retail Clients FIGURE 2.3 Twentieth-century structure of capital markets. Internet uprooted the traditional order. At that time, a garden variety of online broker-dealers sprung up, ready to offer direct connectivity to the exchanges, and the broker structure flattened dramatically.

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Michael, 133 Hasbrouck, J., 67, 123, 147, 163, 264, 279 Hedging portfolio exposure, 269–271 Hedvall, K., 163 Heteroscedasticity, 103–104 High-frequency trading: advantages to buyer, 1–2 advantages to market, 2–3 capitalization and, 34–35 challenges of, 4–5 characteristics of, 21–22 classes of trading strategies, 4 compared to traditional approaches, 13–19, 22–24 economics of business, 32–34 financial markets and technological innovation, 7–13 firms specializing in, 3–4 market participants, 24–26 operating model for business, 26–31 trading methodology evolution, 13–19 volume and profitability of, 1 High-net-worth individuals, 10 High water mark concept, 50 Hillion, P., 67, 160, 163 Hirschberger, M., 214 Ho, T., 137–138 Hodrick, Robert J., 88, 89 Hogan, K., 180 Holden, C., 142, 163 Hollifield, B., 163 Horner, Melchoir R., 192 Hou, K., 86 Hsieh, D.A., 57, 58 Hu, Jian, 180 Hu, Zuliu F., 181 Huang, R., 147 Huberman, G., 279 Hvidkjaer, Soeren, 196 ICAP, 25 Iceberg orders, 69 INDEX Illiquidity ratio, of Amihud, 134 Implementation, of high-frequency trading system, 28–31 Implementation shortfall (IS), 295, 296, 299–301 Implementation stage, of automated system development, 234–236 Industry news, event arbitrage, 174 Inefficiency.

pages: 416 words: 106,532

Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond
by Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar
Published 19 Oct 2017

For example, Morgan Stanley has outlined asset allocation models for its high net worth investors with under $25 million in investable assets; those models recommend 56 percent stocks, 19 percent bonds, 3 percent cash, and 22 percent alternatives. For those clients with over $25 million in investable assets, the recommendation is for 50 percent stocks, 19 percent bonds, 3 percent cash, and 28 percent in alternatives.12 Merrill Lynch has recommended allocation models for its typical client that include alternatives near or above 20 percent of a portfolio.13 Clearly, the inclusion of alternative investments should not be limited to only high net worth investors.

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For example, many hedge funds operate under a 2 and 20 model, or sometimes 3 and 30, where they charge a 2 percent annual management fee and take 20 percent of the profits from a year. Other common characteristics include their exclusivity and general secrecy. Prior to the 2008 financial crisis, investors who took advantage of hedge fund performance and the alternative investments they utilized were typically of ultra-high net worth with sizeable investable assets, given that often the minimum investment was $1 million or more to gain entry. Additionally, investors had to tie up their funds for lengthy periods as part of the agreement with the hedge fund manager. While mutual funds provide a prospectus that outlines exactly the approach and asset classes to be used, hedge funds are often veiled in secrecy.

pages: 195 words: 63,455

Damsel in Distressed: My Life in the Golden Age of Hedge Funds
by Dominique Mielle
Published 6 Sep 2021

I had tangentially related competence—a business degree and a background in banking—and I came with excellent professional recommendations, including from ex-Drexel associates close to the Canyon founding partners. But I had no experience on the buy-side and no extensive network on Wall Street, nor among high-net-worth investors. In addition, I am French, which is to say, relative to the average hedge fund comrade, a raging Socialist—a fact that likely did not come to light until later in my career. Most of all, there is the surefire fact that I am a woman. In other words, not exactly a hedge fund catch, except in my mother’s mind (she never doubted that any corporation would be lucky to have me in any capacity).

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I work in finance, I said. “Do you sit, or do you stand?” he asked. I sat. He was impressed. A hedge fund is not a bank, and I was not a teller, standing at a bank window to open checking accounts. A hedge fund is an investment firm entrusted with large sums of money pooled by a variety of investors, including high-net-worth individuals, private wealth advisory firms (also called family offices), insurance companies, endowments, pension funds, sovereign funds, banks, and many others. What sets a hedge fund apart is the way that it charges its clients (i.e., investors) for the service of managing their money, and the strategies it can employ to invest it.

Fortunes of Change: The Rise of the Liberal Rich and the Remaking of America
by David Callahan
Published 9 Aug 2010

Also, this book is really about two different classes of the wealthy: I explore the changing beliefs of the ultra-affluent class as a whole—those in the top 1 percent of households—which is quite a large group, but also the political activism and philanthropy of the mega-rich, a much smaller group of people who have personal fortunes of hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. The ranks of both the ultra-affluent and the super-rich have soared in the last fifteen years and remain very large today, despite the financial crash. According to the authoritative World Wealth Report, there were 2.5 million high-net-worth individuals in the United States at the end of 2008, who were defined as people who each had at least $1 million in investable assets. The report also estimated that 30,600 households in the United States had assets greater than $30 million. These estimates were made after the crash but before the stock market rebounded in 2009.

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And often they will win, given how U.S. politics tends to advantage narrow and well-organized interest groups—especially those with deep pockets. Tax hikes on the rich, in contrast, are more diffuse and don’t so directly threaten specific interests with lobbying arms in Washington. There is no Association of High Net Worth Individuals inside the Beltway that is committed to fighting across-the-board income tax hikes on the rich. (Not yet, anyway.) Is it too far-fetched to imagine the Democrats as a businessfriendly party that also practices wealth redistribution? Not at all. c06.indd 141 5/11/10 6:20:03 AM 142 fortunes of change That’s how Clinton governed: he resliced the fiscal pie with tax hikes on the rich and tax credits for the poor even as he continued Republican deregulatory policies.

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Rimmerman, From Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001), 90–92. 10. Robert Frank, Richistan: A Journey through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich (New York: Crown, 2007), 197. 11. Paul G. Schervish, “Why the Wealthy Give: Factors Which Mobilize Philanthropy among High Net-Worth Individuals,” in Adrian Sargeant and Walter Wymer, The Routledge Companion to Nonprofit Marketing (New York: Routledge, 2008), 178. 12. Kerry Eleveld, “There Is a Gay Agenda: Winning Elections,” Salon, November 29, 2006. 5. The One-World Wealthy 1. Lauren Foster, “Understanding Global Philanthropy 2007: A Businesslike Approach to Charity,” Financial Times, December 11, 2007. 2.

pages: 360 words: 113,429

Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence
by Rachel Sherman
Published 21 Aug 2017

So being wealthy is not always good. Even words such as well-off, wealthy, rich, affluent, privileged, and upper-class have negative connotations and are rarely used by wealthy people to describe themselves. More frequently, we hear euphemisms such as “comfortable,” “fortunate,” and the hefty but neutral-sounding phrase “high net worth individual” (abbreviated HNWI).25 In 2014 former first lady and secretary of state Hillary Clinton caused a minor scandal when she claimed that she and her husband were “dead broke” when they left the White House. She also contrasted herself with the “truly well-off,” who, she said, don’t pay “ordinary income taxes” and have not become wealthy “through dint of hard work.”

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For an ethnography of classed “common sense” in the United States, see Heiman 2015. 77.This focus on selfhood mirrors, in a sense, a similar phenomenon among working-class young people in the “mood economy,” who blame themselves for failing to achieve the trappings of adulthood, such as a home, steady job, and family (Silva 2013; see also Lewis 1993). 78.See Small 2009. 79.Graham 1999; Lacy forthcoming. Annette Lareau has begun a qualitative interview study comparing white and African American high-net-worth families, but it is too early to have results (personal communication). CHAPTER ONE: ORIENTATIONS TO OTHERS 1.I did not ask my respondents explicitly about what social class they thought they were in. The concept of social class is complicated, and it is hard to know how people understand it.

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See also reciprocity “good people,” 60, 132, 154, 157, 198, 231, 252; characteristics of, 22–25; physical health and, 260n17; raising children to be, 227–29 gratitude. See appreciation The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), 8, 9 guilt. See discomfort with wealth habitus (per Boudieu), 199, 228–29 “help,” family and financial, 64, 142 “high net worth individual” HNWI, 10 Hochschild, Arlie R., 272n4 home ownership, 16–17, 54, 95 home renovation, 46; budgets for, 161–62, 173; and consumer decisions of research interviewees, 16–17; legitimation of consumer choices, 98, 100–101; as major expense, 95–96; as practice spending money, 120; responsibilities as gendered, 161–62; and study of consumption choices, 14 hotels, luxury, 240–41 Howard, Adam, 213 identity: clothing and social, 116, 130–31, 205–6; “giving back” and, 123–26, 136–39, 142–43; as habitus, 199; as independent of wealth, 96; middle class, identification with, 23–24, 36, 43, 121, 232–33; self-identification as wealthy, 142; symbolic boundaries and self-identification, 60–61; wealth and loss of, 129–30; work and self-validation or, 60–61, 70–71, 85, 90, 235; working class, identification with, 47 immigration: immigrant heritage and legitimation, 70 independence, 22, 24; dependency within marital relationships, 38–39, 63–64, 72, 90, 167, 176–79, 189, 193, 196, 272n2; financial self-sufficiency, 22, 58–59; inheritors and, 71–72, 180; as personal achievement, 62–63; and risk, 67–68; as value, 71–72; work and self-reliance, 22, 58–59, 62–63, 66, 71–74, 86, 181 inequality: and deprivation as relative, 155–57; and discomfort with wealth, 10–11, 149, 230–31; domestic employees and structural, 35, 48, 266n6; and entitlement as legitimate, 25, 122; “giving back” and, 25, 122–26, 140–41, 149–54; as inevitable and unavoidable, 41, 44, 135, 150–51; legitimation of, 231–34; New York and the “inequality crisis,” 13; occupational insecurity and, 6–7; “1 percenters” and, 7, 13–14, 40–41, 259n10, 264n51; as political issue, 10–11, 13, 43–44; reciprocity and denial or erasure of, 124–25, 133–34; redistribution and, 152–53; social costs of, 7; structural, 25, 41, 44, 48, 52, 65–67, 126, 135, 149–54, 233–36; white privilege, 66–67, 233 inhabitance of privilege or wealth, 25, 32, 90–91, 102–3, 228–29, 230–33 inherited wealth, 14, 60–61, 188; and anxiety, 26, 152, 179, 268n13; as destructive, 75; discomfort with, 26, 60, 71–78, 122–23, 151–52; family and financial “help,” 58–59, 66–67; gender of inheritors, 160, 179–80; as morally suspect, 32, 63, 230, 268n13; and obligation to spend on others, 76–77; and paid work, 73–75; prudence and, 73; self-sufficiency and, 42–43, 58–59, 71–72; stereotypes of laziness and, 72–73; taxes on, 147, 149 insecurity, economic: expressed by interviewees, 39; freedom from fear as advantage of wealth, 46; interviewees’ anxiety about, 39, 67–68; and occupational, 6–7; upward orientation and, 30, 38.

pages: 457 words: 125,329

Value of Everything: An Antidote to Chaos The
by Mariana Mazzucato
Published 25 Apr 2018

The move into investment banking was made more attractive by other aspects of financial deregulation. It enabled investment banks to poach some of the commercial banks’ most profitable clients: large businesses which could finance investment by issuing bonds rather than taking bank loans, and high-net-worth individuals seeking private wealth management. And it opened up a range of new financial markets for investment banks to gamble on, trading instruments which had long been known about but which past regulations had effectively banned. Two classes of financial instrument in particular were made available to investors by deregulation from the 1970s onwards, and were central to the subsequent massive growth in financial transactions and profitability.

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But in the 1970s, the relaxation of the ‘prudent man' investment rule allowed pension funds to invest in less conventional ways, such as private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC), while the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974 permitted pension funds and insurance companies to invest in a greater variety of funds, such as equities, high-yield debt, PE and VC. Fund managers pushed for this relaxation as a way to make higher-returning investments, but governments were keen to allow it because faster-growing private-sector funds would lessen demand for state-provided pensions. During this time, the rise in the number of very wealthy people - dubbed high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) - also increased demand for professional asset management. An HNWI is now generally defined as someone with net financial assets (excluding property) of more than $1 million. Originally a rich-country phenomenon, it is now global as the ranks of millionaires and billionaires swell in emerging countries, notably in Asia and Latin America.

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Revaluation gains in the ‘real' economy are widely hailed as economically efficient and socially progressive. Entrepreneurs who cash in on a genuinely useful invention can claim to have reaped just rewards from genuinely productive risk-taking, especially when they are shown to have displaced hereditary landowners in the charts of ultra-high net worth. But when - as is usually the case by the time the revaluation occurs - shares have passed beyond the original inventors and become owned by private equity or quoted on financial markets, it is passive rather than active inventors who capture most of the revaluation gains. Financialization enables investment bankers and fund managers who picked the right stock - often by chance - to make profits that would previously have gone to those who built the right product, by painstaking design.

pages: 317 words: 71,776

Inequality and the 1%
by Danny Dorling
Published 6 Oct 2014

Those who amass fortunes manage to do so partly because they don’t like sharing and see themselves as special, as more careful with money, as being worth more than others. They tend to see others, and sharing, as ‘just weak’. The richest people in the world have a revealing acronym to describe themselves – HNWI – high-net-worth individuals. These are people who have a spare million US dollars’ worth of wealth, not including their primary residence or their pension. Worldwide, there were estimated to be 12 million such people in 2012, with a mean ‘investable’ wealth of $3.85 million each. It is worth looking at where the world’s richest live, what they have, and the huge inequalities even within this tiny group.

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head teachers Healey, Denis 6.1, nts.1 health 5.1, 6.1 American and behaviour marketing 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 costs and crime and diet 5.1, 5.2 funding 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 impact of student loans 5.1, 5.2 reducing inequality social care recipients 5.1, 5.2 in the UK Health and Social Care Act, 2012 5.1 Health and Social Care Information Centre ‘Help to Work’ scheme Hennell, Tom Henrich, J., et al. Henry, J. Henry, J. S. Herzer, D. and Vollmer, S. Hewitt, L. and Graham, S. Higgins, S., et al. High Fliers Research Limited Hills, J., et al. Hirsh, D. Hiscott, G. HNWI (high-net-worth individuals) 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 homelessness 5.1, 5.2 Hope, C. Horsey, David 3.1, nts.1 Hosking, P. O. household income 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 housing 4.1, 4.2 empty stock 4.1, 4.2 equity gains and losses 4.1, 4.2 investment 4.1, 4.2 luxury poverty 4.1, 4.2 prices 4.1, 6.1 private rented 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 social 4.1, 4.2 vulnerable families housing benefit Hull human genome project Hutton, Will 3.1, nts.1 Iceland 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 6.2 immigration 5.1, 6.1 immiseration 3.1, 4.1 impoverishment 2.1, 6.1 incapacity benefit income inequality 1.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7 incomes drive down equity gap 1.1, 3.1, 3.2 and happiness highest UK licensed occupations low and falling pay 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 perks servant class 3.1, 3.2 and tax 3.1, 3.2 women youth India 3.1, 3.2, 5.1, 5.2 inequality 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 3.1, 3.2 attitudes to 3.1, 3.2 causes of extreme price of 6.1 reducing 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 5.1 rise of 4.1, 4.2, 5.1 inheritance 4.1, 4.2 inheritance tax 4.1, 4.2 ‘In Search of Homo Economicus’ Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) 1.1, 1.2, 4.1, 5.1, nts.1 Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) 2.1, 2.2 Institute of International Finance International Labour Organization International Monetary Fund 3.1, 5.1 internships, Westminster School auction IQ tests 2.1, 2.2 Ireland 3.1, 4.1, 6.1, 6.2 Italy 2.1, 6.1 Jack, I. 3.1, nts.1 James, Clive 3.1, 6.1, nts.1, nts.2 Japan 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 6.1, 6.2 Jeffery, C.

pages: 257 words: 71,686

Swimming With Sharks: My Journey into the World of the Bankers
by Joris Luyendijk
Published 14 Sep 2015

Sid worked at one such brokerage firm, as did the interdealer broker who made the point that only a few per cent in the City make ‘the huge sums’. Most people who do enjoy huge sums of money need someone to invest it for them, which brings us to the third and last vast continent: asset management. These firms charge a fee for investing the money entrusted to them not only by wealthy people (‘high net worth individuals’), but also from pension funds, oil-rich countries and insurance companies, who have to put their premiums somewhere. There are plain asset managers who tend to invest in relatively straightforward bonds and shares. In addition, there are private equity firms that use their investors’ capital to take over companies in order to sell them at a profit later on; hedge funds that follow ‘unorthodox’ investment strategies with high risks and rewards; while venture capitalists employ their expertise and clients’ capital to help promising small companies and entrepreneurs grow.

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(Davies) 1 financial sector (see also bankers; banks; City; global financial crisis): amorality in 1, 2, 3, 4 ‘animal’ types within 1 blame culture in 1 blog’s negative comments on 1 Brown’s praise for 1 and caveat emptor 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and charity donations 1 code of silence governs 1, 2, 3, 4 competition vs co-operation in 1 countries/blocs played against each other by 1 ethical dilemmas in 1 immune to exposure 1 and insider jokes 1 IT’s role in 1, 2 and patches and workarounds 1 ‘map’ of 1 and mergers and acquisitions 1, 2, 3, 4 countries’ legal systems affected by 1 number of employees in 1 politicians identify with 1 post-crash books about 1, 2 PR people within 1, 2 and project finance 1 protest demonstrations against 1 regulators identify with 1 remuneration in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 bonuses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and leisure-time spending 1 restructuring in 1 scandals within 1, 2, 3 (see also rogue traders) Barings 1 FX 1, 2 HSBC 1, 2 JP Morgan 1, 2 LIBOR 1, 2, 3 London Whale, see Iksil, Bruno Société Générale 1 UBS 1 sport and war analogies within 1 whistle blowers within 1, 2, 3 women in, men’s attitudes towards 1 Financial Services Authority 1 Financial Times 1, 2 F9 model monkeys 1 Fool’s Gold (Tett) 1 Freud, Sigmund 1 Fukushima 1 FX scandal 1 GDP (gross domestic product) 1 Geithner, Timothy 1 Gekko, Gordon (film character) 1, 2 global financial crisis, see financial crash Goldman Sachs 1, 2, 3 as exception to short-termism 1 Geithner’s and Clinton’s lucrative speeches to 1 London trading floor of, a ‘toxic and destructive environment’ 1 as ‘pure’ investment bank 1 banking licence subsequently acquired by 1 Smith’s book on 1 Smith’s NYT piece on 1, 2 Goodfellas 1 greed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 gross domestic product (GDP) 1 Gross Misconduct: My Year of Excess in the City (Thompson) 1 Guardian: distrust of 1 finance blog of: first interviews posted on 1 ‘Going native …’ subtitle of 1 readers’ comments posted on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 responses to interviews on 1, 2 traditional banking said to be under-represented on 1 guardiannews.com/jlbankingblog, see under Guardian Haldane, Andrew 1 Halliburton 1 Hancock, Matthew 1 Harrington, William J 1 hedge funds 1, 2, 3 and ‘unorthodox’ investment strategies 1 high-frequency trading 1, 2, 3, 4 high-net-worth individuals 1 house prices 1 How I Caused the Credit Crunch: A Vivid and Personal Account of Banking Excess (Ishikawa) 1 HSBC 1 annual results announcement of 1, 2 and drugs money 1, 2 mixed investment–commercial nature of 1 human resources (HR) (see also recruitment), and redundancy 1, 2 Iksil, Bruno (‘London Whale’) 1, 2 incentives: and accountancy firms 1 ‘perverse’ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 need to remove 1 short-termism encouraged by 1 Initial Public Offering (IPO) 1, 2 insurance: banking’s overlap with 1 enormous reach of 1 investment banks (see also banks): ‘animal’ types within 1 books about 1 as ‘casinos’ 1, 2, 3 and ‘castes’ 1 vs commercial 1, 2 commercial banks begin to take over 1 culpability of, in global financial crash 1 daily routine of 1, 2, 3 definition of, clarified 1 and dot-com bubble 1, 2, 3 job titles within 1, 2, 3 radically changed ownership structure of 1 and risk and compliance 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (see also regulators) risk-taker–risk-bearer dichotomy in 1 and ‘rock’n’roll trader’ 1 speculation by 1 subcultures engendered by 1 Iraq 1 Ishikawa, Tetsuya 1 IT 1, 2 jlbankingblog, see under Guardian job titles, in investment banks 1, 2, 3 JP Morgan 1 Blair’s role in 1, 2, 3 rogue trader at 1, 2 Kerviel, Jérôme 1 KPMG 1 Krugman, Paul 1 Lagarde, Christine 1 Large Hadron Collider 1 Leeson, Nick 1 Lehman Brothers: capital buffers of 1 collapse of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 inadequate buffers of 1 as ‘pure’ investment bank 1 Lewis, Michael 1 Liar’s Poker (Lewis) 1, 2 LIBOR scandal 1, 2, 3 Lloyds, annual results announcement of 1, 2 London riots 1 London Stock Exchange, and ‘my word is my bond’ 1, 2 London Whale, see Iksil, Bruno Master of the Universe 1, 2, 3 Masters of Nothing: How the Crash Will Happen Again Unless We Understand Human Nature (Hancock, Zahawi) 1 Masters of the Universe 1 passim, 1, 2 (see also banker types) cold fish’s scorn for 1 criticism of sector resented by 1 sector readily defended by 1 megabanks 1 (see also banks) mergers and acquisitions 1, 2, 3, 4 countries’ legal systems affected by 1 Merrill Lynch 1 middle office 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 more power and status in, post-crash 1 Monkey Business: Swinging through the Wall Street Jungle (Rolfe, Troob) 1 Moody’s 1, 2 Morgan Grenfell 1 My Life as a Quant (Derman) 1 ‘my word is my bond’ 1, 2 neutrals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (see also banker types) in political parties 1 New York Times 1, 2, 3, 4 9, 5 trader exploits 1 Nissen, George 1 Occupy London 1 operational risk 1 The Origin of Financial Crises (Cooper) 1 ‘other people’s money’ mentality 1 Oxfam 1 Paulson, Hank 1 Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (US) 1 politicians: as best chance to wrest power from financial sector 1 identification of, with financial sector 1 justified cynicism about 1 neutrals among 1 powerlessness of, in face of global finance 1 private schools formerly attended by 1 teeth grinders among 1 project finance 1, 2 prop trading 1, 2, 3, 4 Prudential Regulation Authority 1 PwC 1 quants (quantitative analysts) 1, 2, 3, 4 ‘animal’ types among 1 with Asperger’s 1, 2 geeks among 1 rating agencies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and CDOs 1 Moody’s 1, 2 ‘oligopoly’ of 1 paid by banks 1 RBS, annual results announcement of 1, 2 recruitment 1, 2 (see also redundancy) and short-termism 1 redundancy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (see also recruitment) as ‘enhanced severance’ 1 as rite of passage 1 termed ‘the cull’ 1 in UK vs US 1, 2 and work-related visas 1 regulators 1 fighting symptoms rather than cause 1 and Financial Services Authority, Financial Conduct Authority, Prudential Regulation Authority 1 identification of, with financial sector 1 ‘idiots’ description applied to 1, 2 ‘losing people at all levels’ post-crash 1 numbers working for 1 and self-declaration 1 religion 1 remuneration 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 bonuses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and leisure-time spending 1 restructuring 1 riots, in London 1 risk: ability to weigh 1 and departmental specialisations 1 managers, salaries of 1 operational 1 sovereign 1 takers of vs bearers of 1 risk and compliance 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (see also regulators) disparaged 1 and self-declaration 1 ‘rock’n’roll trader’ 1 rogue traders 1 at Barings 1, 2 at JP Morgan 1 at Société Générale 1 at UBS 1, 2 Rosenbaum, Ron 1 Rubin, Robert 1 Rusbridger, Alan 1 Saddam Hussein 1 Salomon Brothers 1 Samuel Montagu 1 Sants, Hector 1 scandals 1, 2, 3 (see also rogue traders) Barings 1 FX 1, 2 HSBC 1, 2 JP Morgan 1, 2 LIBOR 1, 2, 3 London Whale, see Iksil, Bruno Société Générale 1 UBS 1 school system, UK 1 Schroders 1 Schumer, Charles E 1 short-termism 1, 2 Sid (trader, broker) 1 passim, 1, 2 Smith Brothers 1 Smith, Greg 1, 2, 3, 4 social Darwinism 1 Société Générale 1 mixed investment–commercial nature of 1 Sorkin, Andrew Ross 1 sovereign risk 1 Sports Illustrated 1 Square Mile, see City Stcherbatcheff, Barbara 1 Stock Exchange, former 1 Summer, Lawrence 1 ‘tax optimisation’ 1 technical analysis 1 teeth grinders 1, 2, 3, 4 (see also banker types) in political parties 1 Tett, Gillian 1 ‘too big to fail’ 1, 2, 3, 4 and ability to blackmail 1 ‘too big to manage’ 1 Traders, Guns and Money (Das) 1 Twin Towers: terrorist attacks on 1, 2 trader exploits 1 UBS 1 rogue trader at 1 van Ees, Peter 1 Van Rompuy, Herman 1 venture capitalists 1 Verey, Michael 1 volatility 1 Voss, Rainer 1, 2, 3 Wall Street 1, 2, 3 Watergate 1 Wawoe, Kilian 1, 2 Weber, Axel 1 Weiser, Stanley 1 whistle blowers 1, 2, 3 ‘Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs’ (Smith) 1, 2 Why I Left Goldman Sachs (Smith) 1 The Wolf of Wall Street 1 Wolfe, Tom 1 working hours 1, 2, 3 World Trade Center: terrorist attacks on 1, 2 trader exploits 1 Zahawi, Nadhim 1 About the Author Joris Luyendijk was born in Amsterdam.

pages: 218 words: 68,648

Confessions of a Crypto Millionaire: My Unlikely Escape From Corporate America
by Dan Conway
Published 8 Sep 2019

She disappeared and then ushered in the private banking manager, Gene, a petite, impeccably dressed, and overly polite man who took my hand and said we’d be working with him from now on. He was focused exclusively on servicing high net worth individuals. Unbeknownst to me, there was a separate space within the bank where I could now do my banking away from normal people. He gave me his support line which I could call at any time, night or day, if I was experiencing a problem or presumably if I just wanted to talk. I had a vision of calling him late at night and asking, “Hey, what do you think of all this fucking money we have?” We were now high-net-worth individuals and would be treated with proper respect and deference. He reversed the wire charges for some personal business we’d done a month before.

pages: 497 words: 123,718

A Game as Old as Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption
by Steven Hiatt; John Perkins
Published 1 Jan 2006

In 2005, Augusto Pinochet and several close family members were placed under investigation for tax evasion and fraud. Sea, Sand, and Secrecy Jersey in the mid-1980s was enjoying an extraordinary economic boom. In the previous decade dozens of major banks from around the world had set up offshore subsidiaries to handle the rapid growth of private banking services for their high-net-worth clients. Law firms and major accounting businesses had also set up offshore subsidiaries to provide administration and trust services for their business and private clients. Just a forty-five-minute flight from London, Jersey is well situated to provide offshore services to the City of London, itself a major offshore tax haven.

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Senate investigating committee revealed internal memos, e-mails, and other correspondence obtained from the accounting business in 2003. In one e-mail, Gregg Ritchie, a senior KPMG tax adviser, alerted Jeff Stein, head of KPMG’s tax practice, that, even if regulators took action against the firm’s tax strategies for high-net-worth clients, the potential profit from these deals exceeded any possible court penalties. “Our average deal,” Ritchie noted, “would result in KPMG fees of $360,000 with a maximum exposure of only $31,000.” Another internal document contained a warning that, if the company were to comply with the legal requirements of the IRS relating to the registration of tax shelters, KPMG would “not be able to compete in the tax-advantaged products market.”

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Her Majesty’s Loyal Tax Avoiders It might seem to casual observers that the offshore world in which I and my colleagues were working is remote from the economy of the “real” world, but in fact offshore banking lies at the core of a globalized financial system that enables businesses and the superrich, known within banking circles as high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs, or “hen-wees”), to operate beyond the reach of onshore public or legal authority. The offshore economy began to emerge as a significant feature in the 1960s when huge volumes of petrodollars started to accumulate in Europe. The globalization of the financial system was catalyzed by a variety of factors, most notably liberalization of financial transactions through the removal of international exchange controls, the demise of the fixed-rate exchange mechanisms conceived at Bretton Woods in 1944, the extensive deregulation of financial markets during the 1980s, and the emergence of new communication technologies that put money transfers into effect at the click of a mouse.

pages: 504 words: 126,835

The Innovation Illusion: How So Little Is Created by So Many Working So Hard
by Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel
Published 3 Oct 2016

While capitalist ownership is about responsibility, entrepreneurship, and control, asset managers are ultimately actors who cannot practice such ownership. He or she simply cannot be a capitalist. In 2012, after the recovery from the Great Recession, the global asset management industry managed 36.5 percent of assets held by pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, high-net-worth individuals, and the mass affluent. Asset managers are not the only form of intermediaries, but they represent a considerable proportion of the gray ownership in Western economies. And as GDP has expanded in the West, the asset management industry has followed – and, going forward, is likely to grow faster than the rest of the economy, according to PwC.

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(Bright Simons) (i) Harvard University, “Soviet–Harvard illusion” (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) (i) Hayek, Friedrich (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) healthcare sector see medical/healthcare sector Hegde, Shanttaram (i)n28 Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun Also Rises (i) Herper, Matthew (i) Hicks, John, “The Theory of Monopoly” (i) high-growth firms (i) high-net-worth individuals (i) high-tech sector (US), and economic dynamism (i) Hirschman, Albert O. (i)n43 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The (Douglas Adams) (i) Hobbes, Thomas (i) Hobijn, Bart (i) Hoenig, Thomas (i) home-market firms, vs. multinationals (i) Honeywell (i) hospitals, performance measurements (i) Hudson Institute (i) Huebner, Jonathan (i) human capital, and innovation (i) Hungary, and EU GM potato regulation (i) hydrocarbon reserves, and sovereign wealth funds (i) IBM (i), (ii), (iii) ICT (information and communications technology) ICT intensity and productivity (i), (ii) investment expenditure on software (i) investment in hardware as share of GDP (i), (ii) US ICT sector (i), (ii) see also information technology (IT) Idestam, Fredrik (i) IMD Business School (Switzerland), attitudes to globalization survey (i) immigration, and aging populations (i), (ii) Inc 500 ranking (i) incomes and benefits/taxes (i) income inequality (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii) and productivity (decoupling thesis) (i), (ii) and robots (i) working-age households vs. pensioners (i) incremental development and corporate managerialism (i), (ii) and deregulation (i) vs. radical innovation (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) and regulatory complexity/uncertainty (i), (ii), (iii) and specialization (i), (ii) incumbency advantages (i), (ii) index of complicatedness (Boston Consulting Group) (i) India and BRIC concept (i), (ii) and globalization (i) License Raj (i), (ii) indirect land-use effects (i) individualism, culture of (i) see also dissent; eccentricity; freedom industrial organization (i), (ii) industrial policy, and regulation (i), (ii) industrial revolution (i), (ii), (iii) information technology (IT) business IT services (i) and capitalism (i) IT companies and globalization (i) and second unbundling of production (i) see also ICT (information and communications technology) Innocent III, Pope, and barber profession (i) innovation and cancer research (i), (ii) and capitalism (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v) and compliance officers (i) and corporate destruction (i) and corporate investment (i), (ii) and corporate managerialism (i), (ii) and corporate medical research (i) and deregulation (i) and digitalization (i) and dual class stock structures (i) and economic dynamism (i), (ii), (iii) and entrepreneurship (i), (ii) and failure (i) and financial regulation (i) and firm boundaries (i), (ii), (iii) and globalization (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) and gray capitalism (i) and healthcare (i) historical perspective (i) Huebner on (i) and human capital (i) and market contestability (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi) market vs. social values of (i) and Middle Ages (i) and multinationals (i) and occupational licenses (i) “offshore” pattern of (i) permissionless innovation (i) and planning machines (i) and precautionary regulations (i), (ii) and productivity downward trend (i), (ii) and quantitative valuation methods (i) and R&D (i) and regulation (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v) and regulatory complexity/uncertainty (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi) Schumpeterian innovation (i), (ii), (iii) and “scientific civilization” thinking (i) and specialization (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) and strategy (i) and technological creation (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) value innovation (i) and verticalization (i) see also creative destruction; diffusion; dissent; eccentricity; incremental development; New Machine Age thesis; R&D; technology INSEAD business school (i) institutional investors (i) total assets by types of investors (OECD, 2001–13) (i), (ii) see also asset managers; professional investment/investors institutional owners and rentier capitalism (i) see also insurance companies/funds; pensions insurance companies/funds and asset management industry (i) and financial regulation (i) and rentier capitalism (i) total assets (OECD, 2001–13) (i), (ii) intangibles and business investment data (i) knowledge as intangible (i) and withering (i) Intel (NM Electronics) (i), (ii), (iii) intelligent vehicles see driverless vehicles interest rates (i), (ii), (iii) interfirm trade (i) International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (i) international trade see global trade internet relative impact of (i), (ii) start-ups (i) and Swedish economy (i) see also online services intertemporal choice/allocation (i) intrafirm trade (i) investment actuarial investment code (i) and diversification (i), (ii) foreign direct investment (FDI) (i), (ii), (iii) institutional investors (i) modern portfolio theory (i) private investment (US) (i) professionalized investment (i), (ii), (iii) stockholding periods (i), (ii), (iii) total assets by types of institutional investors (OECD, 2001–13) (i), (ii) see also asset managers; business investment; pensions IT (information technology) see information technology (IT) Italy and globalization (i) income inequality and generations (i) “Italian disease” and diffusion of innovations (i) lesser dependence on larger enterprises (i) profit margins (i) public debt (i) regulation: index of regulatory freedom (i), (ii); index of regulatory trade barriers (i), (ii); medical devices (i); taxi services (i) retirement savings (i) Japan car industry and lean production (i) cash hoarding (corporate savings) (i) population decline (i) R&D spending (i) retirement savings (i) Jawbone bracelets (i) job dissatisfaction (i) see also incomes; labor; unemployment Jobs, Steve (i) Johnson, Lyndon B.

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Chance (Being There character) (i), (ii) multinational (global) companies characteristics of (i), (ii) and competition (i) and corporate cash savings (i) and dispersed ownership (i) and firm boundaries (i), (ii) and foreign direct investment (FDI) (i), (ii) and global trade (i), (ii) vs. home-market firms (i) and innovation (i) as logistics hubs (i) and market concentration (i), (ii) and market contestability (i) and private standards (i) and productivity (i), (ii) and R&D (i) and regionalization of Asia’s trade growth (i) and regulation (i) reputation of (i) and “slicing up” of value chains (i) and specialization (i), (ii) and supply chains (i) and transaction costs (i) see also big firms; globalization; globalization (overview) Musk, Elon (i), (ii), (iii) mutual funds (i), (ii) nanotechnology (i), (ii), (iii) NASA (i) Nasdaq, and sovereign wealth funds (i) national accounts (recorded data), vs. real value of improvements (i), (ii) National Science Foundation (US) (i) neoconservatism (i) neoliberalism (i) nepotism (i) net lending see corporate net lending Netherlands exports to China (i) taxi services and regulation (i) “new economy” (i) New England Journal of Medicine, medical devices study (i) New Machine Age thesis background: economic realities vs. technological blitz vision (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii); historical perspective (i) criticism of thesis: cyclical effects on productivity argument (i); jobs and technology issue (i); productivity/income decoupling issue (i), (ii); recorded data vs. real improvements argument (i), (ii); summary (i) and fear of artificial intelligence (i) and planning machine economic philosophy (i) and Robert Gordon on US labor productivity growth (i) see also The Second Machine Age (Brynjolfsson and McAfee) New York City dockers and containerization (i) taxi services and regulation (i), (ii) New York Stock Exchange (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v) see also Wall Street New York Times, on Bell’s telephone invention (i) NICs (newly industrialized countries) (i) Nietzsche, Friedrich (i), (ii) nimby (not-in-my-backyard) attitude (i) NM Electronics (Intel) (i), (ii), (iii) Nobel Peace Prize, and Twitter (i) “noise” (at work) (i) Nokia and corporate managerialism (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi) and Foxconn (i) and specialization (i) and tablet market (i) non-entrepreneurial planning (i) North American Free Trade Agreement (i) Norway, sovereign wealth fund (i), (ii), (iii) not-in-my-backyard (nimby) attitude (i) Obama, Barack (i), (ii) obsolescence see knowledge obsolescence occupational licenses (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) on aging firms and innovation (i) on corporate savings (i) on “diffusion machine” and productivity (i) GDP forecasts (i) on intermediaries and shareholders’ income (i) on pension funds and PPRFs (i) on R&D skill deficiencies (i) on regulatory administration costs (i) on sovereign wealth funds (i) on taxi services (i) OECD countries product market regulation (PMR) indicators (i), (ii) R&D spending (i) start-ups (i) total assets by types of institutional investors (2001–13) (i), (ii) “off-license” sectors (i) “offshore” pattern of innovation (i) oligopolistic (or monopolistic) competition (i) Ollila, Jorma (i), (ii) Olson, Mancur (i) “one percent” (wealthiest group) (i) online services and diffusion of innovations (i), (ii) and recorded economic data (i) and regulation (i) see also internet open source technology, and socialism (i) organic cognition (i) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development see OECD; OECD countries organization industrial organization (i), (ii) vs. managerialism/technostructure (i) and multinationals (i) and specialization (i) Organization Man (i), (ii) organizational diversification (i), (ii) Osborne, Michael (i) outsourcing (i) ownership see capitalist ownership; institutional owners Palo Alto Research Center (PARC, Xerox) (i) “Panama Papers” story (i) Parisian taxis, and regulation (i) patents, and knowledge obsolescence (i) pay see incomes payment cycles (i) payment technologies (i) pensions and asset management industry (i) and gray capitalism (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) need for reform (i) pension crisis (i) pensioners vs. working-age households incomes (i) and principal–agent debate (i) private pensions (i), (ii) public/state pensions (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v); public pension funds and reserve funds (OECD, 2001–13) (i), (ii); public pension return funds (PPRFs) (i) see also retirement Pepsi (i) performance imperatives (i) performance measurements (i) performance tools (i), (ii) permission-based regulatory culture (i), (ii) permissionless innovation (i) pessimism, and capitalist decline (i) Pessoa, João Paolo (i) Pfleiderer, Paul (i) pharmaceutical sector and price regulations (i)n28 R&D investment (i), (ii) and regulation (i), (ii) Phelps, Edmund (i)n41 Mass Flourishing (i), (ii) Piketty, Thomas (i), (ii) PillCam digestive tract sensor (i) Pippi Longstocking (i) planning and corporate managerialism: planning machines (i), (ii), (iii); strategy (i); uncertainty and risk (i) Cybersyn project (i) and failing companies (i) and globalization (i) non-entrepreneurial planning (i) and regulation (i) and “scientific civilization” thinking (i) and spirit of bureaucracy (i) and Swedish economy (i) plastic cards (i) Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (i) Plouffe, David (i) PMR (product market regulation) indicators (i), (ii) policy uncertainty, and investment (i), (ii) political romanticism (i) political world and capitalism as borderless space (i) cronyism , (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) dirigisme (France) (i) government intervention vs. liberalism (i) governments and globalization (i) governments and mobile technology (i) gray-haired voters (i) lobbying (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v) and regulation: 1980s–1990s policy changes (i); case of taxi services and Uber (i); political romanticism (i); social regulation (i); trend on the rise (i) and sovereign wealth funds (i), (ii), (iii) see also policy uncertainty; politics politics corporate politics (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) end of and digital age (i) populism (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v) see also political world populations aging (i), (ii), (iii) decline (i) populism (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) Porter, Michael (i), (ii) portfolio theory (i) Portugal, lesser dependence on larger enterprises (i) positioning (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) poverty, and globalization (i) PPRFs (public pension return funds) (i) see also pensions precautionary regulations (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) predictability (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii) see also uncertainty; volatility premature scaling (i), (ii) price index bias (i) Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) on asset management industry (i) on compliance officers in US (i) productivity growth survey (i) on sovereign wealth funds (i) principal–agent problem (i) principal–agent theory (i) prioritizing, and strategy (i) private standards (i) probabilistic decision-making (i), (ii) product market regulation (PMR) indicators (i), (ii) production and computer technology (i) geography of production (i) lean production (i), (ii) and multinationals (i) production costs (i), (ii), (iii) unbundling of: first (i); second (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) see also specialization; supply chains; value chains productivity and containerization (of global trade) (i) and cyclical effects (i) and data economy (i) downward trend (i), (ii) and employment (i) and financial sector growth (i) and foreign operations (i)n46 and globalization (i), (ii), (iii) and ICT intensity (i), (ii) and incomes (decoupling thesis) (i), (ii) key to prosperity (i) low productivity and innovation diffusion problems (i) and market contestability (i), (ii) and multinationals (i), (ii) and regulation (i) and robots (i) total factor productivity (TFP) growth (i), (ii), (iii) and transaction costs (i) UK productivity puzzle (i) professional investment/investors (i), (ii), (iii) see also asset managers professions regulation of (i), (ii) see also occupational licenses profit margins and decoupling (productivity/incomes) thesis (i) and globalization (i), (ii) protectionism (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v) public markets and financialization of the economy (i) and mergers and acquisitions (i) public pension return funds (PPRFs) (i) see also pensions public relations campaigns (i), (ii) “put option” (i) PwC see Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) quantitative valuation methods (i) quantum dots (QD) technology (i) R&D (research and development) and corporate net lending (i) and firm boundaries (i), (ii) and multinationals (i) and pharmaceutical products (i), (ii) and policy uncertainty (i) and productivity (i) R&D scoreboards (European Commission) (i), (ii) and regulation (i), (ii), (iii) vs. share buybacks at IBM (i) spending issues (i), (ii), (iii) and sunk costs (i) US R&D investment (i), (ii), (iii) and vertical specialization (i) see also incremental development Rajan, Raghuram (i) rating agencies (i), (ii), (iii) rationalism and globalist worldview (i), (ii) and societal change (i) Reagan, Ronald (i), (ii) real economy, vs. financial economy (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) reallocation of business, and deregulation (i) recorded data (national accounts) vs. real value of improvements (i), (ii) regulation after 1980s–1990s deregulation wave (i), (ii) and bureaucracy brake (Germany) (i) and compliance officers (i) and costs and time lags (i) and decline of capitalism (i), (ii) economic regulation (i), (ii) financial regulations (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) and globalization (i) and gray capitalism (i) and healthcare sector (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) index of regulatory freedom (i), (ii) and industrial policy (i), (ii) and innovation (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi) and labor (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v) and lobbying (i) and managerialism (i), (ii) and market contestability (i), (ii) moving-target regulations (i) and multinationals (i) and pensions (i) permission-based regulatory culture (i), (ii) and permissionless innovation (i) and planning (i) and political romanticism (i) and political world (i), (ii) prescriptive vs. proscriptive (i), (ii) private standards (i) and R&D (i), (ii), (iii) and size of companies (i) social regulation (i), (ii) and trade (i), (ii), (iii) see also deregulation; legislation; regulatory complexity/uncertainty regulatory accumulation (i) regulatory bodies (i) regulatory complexity/uncertainty cadmium example (i), (ii) energy sector case (i), (ii) impact on economic growth (i) impact on innovation (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v) precautionary regulations (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) regulatory conflicts (i) regulatory/policy uncertainty and investment allocation (i), (ii) rise of regulatory uncertainty (i) see also deregulation; regulation renewable energy see green/renewable energy rent-seeking (i), (ii), (iii) rentier capitalism (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi) rentier formula, resource allocation according to (i) rentiers (i), (ii) reputation management (i) research concept of in corporate world (i), (ii) scientific research (i) see also cancer research; incremental development; R&D Research in Motion (RiM) (i), (ii) retail, and globalization (i) retirement age of (i) savings (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii) see also pensions Ricardo, David, wine-for-cloth thesis (i) rich people vs. capitalists (i), (ii) high-net-worth individuals (i) mass affluent (i) “one percent” (wealthiest group) (i) risk banks’ proneness to (i) and globalist worldview (i), (ii) and uncertainty (i), (ii) Robertson, Dennis (i) Robinson, James (i) robotics/robots and Asimov/science fiction (i) impact of on society (i) and labor (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v); Foxconn example (i) and technology-frustrated generation (i) see also artificial intelligence; automation; driverless vehicles; New Machine Age thesis; technology Rodman, Dennis (i) Rolling Stone (magazine), “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?”

pages: 470 words: 125,992

The Laundromat : Inside the Panama Papers, Illicit Money Networks, and the Global Elite
by Jake Bernstein
Published 14 Oct 2019

He acquired companies from Ramón Fonseca for Geneva’s bankers and lawyers. After the partners formed Mossfon, the firm became Guerrero’s main conduit to anonymous companies. Guerrero’s top banking client was Luxembourg-based Safra Republic Holdings,2 which operated a successful Swiss private bank. Republic’s thirty thousand high-net-worth clients included bagmen for corrupt African leaders, Chinese princelings, Middle Eastern royalty, the Russian mafia, crooked diamond merchants, and money launderers. Most wanted the secrecy afforded by offshore companies. Republic specialized in absolute discretion, minimal questions, and concierge service—the kind of hands-on tight-lipped Swiss banking caricatured in a thousand spy novels.

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It would become one of the firm’s more popular jurisdictions, eventually accounting for more than fifteen thousand companies.49 5 HOW TO BEAT THE GAME Thousands of people jammed London’s Business Design Centre for Shorex 1997, billed as “the Premier Offshore Exhibition and Conference.” Targeted at financial intermediaries, offshore professionals, and high-net-worth individuals,1 eighty exhibitors advertised their services, including Mossack Fonseca, USA Corporate Services,2 the Central Bank of Cyprus, and the BVI Financial Services agency. For offshore professionals, it was a “must be there” event.3 There was nothing covert about the sales pitch for secrecy in London that year.

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Pastorino, initial interview date March 6, 1998, p. 100. 48 “You are hereby instructed never to report”: Ibid., p. 99. 49 eventually accounting for more than fifteen thousand companies: “Explore the Panama Papers Key Figures,” International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, https://panamapapers.icij.org/graphs/. 5: HOW TO BEAT THE GAME 1 Targeted at financial intermediaries, offshore professionals, and high-net-worth individuals: “Shorex 97: What Happened at Shorex 97?,” http://web.archive.org/web/19980204222142/http://www.shorex.com/shx97.htm. 2 eighty exhibitors advertised their services: “Shorex 97: Exhibitors and Sponsors,” http://web.archive.org/web/19980204221914/http://www.shorex.com/exhib97.htm. 3 it was a “must be there” event: “Shorex 97: What Happened at Shorex 97?”

pages: 265 words: 74,941

The Great Reset: How the Post-Crash Economy Will Change the Way We Live and Work
by Richard Florida
Published 22 Apr 2010

Florida, the other great American retirement destination, also felt the sharp pop of the housing bubble as real estate prices tumbled more than 40 percent from their peak in Miami and Tampa. The crisis decimated the Sunbelt’s nouveau riche, many of whom had made their pile in real estate. Phoenix lost 34 percent of its high-net-worth individuals, those with more than $1 million in assets apart from their home; Las Vegas lost 38 percent; Miami and Orlando, 42 percent each; and Tampa, 51 percent.5 Plummeting home prices triggered a cascading series of related problems. Sunbelt cities developed the nation’s highest concentration of homes underwater—those where the amount owed exceeds the current value.

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Quoted in Kris Hudson, “Phoenix Bears the Brunt of Hotel Market’s Steep Downturn,” Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2009. 4. Quoted in Dennis Wagner, “Pain on Main Street: Timing Proves Bad for Phoenix,” USA Today, December 20, 2008. 5. Daniel Gross, “Who is Killing America’s Millionaires?” Slate, July 24, 2009; Gross cites a Capgemini study as the source of these data. Overall, the number of high-net-worth individuals in the United States fell from 3.02 million in 2007 to 2.46 million in 2008, a decline of 18.5 percent. He cites Capgemini’s Ileana van der Linde as saying “We’ve been doing this report for 13 years and haven’t seen this kind of loss of wealth since we started.” 6. At the time, 21.9 percent of homes nationally were identified as being underwater.

pages: 280 words: 79,029

Smart Money: How High-Stakes Financial Innovation Is Reshaping Our WorldÑFor the Better
by Andrew Palmer
Published 13 Apr 2015

Not everyone gets onto the site: around 70–80 percent of entrepreneurs are told by Crowdcube to provide more information in their business plans. That is often enough to put off the fly-by-night operators and the people who have had a bright idea in the pub. On the other side of the marketplace are the investors. Crowdcube is not quite open to all: people either have to self-certify that they are high net-worth individuals or sophisticated investors or have to fill out a questionnaire that is designed to weed out anyone who really doesn’t understand the risks of start-up investing. But the bar is not set very high. You get asked things like whether most start-ups (a) succeed or (b) fail, and whether the founders are obliged to pay you back if the company gets into trouble.

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Lenders were often no better: like other auction sites, Prosper found that there was a small group of people whose goal was to win the auction no matter how low the rate they received as a result. This sort of foolishness is not just restricted to retail investors. MarketInvoice, an electronic platform in London that allows small firms to sell off their outstanding invoices at a discount, also used to run auctions. Its investors were not members of the public, but high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and specialist funds. Even so, it observed exactly the same kind of behavior, with investors determined to invest their allocation of money no matter what and bidding discounts down to minuscule levels. Prosper’s experiment with an auction system has long since ended.

pages: 231 words: 76,283

Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way
by Tanja Hester
Published 12 Feb 2019

ACA plan premiums are going up each year, but at a much slower rate than non-exchange plans, which is a positive for everyone relying on the exchanges. And, the premium you pay is tied to your income, which for many early retirees is low (as opposed to basing premiums on your assets, which are likely to be high). While this fact agitates quite a few people who disapprove of high-net-worth people receiving subsidies to help pay for their health insurance, neither party has signaled any interest in changing that particular part of the law. And the US has a long history of adopting programs that adjust only on basis of income, not on assets, what’s known as means testing, not asset testing.

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And in all cases, make sure your property insurance includes some coverage for liability, so that if someone is injured in or around your home and sues you, it doesn’t wipe you out financially. If your early retirement plan involves building up sizeable assets, approaching $1 million or more, it’s wise to add umbrella insurance to your policy list. Umbrella insurance is additional liability protection against lawsuits and claims against you, and the data show that high-net-worth people are far more likely to be sued than are those without sizeable assets. You can get protection of $1 million or more for a few hundred dollars a year if you already have liability protection on your property. The best part is that what you’re really paying for is the insurance company’s legal defense, because they don’t want to pay out a single dollar.

Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game
by Walker Deibel
Published 19 Oct 2018

Owning your own business is not only an opportunity to provide value through products and services, but it’s arguably the best way for most people to build real wealth. In this chapter, we’ll look at acquisition entrepreneurship as an investment vehicle. To be clear, this does not mean that after you buy a business you are promised a high net-worth ranking. Nor does it mean that acquiring a company purely for financial gain is a good idea. Rather, it points to the fact that being the owner of a successful business can be a great investment vehicle, and that those who make the most of it can finish big. We’ve seen that the acquisition entrepreneur needs to act as both entrepreneur and investor.

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The final recipe is up to you (and the bank). If you are in a position to pay all cash for a specific deal, understand that you’re either so wealthy that whatever the deal you’ll pay all cash, or you’re not thinking big enough. Based on my interviews with brokers, professional buyers, and bankers, very few, if any, high net worth individuals pay all cash for a business. I have to conclude this is because they understand the higher ROI associated with acquiring with some portion on debt—just like PE firms. 107 Whatever your position, you will likely either desire or require leverage to close on your target company. As a result, you’ll need a bank to give you a loan, and I recommend asking for the maximum you can get, for two reasons: First, you can always take less, and every banker will understand your interest in evaluating a maximum ROI investment.

pages: 349 words: 134,041

Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives
by Satyajit Das
Published 15 Nov 2006

The profitability of the business declined as price became the primary basis of competition amongst all the dealers. Smarter investors cunningly played them off to get better deals. Dealers began to seek new ways to improve profitability and started to market structured products directly to retail customers, the widows and orphans of legend. Retail customers were now HNWI (high net worth individuals); there was the ‘mass affluent’, surely an oxymoron. Structured product marketers set out into suburbia and strip malls. The logic was compelling – you had less sophisticated clients, the margins would be richer. In short, you could rip them off blind. In Europe individuals, when not dodging tax, were worrying about reduced investment returns.

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Pre-risk transfer Bank credit exposure to specified entities totalling US$1,000 million Post-risk transfer Risk US$950 million senior notes Investors (100 firms × $10 million each) US$30 million mezzanine notes US$20 million equity Sponsor bank Figure 9.4 Fully funded CDO capital structure The bank generally puts in all or most of the equity in the CDO. The mezzanine and senior notes are sold to investors. Insurance companies, fund managers and high net worth individuals buy these notes. For some obscure reason retirees and wealthy individuals in Australia and New Zealand are especially attracted to CDO mezzanine investments. The senior note holders get paid first. If there are losses then equity takes the first losses. If the losses are greater than the equity amount then the mezzanine investors get hit.

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However, the text is different. 6 ‘What Worries Warren’ (3 March 2003) Fortune. 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 4:44 pm Page 325 Index accounting rules 139, 221, 228, 257 Accounting Standards Board 33 accrual accounting 139 active fund management 111 actuaries 107–10, 205, 289 Advance Corporation Tax 242 agency business 123–4, 129 agency theory 117 airline profits 140–1 Alaska 319 Allen, Woody 20 Allied Irish Bank 143 Allied Lyons 98 alternative investment strategies 112, 308 American Express 291 analysts, role of 62–4 anchor effect 136 Anderson, Rolf 92–4 annuities 204–5 ANZ Bank 277 Aquinas, Thomas 137 arbitrage 33, 38–40, 99, 114, 137–8, 171–2, 245–8, 253–5, 290, 293–6 arbitration 307 Argentina 45 arithmophobia 177 ‘armpit theory’ 303 Armstrong World Industries 274 arrears assets 225 Ashanti Goldfields 97–8, 114 Asian financial crisis (1997) 4, 9, 44–5, 115, 144, 166, 172, 207, 235, 245, 252, 310, 319 asset consultants 115–17, 281 ‘asset growth’ strategy 255 asset swaps 230–2 assets under management (AUM) 113–4, 117 assignment of loans 267–8 AT&T 275 attribution of earnings 148 auditors 144 Australia 222–4, 254–5, 261–2 back office functions 65–6 back-to-back loans 35, 40 backwardation 96 Banca Popolare di Intra 298 Bank of America 298, 303 Bank of International Settlements 50–1, 281 Bank of Japan 220 Bankers’ Trust (BT) 59, 72, 101–2, 149, 217–18, 232, 268–71, 298, 301, 319 banking regulations 155, 159, 162, 164, 281, 286, 288 banking services 34; see also commercial banks; investment banks bankruptcy 276–7 Banque Paribas 37–8, 232 Barclays Bank 121–2, 297–8 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 326 4:44 pm Page 326 Index Baring, Peter 151 Baring Brothers 51, 143, 151–2, 155 ‘Basel 2’ proposal 159 basis risk 28, 42, 274 Bear Stearns 173 bearer eurodollar collateralized securities (BECS) 231–3 ‘behavioural finance’ 136 Berkshire Hathaway 19 Bermudan options 205, 227 Bernstein, Peter 167 binomial option pricing model 196 Bismarck, Otto von 108 Black, Fischer 22, 42, 160, 185, 189–90, 193, 195, 197, 209, 215 Black–Scholes formula for option pricing 22, 185, 194–5 Black–Scholes–Merton model 160, 189–93, 196–7 ‘black swan’ hypothesis 130 Blair, Tony 223 Bogle, John 116 Bohr, Niels 122 Bond, Sir John 148 ‘bond floor’ concept 251–4 bonding 75–6, 168, 181 bonuses 146–51, 244, 262, 284–5 Brady Commission 203 brand awareness and brand equity 124, 236 Brazil 302 Bretton Woods system 33 bribery 80, 303 British Sky Broadcasting (BSB) 247–8 Brittain, Alfred 72 broad index secured trust offerings (BISTROs) 284–5 brokers 69, 309 Brown, Robert 161 bubbles 210, 310, 319 Buconero 299 Buffet, Warren 12, 19–20, 50, 110–11, 136, 173, 246, 316 business process reorganization 72 business risk 159 Business Week 130 buy-backs 249 ‘call’ options 25, 90, 99, 101, 131, 190, 196 callable bonds 227–9, 256 capital asset pricing model (CAPM) 111 capital flow 30 capital guarantees 257–8 capital structure arbitrage 296 Capote, Truman 87 carbon trading 320 ‘carry cost’ model 188 ‘carry’ trades 131–3, 171 cash accounting 139 catastrophe bonds 212, 320 caveat emptor principle 27, 272 Cayman Islands 233–4 Cazenove (company) 152 CDO2 292 Cemex 249–50 chaos theory 209, 312 Chase Manhattan Bank 143, 299 Chicago Board Options Exchange 195 Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) 25–6, 34 chief risk officers 177 China 23–5, 276, 302–4 China Club, Hong Kong 318 Chinese walls 249, 261, 280 chrematophobia 177 Citibank and Citigroup 37–8, 43, 71, 79, 94, 134–5, 149, 174, 238–9 Citron, Robert 124–5, 212–17 client relationships 58–9 Clinton, Bill 223 Coats, Craig 168–9 collateral requirements 215–16 collateralized bond obligations (CBOs) 282 collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) 45, 282–99 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 4:44 pm Page 327 Index collateralized fund obligations (CFOs) 292 collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) 283–5, 288 commercial banks 265–7 commoditization 236 commodity collateralized obligations (CCOs) 292 commodity prices 304 Commonwealth Bank of Australia 255 compliance officers 65 computer systems 54, 155, 197–8 concentration risk 271, 287 conferences with clients 59 confidence levels 164 confidentiality 226 Conseco 279–80 contagion crises 291 contango 96 contingent conversion convertibles (co-cos) 257 contingent payment convertibles (co-pays) 257 Continental Illinois 34 ‘convergence’ trading 170 convertible bonds 250–60 correlations 163–6, 294–5; see also default correlations corruption 303 CORVUS 297 Cox, John 196–7 credit cycle 291 credit default swaps (CDSs) 271–84, 293, 299 credit derivatives 129, 150, 265–72, 282, 295, 299–300 Credit Derivatives Market Practices Committee 273, 275, 280–1 credit models 294, 296 credit ratings 256–7, 270, 287–8, 297–8, 304 credit reserves 140 credit risk 158, 265–74, 281–95, 299 327 credit spreads 114, 172–5, 296 Credit Suisse 70, 106, 167 credit trading 293–5 CRH Capital 309 critical events 164–6 Croesus 137 cross-ruffing 142 cubic splines 189 currency options 98, 218, 319 custom repackaged asset vehicles (CRAVEs) 233 daily earning at risk (DEAR) concept 160 Daiwa Bank 142 Daiwa Europe 277 Danish Oil and Natural Gas 296 data scrubbing 142 dealers, work of 87–8, 124–8, 133, 167, 206, 229–37, 262, 295–6; see also traders ‘death swap’ strategy 110 decentralization 72 decision-making, scientific 182 default correlations 270–1 defaults 277–9, 287, 291, 293, 296, 299 DEFCON scale 156–7 ‘Delta 1’ options 243 delta hedging 42, 200 Deming, W.E. 98, 101 Denmark 38 deregulation, financial 34 derivatives trading 5–6, 12–14, 18–72, 79, 88–9, 99–115, 123–31, 139–41, 150, 153, 155, 175, 184–9, 206–8, 211–14, 217–19, 230, 233, 257, 262–3, 307, 316, 319–20; see also equity derivatives Derman, Emmanuel 185, 198–9 Deutsche Bank 70, 104, 150, 247–8, 274, 277 devaluations 80–1, 89, 203–4, 319 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 4:44 pm Page 328 328 Index dilution of share capital 241 DINKs 313 Disney Corporation 91–8 diversification 72, 110–11, 166, 299 dividend yield 243 ‘Dr Evil’ trade 135 dollar premium 35 downsizing 73 Drexel Burnham Lambert (DBL) 282 dual currency bonds 220–3; see also reverse dual currency bonds earthquakes, bonds linked to 212 efficient markets hypothesis 22, 31, 111, 203 electronic trading 126–30, 134 ‘embeddos’ 218 emerging markets 3–4, 44, 115, 132–3, 142, 212, 226, 297 Enron 54, 142, 250, 298 enterprise risk management (ERM) 176 equity capital management 249 equity collateralized obligations (ECOs) 292 equity derivatives 241–2, 246–9, 257–62 equity index 137–8 equity investment, retail market in 258–9 equity investors’ risk 286–8 equity options 253–4 equity swaps 247–8 euro currency 171, 206, 237 European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 297 European currency units 93 European Union 247–8 Exchange Rate Mechanism, European 204 exchangeable bonds 260 expatriate postings 81–2 expert witnesses 310–12 extrapolation 189, 205 extreme value theory 166 fads of management science 72–4 ‘fairway bonds’ 225 Fama, Eugene 22, 111, 194 ‘fat tail’ events 163–4 Federal Accounting Standards Board 266 Federal Home Loans Bank 213 Federal National Mortgage Association 213 Federal Reserve Bank 20, 173 Federal Reserve Board 132 ‘Ferraris’ 232 financial engineering 228, 230, 233, 249–50, 262, 269 Financial Services Authority (FSA), Japan 106, 238 Financial Services Authority (FSA), UK 15, 135 firewalls 235–6 firing of staff 84–5 First Interstate Ltd 34–5 ‘flat’ organizations 72 ‘flat’ positions 159 floaters 231–2; see also inverse floaters ‘flow’ trading 60–1, 129 Ford Motors 282, 296 forecasting 135–6, 190 forward contracts 24–33, 90, 97, 124, 131, 188 fugu fish 239 fund management 109–17, 286, 300 futures see forward contracts Galbraith, John Kenneth 121 gamma risk 200–2, 294 Gauss, Carl Friedrich 160–2 General Motors 279, 296 General Reinsurance 20 geometric Brownian motion (GBM) 161 Ghana 98 Gibson Greeting Cards 44 Glass-Steagall Act 34 gold borrowings 132 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 4:44 pm Page 329 Index gold sales 97, 137 Goldman Sachs 34, 71, 93, 150, 173, 185 ‘golfing holiday bonds’ 224 Greenspan, Alan 6, 9, 19–21, 29, 43, 47, 50, 53, 62, 132, 159, 170, 215, 223, 308 Greenwich NatWest 298 Gross, Bill 19 Guangdong International Trust and Investment Corporation (GITIC) 276–7 guaranteed annuity option (GAO) contracts 204–5 Gutenfreund, John 168–9 gyosei shido 106 Haghani, Victor 168 Hamanaka, Yasuo 142 Hamburgische Landesbank 297 Hammersmith and Fulham, London Borough of 66–7 ‘hara-kiri’ swaps 39 Hartley, L.P. 163 Hawkins, Greg 168 ‘heaven and hell’ bonds 218 hedge funds 44, 88–9, 113–14, 167, 170–5, 200–2, 206, 253–4, 262–3, 282, 292, 296, 300, 308–9 hedge ratio 264 hedging 24–8, 31, 38–42, 60, 87–100, 184, 195–200, 205–7, 214, 221, 229, 252, 269, 281, 293–4, 310 Heisenberg, Werner 122 ‘hell bonds’ 218 Herman, Clement (‘Crem’) 45–9, 77, 84, 309 Herodotus 137, 178 high net worth individuals (HNWIs) 237–8, 286 Hilibrand, Lawrence 168 Hill Samuel 231–2 329 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 189 Homer, Sidney 184 Hong Kong 9, 303–4 ‘hot tubbing’ 311–12 HSBC Bank 148 HSH Nordbank 297–8 Hudson, Kevin 102 Hufschmid, Hans 77–8 IBM 36, 218, 260 ICI 34 Iguchi, Toshihude 142 incubators 309 independent valuation 142 indexed currency option notes (ICONs) 218 India 302 Indonesia 5, 9, 19, 26, 55, 80–2, 105, 146, 219–20, 252, 305 initial public offerings 33, 64, 261 inside information and insider trading 133, 241, 248–9 insurance companies 107–10, 117, 119, 150, 192–3, 204–5, 221, 223, 282, 286, 300; see also reinsurance companies insurance law 272 Intel 260 intellectual property in financial products 226 Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) 285–6 International Accounting Standards 33 International Securities Market Association 106 International Swap Dealers Association (ISDA) 273, 275, 279, 281 Internet stock and the Internet boom 64, 112, 259, 261, 310, 319 interpolation of interest rates 141–2, 189 inverse floaters 46–51, 213–16, 225, 232–3 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 4:44 pm Page 330 330 Index investment banks 34–8, 62, 64, 67, 71, 127–8, 172, 198, 206, 216–17, 234, 265–7, 298, 309 investment managers 43–4 investment styles 111–14 irrational decisions 136 Italy 106–7 Ito’s Lemma 194 Japan 39, 43, 82–3, 92, 94, 98–9, 101, 106, 132, 142, 145–6, 157, 212, 217–25, 228, 269–70 Jensen, Michael 117 Jett, Joseph 143 JP Morgan (company) 72, 150, 152, 160, 162, 249–50, 268–9, 284–5, 299; see also Morgan Guaranty junk bonds 231, 279, 282, 291, 296–7 JWM Associates 175 Kahneman, Daniel 136 Kaplanis, Costas 174 Kassouf, Sheen 253 Kaufman, Henry 62 Kerkorian, Kirk 296 Keynes, J.M. 167, 175, 198 Keynesianism 5 Kidder Peabody 143 Kleinwort Benson 40 Korea 9, 226, 278 Kozeny, Viktor 121 Krasker, William 168 Kreiger, Andy 319 Kyoto Protocol 320 Lavin, Jack 102 law of large numbers 192 Leeson, Nick 51, 131, 143, 151 legal opinions 47, 219–20, 235, 273–4 Leibowitz, Martin 184 Leland, Hayne 42, 202 Lend Lease Corporation 261–2 leptokurtic conditions 163 leverage 31–2, 48–50, 54, 99, 102–3, 114, 131–2, 171–5, 213–14, 247, 270–3, 291, 295, 305, 308 Lewis, Kenneth 303 Lewis, Michael 77–8 life insurance 204–5 Lintner, John 111 liquidity options 175 liquidity risk 158, 173 litigation 297–8 Ljunggren, Bernt 38–40 London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) 6, 37 ‘long first coupon’ strategy 39 Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) 44, 51, 62, 77–8, 84, 114, 166–75, 187, 206, 210, 215–18, 263–4, 309–10 Long Term Credit Bank of Japan 94 LOR (company) 202 Louisiana Purchase 319 low exercise price options (LEPOs) 261 Maastricht Treaty and criteria 106–7 McLuhan, Marshall 134 McNamara, Robert 182 macro-economic indicators, derivatives linked to 319 Mahathir Mohammed 31 Malaysia 9 management consultants 72–3 Manchester United 152 mandatory convertibles 255 Marakanond, Rerngchai 302 margin calls 97–8, 175 ‘market neutral’ investment strategy 114 market risk 158, 173, 265 marketable eurodollar collateralized securities (MECS) 232 Markowitz, Harry 110 mark-to-market accounting 10, 100, 139–41, 145, 150, 174, 215–16, 228, 244, 266, 292, 295, 298 Marx, Groucho 24, 57, 67, 117, 308 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 4:44 pm Page 331 Index mathematics applied to financial instruments 209–10; see also ‘quants’ matrix structures 72 Meckling, Herbert 117 Melamed, Leo 34, 211 merchant banks 38 Meriwether, John 167–9, 172–5 Merrill Lynch 124, 150, 217, 232 Merton, Robert 22, 42, 168–70, 175, 185, 189–90, 193–7, 210 Messier, Marie 247 Metallgesellschaft 95–7 Mexico 44 mezzanine finance 285–8, 291–7 MG Refining and Marketing 95–8, 114 Microsoft 53 Mill, Stuart 130 Miller, Merton 22, 101, 194 Milliken, Michael 282 Ministry of Finance, Japan 222 misogyny 75–7 mis-selling 238, 297–8 Mitchell, Edison 70 Mitchell & Butler 275–6 models financial 42–3, 141–2, 163–4, 173–5, 181–4, 189, 198–9, 205–10 of business processes 73–5 see also credit models Modest, David 168 momentum investment 111 monetization 260–1 monopolies in financial trading 124 moral hazard 151, 280, 291 Morgan Guaranty 37–8, 221, 232 Morgan Stanley 76, 150 mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) 282–3 Moscow, City of 277 moves of staff between firms 150, 244 Mozer, Paul 169 Mullins, David 168–70 multi-skilling 73 331 Mumbai 3 Murdoch, Rupert 247 Nabisco 220 Napoleon 113 NASDAQ index 64, 112 Nash, Ogden 306 National Australia Bank 144, 178 National Rifle Association 29 NatWest Bank 144–5, 198 Niederhoffer, Victor 130 ‘Nero’ 7, 31, 45–9, 60, 77, 82–3, 88–9, 110, 118–19, 125, 128, 292 NERVA 297 New Zealand 319 Newman, Frank 104 news, financial 133–4 News Corporation 247 Newton, Isaac 162, 210 Nippon Credit Bank 106, 271 Nixon, Richard 33 Nomura Securities 218 normal distribution 160–3, 193, 199 Northern Electric 248 O’Brien, John 202 Occam, William 188 off-balance sheet transactions 32–3, 99, 234, 273, 282 ‘offsites’ 74–5 oil prices 30, 33, 89–90, 95–7 ‘omitted variable’ bias 209–10 operational risk 158, 176 opinion shopping 47 options 9, 21–2, 25–6, 32, 42, 90, 98, 124, 197, 229 pricing 185, 189–98, 202 Orange County 16, 44, 50, 124–57, 212–17, 232–3 orphan subsidiaries 234 over-the-counter (OTC) market 26, 34, 53, 95, 124, 126 overvaluation 64 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 4:44 pm Page 332 332 Index ‘overwhelming force’ strategy 134–5 Owen, Martin 145 ownership, ‘legal’ and ‘economic’ 247 parallel loans 35 pari-mutuel auction system 319 Parkinson’s Law 136 Parmalat 250, 298–9 Partnoy, Frank 87 pension funds 43, 108–10, 115, 204–5, 255 People’s Bank of China (PBOC) 276–7 Peters’ Principle 71 petrodollars 71 Pétrus (restaurant) 121 Philippines, the 9 phobophobia 177 Piga, Gustavo 106 PIMCO 19 Plaza Accord 38, 94, 99, 220 plutophobia 177 pollution quotas 320 ‘portable alpha’ strategy 115 portfolio insurance 112, 202–3, 294 power reverse dual currency (PRDC) bonds 226–30 PowerPoint 75 preferred exchangeable resettable listed shares (PERLS) 255 presentations of business models 75 to clients 57, 185 prime brokerage 309 Prince, Charles 238 privatization 205 privity of contract 273 Proctor & Gamble (P&G) 44, 101–4, 155, 298, 301 product disclosure statements (PDSs) 48–9 profit smoothing 140 ‘programme’ issuers 234–5 proprietary (‘prop’) trading 60, 62, 64, 130, 174, 254 publicly available information (PAI) 277 ‘puff’ effect 148 purchasing power parity theory 92 ‘put’ options 90, 131, 256 ‘quants’ 183–9, 198, 208, 294 Raabe, Matthew 217 Ramsay, Gordon 121 range notes 225 real estate 91, 219 regulatory arbitrage 33 reinsurance companies 288–9 ‘relative value’ trading 131, 170–1, 310 Reliance Insurance 91–2 repackaging (‘repack’) business 230–6, 282, 290 replication in option pricing 195–9, 202 dynamic 200 research provided to clients 58, 62–4, 184 reserves, use of 140 reset preference shares 254–7 restructuring of loans 279–81 retail equity products 258–9 reverse convertibles 258–9 reverse dual currency bonds 223–30 ‘revolver’ loans 284–5 risk, financial, types of 158 risk adjusted return on capital (RAROC) 268, 290 risk conservation principle 229–30 risk management 65, 153–79, 184, 187, 201, 267 risk models 163–4, 173–5 riskless portfolios 196–7 RJ Reynolds (company) 220–1 rogue traders 176, 313–16 Rosenfield, Eric 168 Ross, Stephen 196–7, 202 Roth, Don 38 Rothschild, Mayer Amshel 267 Royal Bank of Scotland 298 Rubinstein, Mark 42, 196–7 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 4:44 pm Page 333 Index Rumsfeld, Donald 12, 134, 306 Rusnak, John 143 Russia 45, 80, 166, 172–3, 274, 302 sales staff 55–60, 64–5, 125, 129, 217 Salomon Brothers 20, 36, 54, 62, 167–9, 174, 184 Sandor, Richard 34 Sanford, Charles 72, 269 Sanford, Eugene 269 Schieffelin, Allison 76 Scholes, Myron 22, 42, 168–71, 175, 185, 189–90, 193–7, 263–4 Seagram Group 247 Securities and Exchange Commission, US 64, 304 Securities and Futures Authority, UK 249 securitization 282–90 ‘security design’ 254–7 self-regulation 155 sex discrimination 76 share options 250–1 Sharpe, William 111 short selling 30–1, 114 Singapore 9 single-tranche CDOs 293–4, 299 ‘Sisters of Perpetual Ecstasy’ 234 SITCOMs 313 Six Continents (6C) 275–6 ‘smile’ effect 145 ‘snake’ currency system 203 ‘softing’ arrangements 117 Solon 137 Soros, George 44, 130, 253, 318–19 South Sea Bubble 210 special purpose asset repackaging companies (SPARCs) 233 special purpose vehicles (SPVs) 231–4, 282–6, 290, 293 speculation 29–31, 42, 67, 87, 108, 130 ‘spinning’ 64 333 Spitzer, Eliot 64 spread 41, 103; see also credit spreads stack hedges 96 Stamenson, Michael 124–5 standard deviation 161, 193, 195, 199 Steinberg, Sol 91 stock market booms 258, 260 stock market crashes 42–3, 168, 203, 257, 259, 319 straddles or strangles 131 strategy in banking 70 stress testing 164–6 stripping of convertible bonds 253–4 structured investment products 44, 112, 115, 118, 128, 211–39, 298 structured note asset packages (SNAPs) 233 Stuart SC 18, 307, 316–18 Styblo Bleder, Tanya 153 Suharto, Thojib 81–2 Sumitomo Corporation 100, 142 Sun Tzu 61 Svensk Exportkredit (SEK) 38–9 swaps 5–10, 26, 35–40, 107, 188, 211; see also equity swaps ‘swaptions’ 205–6 Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) 248–9 Swiss banks 108, 305 ‘Swiss cheese theory’ 176 synthetic securitization 284–5, 288–90 systemic risk 151 Takeover Panel 248–9 Taleb, Nassim 130, 136, 167 target redemption notes 225–6 tax and tax credits 171, 242–7, 260–3 Taylor, Frederick 98, 101 team-building exercises 76 team moves 149 technical analysis 60–1, 135 television programmes about money 53, 62–3 Thailand 9, 80, 302–5 13_INDEX.QXD 17/2/06 4:44 pm Page 334 334 Index Thatcher, Margaret 205 Thorp, Edward 253 tobashi trades 105–7 Tokyo Disneyland 92, 212 top managers 72–3 total return swaps 246–8, 269 tracking error 138 traders in financial products 59–65, 129–31, 135–6, 140, 148, 151, 168, 185–6, 198; see also dealers trading limits 42, 157, 201 trading rooms 53–4, 64, 68, 75–7, 184–7, 208 Trafalgar House 248 tranching 286–9, 292, 296 transparency 26, 117, 126, 129–30, 310 Treynor, Jack 111 trust investment enhanced return securities (TIERS) 216, 233 trust obligation participating securities (TOPS) 232 TXU Europe 279 UBS Global Asset Management 110, 150, 263–4, 274 uncertainty principle 122–3 unique selling propositions 118 unit trusts 109 university education 187 unspecified fund obligations (UFOs) 292 ‘upfronting’ of income 139, 151 Valéry, Paul 163 valuation 64, 142–6 value at risk (VAR) concept 160–7, 173 value investing 111 Vanguard 116 vanity bonds 230 variance 161 Vietnam War 182, 195 Virgin Islands 233–4 Vivendi 247–8 volatility of bond prices 197 of interest rates 144–5 of share prices 161–8, 172–5, 192–3, 199 Volcker, Paul 20, 33 ‘warehouses’ 40–2, 139 warrants arbitrage 99–101 weather, bonds linked to 212, 320 Weatherstone, Dennis 72, 268 Weil, Gotscal & Manges 298 Weill, Sandy 174 Westdeutsche Genosenschafts Zentralbank 143 Westminster Group 34–5 Westpac 261–2 Wheat, Allen 70, 72, 106, 167 Wojniflower, Albert 62 World Bank 4, 36, 38 World Food Programme 320 Worldcom 250, 298 Wriston, Walter 71 WTI (West Texas Intermediate) contracts 28–30 yield curves 103, 188–9, 213, 215 yield enhancement 112, 213, 269 ‘yield hogs’ 43 zaiteku 98–101, 104–5 zero coupon bonds 221–2, 257–8

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Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World
by Tom Burgis
Published 7 Sep 2020

Instead, in a witness statement the length of a novel, he had tried to show how he had been playing a game by one set of rules but now found himself judged by another set, the rules of the West. ‘It is a fact of life in Kazakhstan that, because of the suppression of political opponents by Nazarbayev through the seizure of their assets, most high net worth individuals such as myself have no alternative other than to hold as many of their assets as possible through a structure of nominees and trustees based outside Kazakhstan. In other words, even those high net worth individuals who are not active opponents of the regime seek to protect themselves by holding their assets in this fashion so that Nazarbayev and his coterie of kleptocrats cannot simply seize them, in the event that they come to the attention of Nazarbayev and his regime.

…

As British power waned, many of its smaller possessions remained bound to the City, only now in the service of other people’s empires. Where once an island produced a particular crop, now it offered a particular flavour of financial secrecy: a type of trust, say, or a species of front company. BSI set up in the Bahamas and on Guernsey. Its bankers also needed to be near some actual rich people – high net worth individuals, as they were to be known – so they were stationed in New York, Hong Kong, Monte Carlo and of course London itself. The Swiss bankers didn’t do anything clever or original with the money. They just invested it in stocks and bonds like anyone else lucky enough to have a little to put aside.

pages: 302 words: 86,614

The Alpha Masters: Unlocking the Genius of the World's Top Hedge Funds
by Maneet Ahuja , Myron Scholes and Mohamed El-Erian
Published 29 May 2012

The firm’s investor base has undergone a dramatic evolution from its start in 1995, when its capital came from friends and family. At the end of 2011, public and corporate pension fund capital comprised over 50 percent of the firm’s assets. Foundations, endowments, family offices, and insurance companies made up much of the remainder, with less than one percent drawn from high-net-worth individuals. Charles Spiller, Director of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System, started investing with Avenue after an introduction from New York Life in late 2000 and has seen a 10-year track record in their private equity portfolio of between 15 percent and 17 percent.

…

In July 2007, amid great optimism, Loeb launched a public vehicle, Third Point Offshore Investors Limited, which was the first permanent capital vehicle for a U.S.-domiciled fund in Europe, and also the first float of an event-driven fund anywhere. Although staked at inception with investments from several large funds of hedge funds and high-net-worth investors, and with long holdings that included the New York Stock Exchange, DaimlerChrysler, and Phillips Electronics, it sailed into the first fears of market meltdown and struggled to meet its capital target. The initial public offering (IPO) managed to raise $525 million from listing a fund in London after a 24-hour delay, below its $690 million target but not a bad outcome given the uncertainty facing the markets at that time.

pages: 261 words: 86,905

How to Speak Money: What the Money People Say--And What It Really Means
by John Lanchester
Published 5 Oct 2014

It seems to have been high-frequency trading that caused the “flash crash” of 6 May 2011, in which the US stock market fell by more than 10 percent and lost $1 trillion of value in less than twenty minutes. But the causes of the flash crash are still not really understood. That, right there, is really alarming.44 HNWI High net worth individual, a reference to a rich person as defined by the financial services industry. The definition is fixed: it means he or she has more than a million dollars in financial assets—meaning assets other than their “residences, collectables, consumer durables and consumables.” Globally, there are 11 million people in that category, with a total worth of $42 trillion.

…

Globally, there are 11 million people in that category, with a total worth of $42 trillion. This way of defining a rich person is of use to people in the money business, who are on the lookout for individuals to advise—hence the emphasis on financial assets. You can have a house worth $10 million but not be an HNWI. An UNHWI is an ultra-high net worth individual, meaning more than $30 million in financial assets. According to the World Wealth Report, the USA has 3.44 million HNWI.45 holes in the balance sheet A strange metaphor, evoking the annoying ripped bit where your big toe accidentally went through the top sheet, whereas what it actually means is that some of the stuff listed on a bank’s books as its assets are worth less than the balance sheet says they are.

pages: 251 words: 80,831

Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups
by Ali Tamaseb
Published 14 Sep 2021

In order to have “skin in the game,” the general partners, or GPs, of a venture capital fund have to put some of their own capital into the fund, typically at least 1 or 2 percent of the fund size, which is called the GP commit. The rest of the money usually comes from institutional sources of capital, university endowments, investment offices of high-net-worth families, nonprofit foundations, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and the like. There are some VCs that only invest money on behalf of nonprofits. That is one key distinction between VCs and angel investors: angels invest their own money, while VCs invest other people’s money, often fifty to a hundred times more than their own.

…

And it’s less common, at least at the time of writing this book, for the very best startups that can readily have access to venture capital investment to turn to equity crowdfunding. For many angels, the investment is about more than just making money. They invest because they truly want to see a cause or product succeed. Many angel investors were successful, high-net-worth individuals before starting angel investing. Data has shown that 10 percent of angel investments generate 90 percent of the returns; not all angel investors are going to be lucky enough to have one of those home-run investments in their portfolio. While angel investing as an asset class generates good returns for investors, only a small number of angel investors will make exceptionally great returns; most others will lose their money.

pages: 300 words: 81,293

Supertall: How the World's Tallest Buildings Are Reshaping Our Cities and Our Lives
by Stefan Al
Published 11 Apr 2022

The tower also reflects light more subtly than Midtown’s many boxes of glass and steel, thanks to its glazed terra-cotta tiles, a nod to the city’s early skyscrapers. 53W53, New York City, Jean Nouvel, 2019 While the Steinway Tower shows the potential of the New York “accidental” skyscraper, it also highlights its pitfalls. 111 West 57th Street incorporates the Steinway Hall, the piano showroom that once hosted duo performances of Vladimir Horowitz and Sergei Rachmaninoff—now turned into a luxury health club. One critic described the super slender phenomenon as the “plutocratization of the midtown skyline.”31 The towers are the playgrounds of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, who make up only 0.003 percent of the world population, yet hold 13 percent of the world’s wealth.32 The super slender penthouse gives them a tangible asset as an ultimate status symbol. In the process, they are making an indelible mark on the Manhattan skyline. 111 West 57th Street, New York City, SHoP Architects, 2021 Extreme wealth is not just pushing New York’s skyscrapers upward.

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“City Council Considers Task Force to Study Impact of Megatowers Casting Shadows on Central Park,” CBS New York, November 12, 2015, accessed February 27, 2021, https://newyork.cbslocal.com/. 30.Quoctrung Bui and Jeremy White, “Mapping the Shadows of New York City: Every Building, Every Block,” New York Times, December 21, 2016. 31.Justin Davidson, “Giants in Our Midst,” New York Magazine, September 12, 2013. 32.“Ultra High Net Worth Individual (UHNWI),” Investopedia, October 26, 2017, accessed May 16, 2020. 33.Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, “CTBUH Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2020,” CTBUH Journal, no. 1 (2021). 34.Kristina Shevory, “Cities See Another Side to Old Tracks,” New York Times, August 2, 2011. 35.Kevin Loughran, “Parks for Profit: The High Line, Growth Machines, and the Uneven Development of Urban Public Spaces,” City & Community 13, no. 1 (2014): 49–68. 36.Michael Kimmelman, “Hudson Yards Is Manhattan’s Biggest, Newest, Slickest Gated Community.

pages: 535 words: 158,863

Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making
by David Rothkopf
Published 18 Mar 2008

And that group, which a Merrill Lynch study has termed High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs), controls over $37 trillion in global assets—double what it controlled just ten years earlier. (Interestingly, growth among this group was most rapid in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific Region, Africa, and the Middle East, due in part to rapidly appreciating emerging markets asset values.) However, within this group of exceptionally fortunate individuals is another group cited earlier—the 1 percent of them, or roughly 95,000, who each own financial assets in excess of $30 million (these are the UHNWIs, or Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals), for a total of $13 trillion.

…

Take them all together and you arrive at a rough membership in the superclass of around six thousand, perhaps a few hundred more. Could you define a group of exceptionally influential individuals that is two or three times that? Yes. Are there even smaller circles of ultra-elites within the superclass? Certainly. Are the lower tiers of elites—the ninety-five thousand Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals, for example, or additional senior business executives—important? Of course. But this core group of approximately six thousand remains as good a definition of the world’s most influential international actors as one might want for the purpose of understanding the nascent power structures they comprise and how they shape the lives of each and every one of us.

pages: 482 words: 149,351

The Finance Curse: How Global Finance Is Making Us All Poorer
by Nicholas Shaxson
Published 10 Oct 2018

For citizens of the Commonwealth, the latter typically means London and New York; for Latin Americans it usually means Miami, Houston or New York; and for Francophone Africans it is more likely to be Paris and New York. This is a fast-growing profession, expanding much faster than the global economy. By 2017, according to Credit Suisse, 36 million people could call themselves HNWIs, high net worth individuals, with assets each worth more than $1 million; these people make up the top 0.7 per cent of the world’s population. HNWI numbers have been growing six times faster than the population as a whole, and in 2017 this group collectively held over $129 trillion in wealth, nearly half the world total.

…

As a Citibanker in Mexico told the financial investigator James Henry, ‘The money my clients put offshore is for safekeeping: when they want 200 per cent returns, they keep the money here.’ James Henry, ‘The Price of Offshore Revisited’, Tax Justice Network, July 2012. 11. The inequality data comes from Thomas Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century, Belknap Press, 2014. The high net worth individuals data comes from the Credit Suisse ‘Global Wealth Report 2016’, principally Figure 4, p.26. But this data raises the question: what constitutes ‘ownership’? Does it include ‘ownerless’ wealth held in, say, discretionary trusts? The Credit Suisse report does not mention trusts, foundations and the like, but says (also p.26) that it uses survey data – which it notes is unreliable – supplemented with ‘rich lists’ such as the Forbes billionaires’ list, collated by journalists.

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122, 136–7 Cadbury’s 113 Cameron, David 48 Capital Group 84 capital requirements 148–63 Careline Homecare Limited 190–3, 202–5, 206, 216, 220 care sector 4, 190–4, 202–9, 216–17, 220, 228, 229, 234 Carillion 46, 231, 237 Carlyle Group 214 Carvalho, Arnaldo Lago de 233 Cassano, Joe 161 Cayman Islands 1, 2, 3, 59–60, 62, 63–7, 93, 125, 136, 140, 141, 145, 150, 151, 152, 153–4, 157, 162, 179, 188, 200, 211, 228, 242 Cayman Trust Law (1967) 62 Celtic Tiger (Ireland economy) 4, 115, 116–39 Central Bank of Ireland 129, 136 Cheney, Dick 244 Cherwell, Lord 53 Chicago School 28, 29, 30, 46, 71, 74, 98, 110, 197, 209, 253 China 13, 23, 50, 55, 84, 85, 87, 92, 104, 108, 110, 117, 138, 200, 258, 262–7, 272, 274 China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) 262–3 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 258, 264, 265, 266, 267, 272 Christensen, John 5, 11, 48, 67–8 Christensen, Professor Clayton 197, 198 Citibank/Citigroup 11, 59, 83, 129, 140, 159 City of London 37, 38, 84, 92–3, 183, 185, 252, 271, 272, 273; Big Bang 104, 143–4; capture of British establishment 13, 142, 166–7, 257–60, 265, 266; Chinese influence upon 262–7; evidence machine/lobbying and 257–60; financial brain drain and 6, 108, 259; global financial crisis and see global financial crisis; monopolies and 84; neoliberalism and 37, 38; organised crime and other abusive activities linked to 11–12, 93, 97, 141–6, 154, 166, 167, 168; penetrated and captured by reckless global finance (London loophole) 140–68; rebirth as global financial centre after fall of British empire 4, 10, 50–69; tax havens and see tax havens; Third Way and 92–3, 97, 98, 102, 104, 108, 109, 113; UK economy and growth in size of 5–14, 108, 218–40, 257–61, 262–74 City of London Corporation 257–8 Clearing House Group 130–1 Clinton, Bill 91, 97, 101, 114, 115, 122, 159 Clinton, Hillary 91, 100 Coase, Ronald: The Problem of Social Cost 72–4, 79 Coelho, Tony 98–9 Cohen, Benjamin J. 57 Cohen, Sheldon 254 collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) 165, 235 collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) 165, 200 Commodity Futures Modernisation Act (CFMA) (2000) 159–60 Community Mental Health Fund, Missouri 44 comparative advantage concept 105, 108 Competition and Markets Authority 70 competitiveness of nations/competitiveness agenda 8–9, 13–14, 23, 28–49, 62, 68, 70–1, 73, 80, 95, 97–8, 100–15, 130, 131, 132–3, 136, 142, 143, 149, 159, 160, 161, 164, 165, 180–1, 184–5, 207, 218, 241–3, 246–7, 250, 252–3, 258, 266, 267, 270, 271, 273 Conservative Party 37, 53, 71, 78, 102, 157, 165, 168, 220, 229 consultants 40, 41, 42–3, 66, 117, 230, 232, 233 controlled foreign company (CFC) reforms, U.K. 249–50 Cook Islands 177, 186, 272 Cornfield, Bernie 93 corporation: complexity of 3, 205–6; concept of 196–7 credit, control of 21 credit default swap (CDS) 128, 141, 147, 155–9, 165 Credit Suisse 11, 180, 183 crime/criminal money 12, 56, 58, 61, 62, 63, 64–5, 93–4, 142–3, 144, 145, 153, 154, 167–8, 175, 180, 187, 223, 264, 272, 273 Cromwell, William 22 Daily Mail 113, 251, 252 Darling, Alistair 257 Davidson, Charles 182, 189 Davidson, Kenneth 81, 252 Davies, Will 36, 39, 102 Deaton, Angus 181 debt 7, 34, 58, 69, 121, 152, 160, 165, 169, 186, 190, 193–6, 198–201, 205, 206–7, 208, 210, 215, 221, 234, 235, 244, 248, 262 Delaware, U.S. 181 Deloitte 235, 237 Delors, Jacques 100 Democratic Party, U.S. 39, 97, 98–100, 102, 141, 245 Deng Xiaoping 117 Depfa 133 deregulation, financial 13, 31, 35, 64–5, 68–9, 91, 97, 104, 107, 109, 117–18, 138, 142, 143, 146, 152, 159–60, 164, 165, 260 derivatives 12, 140–1, 142, 144, 146–7, 149, 151, 155, 158–60, 161, 164, 193 Desmond, Dermot 129–30 de Tocqueville, Alexis 75–6 Deutsche Bank 83, 95, 111, 160 Devereux, Professor Mike 243 Director, Aaron 71–2, 78, 79 DIRT (Deposit Interest Retention Tax) 136 Down’s Syndrome North East Association (UK) (DNSE) 169–70, 174 Drexel Burnham Lambert 161, 195 drugs: gangs/money 12, 61, 64–5, 92, 142–3, 145, 167, 185–6; pharmaceutical/Big Pharma 85–6, 126, 247 Dunbar, Nicholas 152, 161 dynamic scoring/dynamic modeling 253–4 East India Company 50, 75 Eddy, Bruce 44 Efficient Markets Hypothesis 150 Elf Affair 94, 187 Enron 46, 141, 165, 235–6 Epstein, Professor Gerald 10–11, 259; Overcharged: The High Costs of Finance 10– 11 Ernst & Young 163, 235, 238 Espino, Ovidio Diaz: How Wall Street Created a Nation 23 Essilor 82; EssilorLuxottica 82 Eurodollar markets/Euromarkets 55–9, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 68, 69, 77, 91, 93, 104, 142 European Central Bank (ECB) 137 European Commission (EC) 84, 94, 100, 111, 137; Liikanen Report (2012) 135 European Economic Community (EEC) 77, 98, 118, 123, 124–5 European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) 100 European Union (EU) 98, 109–10, 111, 124, 132, 147, 238 Export Profits Tax Relief 118 Facebook 23, 71, 84, 88, 171, 173, 185, 226, 271, 274 fallacy of composition 107–8, 247 Fallon, Padraic 124 Fanning, John 126 Fantus Factory Location Service 40 Farm Aid 87–8 Federal Reserve Bank of New York 57 Ferguson, Niall: The Ascent of Money 242 Fiat 250 Finance Acts, Ireland: (1968) 120; (1987) 131 finance curse, concept of 3–14, 15, 18, 19, 22, 31, 37, 48, 68, 71, 103, 108, 111, 132, 136, 174, 184–5, 193, 198, 216, 228, 239, 257, 261, 265, 267, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274 financial capture 13, 68, 96, 153, 257, 259, 265, 266 Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 25–6, 246 financial crisis, global (2007–8) 4, 6, 25, 83, 90, 99, 109, 113, 114, 116, 128, 130, 133–4, 135–6, 140–68, 169, 195, 202, 224–5, 233, 235, 236, 240, 257 financialisation 2–4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 37, 68–9, 71, 88, 90, 174, 180, 185, 190, 191, 194, 198, 205, 217, 224, 225, 226, 228, 232, 259, 267, 274 Financial Services Authority (FSA) 104, 160, 161, 166, 167 Financial Stability Board (FSB) 83 Financial Times 68, 84, 94, 107, 146, 214, 218, 226, 232, 243, 256 Finger, Bernd 168 Fischel, William 38 Fordism 80 foreign direct investment (FDI) 110, 118–19, 123, 124, 132, 250 Fox News 71, 253 Franks, Oliver 52 Fraser, Ian: Shredded 227 free markets 18–19, 71–2, 99, 126, 128, 241 free-rider problem 30–1, 43, 47, 38 free trade 31, 50–1 Friedman, Milton 28, 30, 37, 59, 72, 73–4; ‘The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits’ 196–7, 198, 209 Friedmaniacs 28, 30 FTSE 100 228, 238 Gapper, John 232–3 Gash, Tom 230 Gates, Bill 127, 185 Gauke, David 249 Gaydamak, Arkady 186 Gazprom 84 GDP (gross domestic product) 6, 8, 111, 112, 123, 147, 153, 174, 241, 245, 254, 256, 260, 266 General Electric (GE) 86–7 Gensler, Gary 140–1 Gibraltar 60, 63 Giddens, Anthony: The Third Way 105 Gilbert, Martin 83 Gilead 85–6 Giles, Chris 218 Glasman, Baron 258 Glass-Steagall Act (1933) 76, 147, 158–9 globalisation 10, 35, 59, 93, 94–5, 97, 98, 101, 102, 103, 106, 107, 109, 165, 177, 251, 254 Golden Age of Capitalism 34, 69, 91, 92, 118, 196, 251, 254–5 Goldman Sachs 113, 159, 160, 183, 213, 235, 242 Google 71, 88, 226, 271 Graphite Capital Partners VIII A LP 191–2, 205, 206 Great Depression (1929–39) 31, 98 Greenspan, Alan 75, 159, 160 gross national income (GNI) 112, 119, 122–3, 134 Guernsey 60, 181, 191, 220, 222 Hahneman, Daniel 181 Haldane, Andrew 225 Hands, Guy 181 Hansen, Lee 28 happiness, wealth and 181–3, 189 Harlech, Lord 34 Harrington, Brooke 186, 188 Hartnett, Dave 113 Harvard Business School 101, 196, 197 Harvie, Alicia 87–8 Harvoni 86 Haughey, Charles 114–15, 120–3, 129–30, 136 Hayek, Friedrich 35–6, 37, 59, 76; The Road to Serfdom 36, 37 Hayes, Jerry 229 Heaton, David 234 hedge funds 6, 13, 83, 104, 108, 128, 130–1, 140–1, 154, 164, 177, 178, 189, 193, 200, 209, 213, 214–15, 217, 233 Henry, James 166, 260 Hewlett-Packard 39–40 Hinkley C 262–3 HMRC 62, 104, 113, 168, 173, 234, 241, 242, 245, 246, 249, 252–4; Computable General Equilibrium model 241, 252–4 HNWI (high net worth individuals) 180; ultra-HNWI 180 Hodge, Margaret 168, 239 Hofri-Windogradow, Adam 180 Hong Kong 50, 130, 138, 171–2, 266 HSBC 12, 54, 83, 107–8, 167, 266 Hundred Group 242 Hunt Companies 221 HypoVereinsbank 133 Industrial Development Authority (IDA), Ireland 118, 124–5, 126, 129, 131, 135 inequality 4, 11, 31, 34, 36, 47, 48, 59, 90, 109, 138, 179, 187, 225, 251, 255, 256, 257, 259, 267–8, 270, 272, 274 inflation 34, 80, 107, 129 Innes, Abby 229 Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) 247 Intel 125 internal rate of return (IRR) 198, 211 International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), Dublin 128–35, 251 International Monetary Fund (IMF) 137, 164, 219, 250, 251, 257 International Public Partnerships Limited (INPP) 220–1 International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) 158 Intruders 113 Investec Wealth & Investment Limited 220 investment funds 2, 88, 110, 140 Investors Overseas Services (IOS) 93 Iran 53–4 Ireland: Celtic Tiger economy in 4, 114–15, 116–39 Isle of Man 60, 136 Jackson County, Missouri, U.S. 44 Jenkins, Robert 11 Jensen, Professor Michael 196, 197, 198, 209, 215 Jersey 1, 2, 3, 5, 60, 63, 67–8, 131, 136, 169, 171, 173, 174, 202, 221, 222, 223, 228, 258 Jiang Zemin 117 Johnson, Boris 218, 219, 222 Johnson County, Kansas, U.S. 41–4 Johnson, Paul 247 Johnson, Simon 257 Joly, Eva 187 Journal of Political Economy 29, 46 JP Morgan Chase 83, 95, 141, 146, 147, 155, 158, 160, 214 Juncker, Jean-Claude 94–5, 97, 102, 103, 104, 111, 114, 122 Kansas, U.S. 41–4, 244–5, 255–6 Kay, John 9 Kennedy, Edward 78–9 Keynes, John Maynard 31–2, 34, 37, 38, 52, 59, 68, 251 KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 2, 3, 195, 214 Koch, Charles 74 Kohlberg Junior, Jerome 194, 195, 199 Kohl, Marius 95 KPMG 114, 235, 237, 238–9 Kraft Heinz 81, 113 Kravis, Henry 2, 195 Kroes, Neelie 110 Krugman, Paul: ‘Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession’ 105 Labour Party 77, 97, 102–5, 132, 192, 220, 247, 257 Lack, Simon 214; The Hedge Fund Mirage 214 Laffer, Arthur/Laffer curve 244–5, 254 Lazonick, Bill 225, 226 Leaver, Professor Adam 207, 224–5, 234 Lehman Brothers 140, 162–4 Leigh-Pemberton, Robin 145 LeRoy, Greg 40–1 leveraged buyout (LBO) 195–6 Levin, Carl 134 Liberty Global 250 Libor (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate), manipulation of 12, 85, 109, 166 Linares, Adolfo 185, 188 Linklaters 163 Lloyds Bank 52 Local Government Association (LCA) 224 Loch Alpine Economics 253 London School of Economics (LSE) 37, 105, 229 London Stock Exchange (LSE) 167, 220 London Whale 141 Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) 140–1 Luxembourg 1, 2, 3, 13, 55–6, 92, 93–7, 98, 111–13, 125, 130, 138, 142, 166, 201, 211, 221, 222, 228, 243 Luxleaks scandal (2014) 95, 109 Luxottica 82 Lycamobile 168 Lydian Capital Partnership 202 Lynn, Barry 87, 88 Macdonald, Ken 168 Macmillan, Harold 34, 53–4 MacSharry, Ray: The Making of the Celtic Tiger 118, 127 Madoff, Bernie 94, 96 Madrid, Miguel de la 58 Major, John 220 Maloney, Carolyn 141 Manafort, Paul 183 Manne, Henry 74 Marchant, David 157 Marx, Karl 15, 18 Masters, Blythe 158 Maugham, Jolyon 156 Maurer, Ueli 45–6 Mazerov, Michael 255 McAlpin, Clovis 62 McCarthy, Joseph 29 McCarthy, Justine 119 McCreevy, Charlie 132 McDonald, Duff 197 Mellon, Tamara 208 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) 26, 71, 81, 82, 83, 84, 87, 99, 110, 155, 225, 226, 251 Metcalf, Stephen 36 Microsoft 125, 185 Midland Bank 34, 54–5 Milken, Michael 195 Missouri, U.S. 41, 43, 44, 244–5, 255 money laundering 12, 145–6, 167, 168, 183 Money Trust Investigation, U.S.

pages: 262 words: 93,987

The Buy Side: A Wall Street Trader's Tale of Spectacular Excess
by Turney Duff
Published 3 Jun 2013

The smile I remember from my interview is gone. She looks stern, almost angry. She allows the silence to settle in the air. It cues the two other guys to sit up a little straighter and focus on our boss. “Welcome to Private Client Services,” she says. My uncle told me PCS is as close to the trading desk as I can get. These brokers manage high-net-worth individuals’ money instead of institutions. They are retail brokers, but their client lists aren’t your mom-and-pops down the street. They only manage money for people with ten, twenty, thirty million plus. “I know a few of you have already been at Morgan Stanley for a couple of weeks now and some of you”—she looks directly at me—“are starting today.”

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He’s almost too nice for Wall Street. Andy takes advantage of Josh’s gentle demeanor. But together, they’re the golden boys of the firm. They get the hottest leads, the best allocations, and all the resources they need. “We’d like to offer Turney a position with our team,” Andy tells Stephanie. Sometime in the mid-1990s, high-net-worth departments, like Morgan Stanley’s Private Client Services, underwent a seminal shift in their approach. It used to be that these brokers primarily helped their clients trade. Brokers were instructed to generate revenue by commission trades. The new model is to gather “assets under management,” using the heft of $10, $20, even $100 million parcels in investments and charge a fee to manage the money.

pages: 329 words: 95,309

Digital Bank: Strategies for Launching or Becoming a Digital Bank
by Chris Skinner
Published 27 Aug 2013

This does not mean that branches or people are irrelevant. The branch and face-to-face discussion is more to do with what type of house you want to build. In other words, it’s the design, the vision, the interior decoration, the furniture and the other bits. The designers may say: “I want to build a high net worth house, with sales advisory centres for people who want face-to-face engagements”. In this case, you build your bank house with IP foundations and lots of snazzy advisory centres, or branches, in the physical world. Others may say: “I want to build a low-cost high volume processing house, with minimal physical contact” in which case you build your bank house with IP foundations and hardly any branches in the physical world.

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Therefore, if their call centre operator takes five minutes more than their competitor’s to answer a call and resolve a problem ... it’s ok. Because their competitor has $25 per minute in extra costs to cover wasted branch space. What about the future? Well, as mentioned, the bank is going through a technology platform refresh and will continue to be focused upon gaining and retaining their core high net worth, higher educated client. Whilst HSBC will be focused upon how to combine the wonders of remote servicing without scripts through a human approach to a global operation that can live in harmony with branch services, as branches close. An interview with Paul Say, Chief Marketing Officer at First Direct, September 2010.

pages: 294 words: 89,406

Lying for Money: How Fraud Makes the World Go Round
by Daniel Davies
Published 14 Jul 2018

A hedge fund with good (reported) performance won’t get many requests from investors for their money back – they want to keep it in the fund if it’s doing well. Ponzi’s scheme fell apart because of the redemption dates for his ‘notes’ and the Pigeon King scheme fell apart when cash ran out to buy birds as they hatched. But a hedge fund investment account has no set maturity date. Sam Israel also knew enough about the high-net-worth investing game to select the right kinds of investors – mainly overworked institutional investors operating with other peoples’ money and a defined series of checks, all of which were based off analysis of the ‘audited’ accounts. As far as possible he avoided taking money from wealthy individuals, because they tended to have sons and daughters with too much time on their hands who might make site visits or ask questions around Wall Street.

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W. von 198 Goffman, Erving 78 gold alluvial 130 Golden Boos see Erni, Barbara golden rule of fraud detection 288 Goldman Sachs 65, 68, 11, 239 Goodfellas 80 Goodman, George 142 Goodman, Myron 63–72 goodwill (accounting) 176 government in general 53, 76, 174, 211, 218, 263–82 South American, possibly fictitious 7, 8 USA 51, 57, 91 Portugal 121, 122 secret global, definitely fictitious 110 Indonesian 132 Gowex 150, 154 Grant Thornton 106 Greece 10–11, 116, 208, 224–6, 287 Ancient 34, 225–6 Greenspan, Alan 240 ‘guinea pigs’ 228–9 H Hanseatic League 225 Hasin, Sidney 66, 69 Hayek, F. A. 201–3,205 Henry VIII 216 high-net worth investors tendency to have time on hands 109 tax strategies of a proportion of 266–8 Hippocratic Oath 134 hire purchase scam (Leslie Payne) 36, 39–40 homomorphism 209, 212 Hooley, Ernest ‘The Millionaire’ 230 hotel bills 37 House of Commons 1 Howe, Sarah 90, 116–19, 222 HSBC 188, 189, 280 Hudson Oil 249, 251 Humphery, John Stanley 228 I IBM 64–8 Iceland 218–22 Inca Empire 226–7 Incentives 13, 22, 62, 74, 115, 135, 159, 165, 174, 185–6, 205, 210 incidental fraud vs entrepreneurial 213, 215, 287, 288 Infinity Game 92–9 information 24, 71, 199–208, 211–15, 238 control of by fraudsters 41, 65, 71, 115, 173 insider, securities fraud 23, 239–42, 260 inheritance 117, 217, 218–22, 235, 266 insider dealing 23, 106, 129, 241–43, 260 insurance 36, 39–40, 65, 163–4, 171, 225, 228 medical 74–7, 84 Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) 187–97 insurance scam (Leslie Payne) 40–41 International Reply Coupons see Ponzi, Charles investors 1, 16 in OPM leases 65–7, 69–71 Charles Ponzi’s 86–9 hedge fund 96, 104–9, 113 in pigeons 100, 103 institutional 104 nineteenth century female 118–20 mining 126–30 reliance on accounts 142–54 expectations of UK banks 188 Victorian 228, 231 Retail 240–43 in Piggly Wiggly 256–61 IRS vs UBS 263–4 Israel, Sam see Bayou Capital drug habit of as potential indicator something was wrong 116 J Jehoash (high priest) 217 John Bull 230 K Keating Five 182 Keating, Charles 177–83, 214 Kennedy, John Fitzgerald 61 Kerviel, Jerome 165 King, Don 163 Knights of Industry 234, 237 Kolnische Volkszeitung 232, 234, 236, 237 KPMG 150 Kray, Ronnie and Reggie 26–7, 31, 36, 39, 41 Kutz Method 152–3 KYC (know your customer) 281 L Lab fraud anaemia 74 Ladies’ Deposit Bank (Boston) 116–19 lawyers 19, 27, 33–4, 39, 45, 71, 115, 117, 161, 180, 182, 194, 196, 225, 267, 271, 272, 281 (they’re usually in the background even when not specifically mentioned) professional qualifications of 114 extreme expensiveness of 234 leasing tax advantages of 64 see also OPM Leasing importance of residual value 66 accountancy issues 152 Leeson, Nick 17, 165–73, 285 Lehman Brothers collapse 13 relationship with OPM Leasing 65, 71 Lehnert, Lothar 235–7 Lernout & Hauspie 150 Let’s Gowex see Gowex letterhead 31, 70, 80, 122 Levi, Michael 81, 216, 283 Levy, Jonathan 224 libel 77, 236–8 LIBOR 1–4, 12–16, 193, 205, 215, 244 Liman & Co 235–6 limited liability 34, 225, 231 Lincoln Savings & Loan 177–8, 180, 182–3 livestock 100 Livingstone, Jesse 259 Lloyd’s of London 164, 225 Lomuscio, Joe 59 Long firms 21, 23, 27, 29, 35, 41–2, 43–50, 61, 63, 72, 73–5, 77, 79–82, 96, 141, 142, 163, 164, 212, 224, 283, 284 ‘sledge-drivers’ 232–4 against government 271–4 Lucifer’s Banker 263 M MacGregor, Gregor 5, 8, 9, 17, 77, 78, 214 dubious knighthood of 7, 162 military career 7 previous frauds 18 Madden, Steve 147 Madoff, Bernard 96, 104–5, 113 Mafia 41, 253 Mahler, Russ 249–53 management scientific 19, 200, 206–12, 215 risk management 212–13, 287 strategic 248 public sector 264 marginal cost pricing 248 Marino, Dan (fraudster) 107–9, 113, 115 Marino, Dan (quarterback) 107 maritime capitalism 34, 224–6 market corner 259 market crimes 23, 24, 58, 194, 239–62, 271, 282, 289 markets general characteristics of 23, 197, 201–4, 208, 278, 289 financial 3, 4, 8, 13, 26, 58–60, 99, 100, 107–8, 129, 132, 142–5, 147–8, 149, 150–56, 161, 163, 166, 171–2, 176, 195, 230–31, 239–40, 242–4, 256–61 pharmaceutical, ‘grey’ 136–7 drugs, illegal 43–50 prime bank securities 110–11, 184 real estate 179–80 supermarkets 213, 255 Marx, Groucho 66 Marx, Karl 84, 232, 247 McGregor, Ewan 165, 173 McVitie, Jack ‘The Hat’ 26, 41 Medicare 73–6,134–5, 199, 289 Merchant of Venice 34 Merck Pharmaceuticals 138–40 Michaela, Maria 215, 222 military planning 204, 207, 211 Milken, Michael 177, 183 Miller, Norman 52 mis-selling 194–6 money laundering 278–82 Monopolies Commission (UK) 247 mortgages 38, 77, 101, 175–9, 188, 191, 194, 215, 238 multi-level marketing 94–5 N New England Journal of Medicine 139 New Zealand 9, 172, 241 newspapers 9, 125, 152, 230, 237, 252, 262 Nichols, Robert Booth 110–12 Nikkei index 170–71, 173 nobility Scottish 7 phony scottish 5–9, see Gregor MacGregor phony 223 North Wales Railway Company 229 notaries 114, 125, 133 indiscriminate stamping of documents by in 1920s Portugal 121–2 O ODL Securities 112–13 OECD 268 oil recycling 249–54 OODA loop 208 operations research 204, 208–10, 289 OPM Leasing 63–72 snowball effect of interest expense 98 accounting trick 152–3 options markets 163–4, 171–2 Optitz, Gustav 235–7 Opus Dei 53, 57 Original Dinner Party 92 Other People’s Money 63, 285 P Paddington Buys A Share 20, 43 Parmalat 155 Patsies see fronts Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) 187–97 Payne, Leslie 26–8, 30, 33–6, 39–42, 67, 73, 98, 163, 237, 283 petrol stations 190, 247–8 pharmaceutical industry 133–41 track and trace 136 Philadelphia Savings Fund 70–71 Pigeon King International see Galbraith, Arlan pigeons, racing 100–103 Piggly Wiggly 255–61 Ponzi, Charles 84–90, 96, 109, 116 trial of 90 takeover of Hanover Trust 88–9 launch of scheme 86 Portuguese Banknote Affair 120–25 Powers, Austin 263 Poyais 5–9, 15, 78, 121, 162, 215, 219, 287, 297 prime bank securities 110–13, 122, 184 Prince 135 Prince Albert 228 Princess Caraboo see Baker, Mary Princesses 6, 223 Principles of Scientific Management 206 Prison 18, 61, 112, 119, 125, 173, 208, 252, 270 debtor’s 34, 225 private equity 144 psychology 17, 87 public choice theory 210–11 pump and dump 147 pyramid schemes 91–5, 116, 184, 222 Q Quakers 118 quality control 184, 207, 213–15, 287 Quanta Resources 251–2 Quarterly Review 162 Queen Victoria 228 Queenan, Joe 10 Qwest 150 R Rabelais, Francois 120 Railway Mania 176, 231 Ranbaxy Laboratories 137 Reagan, Ronald 174–5, 251 real estate 89, 177–81, 214, 281 Reddit 48 regulators financial 2, 4, 14, 18, 99, 165, 177–83, 194–5, 240, 260–61, 280–81, 289 softness of in 1960s London 40 environmental 250–51 pharmaceutical 136, 137, 140 Reuschel, Rollo (Stanislaus Reu) 232–8 libel case 237 Richmond-Fairfield 107 Robb, George 228 Rockwell Industries 66–71 Rogers, Will 283 rogue traders 98, 165–73, 215 Royal Canadian Mounted Police 129 S salting (mining fraud technique) 127 Sarbanes-Oxley 194, 202 Saunders, Clarence 255–61 Savings and Loans 174–84, 185, 196, 285, 289 economic theories of failure 174 business model 175 settlement, securities 60, 107, 108, 112, 163, 257, 261 Sherman Antitrust Act 246 shipowners 10, 116, 117, 164, 224–6 ships 164, 207, 221, 224–6 US Navy 89, 249 short firm 73–5, 93 short selling 147, 258–9, 261, 283 shotgun/rifle technique 76–7, 134 signatures, forged 67, 123 Silk Road (online market) 44, 47–8, 50 simplified summary which hopefully captures the important structural features see homomorphism Sketch of the Mosquito Shore 8, 162 Skilling, Jeff 17, 142, 153 slaves 34, 219–21, 225 ‘sledge-drivers’ 232–8 SLK Securities 108, 115 Smith, Adam 11, 213 on cartels 246 snowball effect see compound interest societies, high and low trust 10, 16, 62, 125, 166–7, 264, 287 Soviet planning 204, 208, 227 Sparrow, Malcolm 74, 76 St Joseph (fictitious city) 5 stock exchanges Alberta 11, 129 Toronto 129 Vancouver 11, 126 London 9, 117 New York 59–60,147, 228–31, 256–61 Chicago 59–60, 256 Singapore 170–72 Osaka 170 Tokyo in general 142–5, 147, 163–4,241–2 NASDAQ 240 Strangeways, Thomas 162, see also Gregor MacGregor Strathclyde Genetics see Galbraith, Arlan Stratton Oakmont 145–8 Sufficient Variety, Law of 209 Sullivan, Scott 154 Susquehanna River 251, 252 T tacit knowledge 202–3 Tarantino, Quentin 105 tax 32, 64, 69, 98, 155, 159, 177, 191, 263–71 value added see VAT Taylor, F.

Driverless Cars: On a Road to Nowhere
by Christian Wolmar
Published 18 Jan 2018

Robert Maxwell, for whom I worked briefly in the 1980s, was in the habit of flying in one between his Oxfordshire home and the Daily Mirror office in Holborn. However, he was very much an exception in having somehow obtained a dispensation from the aviation authorities. For the most part, the disbenefits of noise and risk to the general public caused by helicopters far outweigh the advantages to a few high-net-worth individuals, and city authorities across the world have consequently effectively killed off the idea of helicopter commuting. Another example is the Kindle. Remember that this technology was supposed to eliminate books, but despite the proliferation of devices (including the simple smartphone) on which it is possible to read, after a bit of a blip when e-readers first became available, book sales have started to rise again.

All About Asset Allocation, Second Edition
by Richard Ferri
Published 11 Jul 2010

A hedge fund may hold a large, concentrated stock position; employ a liberal use of leverage; use futures, options, swaps, and other derivatives; or sell investments short. Investors became obsessed with the mystique of hedge funds from 2000 to 2008 as stock returns waned. This is especially true in the high-net-worth marketplace, where investors clamor for access to some hedge fund opportunities. Hedge funds are very expensive. If the fund makes a gain, much of that gain goes to the hedge fund manager as a bonus in addition to his or her regular management fee. The funds are also illiquid, with many funds requiring months or even years before you are allowed to withdraw money.

…

The average management fee for a single fund is 1.5 percent per year, plus there is a profit incentive averaging 20 percent. In addition, hedge fund performance is notoriously inconsistent. Good performance by a fund one year does not ensure or even predict good performance the next. Finally, there are high barriers to entry. Hedge funds are available only to high-net-worth investors. The minimum investment of some funds is $1 million or more. There are three broad categories of hedge funds and several subcategories: ● Arbitrage strategies. Arbitrage is the practice of exploiting price inefficiencies in the marketplace. Pure arbitrage has no risk. The trades guarantee a return.

pages: 831 words: 98,409

SUPERHUBS: How the Financial Elite and Their Networks Rule Our World
by Sandra Navidi
Published 24 Jan 2017

A Primer on Banks: Regular and Shadow Banks “Regular” banks take deposits and in turn pay interest to depositors. Then they put the deposits to work to generate revenue, usually by giving loans for which they receive interest or by investing. Savings banks are focused on accumulating money, commercial banks on working with businesses, and private banks on servicing high-net-worth individuals. Investment banks do not have banking licenses and do not take deposits from savers. Rather, they invest on their clients’ behalf, render investment advice, and engage in corporate transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, and initial public offerings. Their deals are usually a bit riskier because they deal with sophisticated clients.

…

Bodyguards clad in black pants and turtlenecks protected the family principals and their top executives, who represented a net worth of about $150 billion under one roof. Throughout my career, I had only dealt with institutional investors, but after starting my own company, I stumbled into the private wealth space. Because I knew many ultra-high-net-worth individuals globally, the family office of an IT billionaire asked me to assist in building a global nonprofit platform for family offices, where they could meet to exchange views and cooperate without the involvement of financial intermediaries, such as bankers or other service providers like attorneys and tax advisers.

pages: 332 words: 97,325

The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's Most Exclusive School for Startups
by Randall Stross
Published 4 Sep 2013

Buchheit has done well with his investments, but the chances that the value of any given investment will drop to zero are quite high. Congress bars members of the general public from investing in startups like YC’s, which don’t make their basic financial information public. On Demo Day, the audience will consist entirely of individuals with a high net worth or annual income, what the SEC calls “accredited investors.” This originates in the Securities Act of 1933, which seeks to protect unsophisticated investors from losing their life savings. The law requires formal disclosure of essential financial information before stocks, bonds, or other securities can be issued and offered for sale.

…

But they cannot handle the combination of summer temperatures and the heat produced by the mass of bodies packed into the main hall. Inside, it’s not comfortable. The attendees are partners at venture capital firms or tech company founders or executives who are retired and now doing angel investing full-time. YC is now known well enough among high-net-worth individuals with a special interest in tech startups that today’s Demo Day has drawn a husband-wife pair of celebrities from the entertainment world. Demi Moore comes in first, and many minutes later she is joined by Ashton Kutcher.1 YC founders, who are banished to the outside until their individual turns come, set upon Kutcher when he arrived—they knew he was coming—and tried to introduce themselves and their startups, scrabbling to get his attention.

pages: 328 words: 96,141

Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race
by Tim Fernholz
Published 20 Mar 2018

Putting a satellite communications network into orbit was a much more complex technological challenge, one that would need huge amounts of capital up front. The kinds of institutions with billions of dollars to invest in a business, however, tended to the conservative side. But as the stock market rose behind Microsoft, Netscape, PayPal, and eBay, it created a class of super-high-net-worth individuals who thought they understood the technology and fully embraced risk. Among the first to take a swing was Bill Gates, who, with his childhood friend Paul Allen, cofounded a little company called Micro-Soft in 1975. By the nineties, it dominated the digital economy to the point of monopoly.

…

At the end of the day, it’s still going to cost the same amount, and how many people can afford to send a payload to Mars? But if you introduce low-cost launch, now you’re changing the equation.” Besides backing the goal, Garvey saw something else in Musk that seemed to distinguish him from both Big Space and other high-net-worth dabblers. Musk embraced risk. At the time, Garvey was collaborating with a team at UC Santa Cruz on a new kind of propulsion technology known as an aerospike engine; Mueller, the TRW engineer who built rocket engines in his garage, was a technical adviser. This was another attempt to one-up the industry establishment: the theory behind the aerospike was decades old, but it had never been tested on a rocket.

pages: 329 words: 100,162

Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet―and Why We're Following
by Gabrielle Bluestone
Published 5 Apr 2021

The wealthier he seemed, sources told the magazine, the more money investors were willing to give him and the more positive attention he got in society. “Really, for us, it was a bet on him,” explained Sam Green, who shepherded $300 million from the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund into Ross’s fund in part because of his high net worth. That’s why, when it all started to unravel, Ross’s biggest concern was what people would think. When he was told he wouldn’t be on the list in 2018, he reportedly replied, “What I don’t want is for people to suddenly think that I’ve lost a lot of money when it’s not true.” As it was, even the money Ross did have may not have been his to spend.

…

And that’s kind of who hooked this whole thing up,” said the publicist. Not that the Fyre team was honest with those officials either. In a pitch deck presented to government officials and Bahamian landowners, Fyre responded, with a slideshow, to the age-old question that nobody asked: “What if together, we introduce thousands of high–net worth millennials to the Exuma Islands?” “Billy is not very smart,” explained Harris. “When he talks, he doesn’t ever say anything.” When Fyre contractors tried to bring him back down to Earth, “It was one of those like, ‘You guys should smile more and have better attitudes about everything.’

pages: 384 words: 103,658

Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism
by Jeff Gramm
Published 23 Feb 2016

The firm managed over $5 billion, up 40% from the previous year, and had generated strong investment returns since its inception in 1982. John A. Levin’s eponymous founder had been director of research at Loeb, Rhoades before leaving in 1976 to become a partner at hedge fund Steinhardt Partners. Levin’s own firm started out managing long-only investments for high-net-worth individuals. By the time Baker, Fentress bought it, Levin’s institutional clients made up more than 80% of his asset base. He had also recently launched a few hedge fund strategies. The deal gave Levin’s firm access to a large, permanent capital base from which it could seed new fund strategies.10 As part of the deal, John Levin became Baker, Fentress’s largest shareholder and CEO.

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AFTER MORE THAN a hundred years in existence, Baker, Fentress was about to disappear. Investors who held the dividend-paying, closed-end fund would end up with a small operating business focused on investment management. As Glenn Aigen, BKF’s CFO, remembers, “Once we deregistered as a closed-end fund . . . the shareholder base completely changed from a mutual fund and high-net-worth individual base to a more institutional base, being specifically hedge funds.”14 Big structural turnover in a company’s shareholder base often results in the stock getting quite cheap, and Baker, Fentress attracted a lot of value investors. Mario Gabelli acquired a large stake. Even Warren Buffett bought shares for his personal account right before the company distributed its assets.15 In the early 2000s, BKF Capital Group became a trendy stock pick for value-oriented hedge fund managers.16 The long thesis was straightforward.

pages: 343 words: 103,376

The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy
by Nick Romeo
Published 15 Jan 2024

If a large pension plan only makes investments starting at the $100 million level, for example, and its capital cannot be more than 20 percent of a given fund, only funds larger than $500 million will be eligible. Mosaic is currently raising money for a second, larger fund between $200 and $300 million. Its investors include impact funds, family offices, high-net-worth individuals, institutional investors such as pension funds and endowments, and loans through a SBA (Small Business Administration) program that supports funds that invest in small businesses. Their investors have become more familiar with employee ownership and more open to supporting it. With a simple expansion of the categories that define impact, Mosaic’s strategy could rapidly become more mainstream.

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Leverette called Reeves in 2018, and they began putting together a private equity fund that would use ESOP creation to build wealth for low-wage workers. On Juneteenth of 2021, Apis & Heritage announced the close of a $30 million fund with support from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, as well as impact funds and high-net-worth individuals. Managing Director Michael Brownrigg, who has decades of experience in private equity, told me that the interest was extraordinary. “It was the first time and only time in my career I’ve turned investors away.” In June of 2022, A&H completed its first two transactions, converting Colorado-based Apex Plumbing and Texas-based Accent Landscape Contractors into 100 percent ESOPs.

pages: 130 words: 32,279

Beyond the 4% Rule: The Science of Retirement Portfolios That Last a Lifetime
by Abraham Okusanya
Published 5 Mar 2018

This is because they spend less on non-essential items towards the end of life. These findings are consistent with findings19 in the US, where researchers found that retirement spending tends to decrease by at least 1% a year in real terms throughout retirement! Additional research by JP Morgan Chase (2015)20 shows that, even for high-net worth (HNW) households (US), spending in retirement tends to decline as they get older. Care costs jump in later life but not enough to upend decline in other discretionary expenses. Of course, many people will need care in later life, but this isn’t typical. Consider the following data from Age UK (2016)21.

pages: 375 words: 105,067

Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry
by Helaine Olen
Published 27 Dec 2012

“I figure if I’m interested in a subject, other people will be too.” In these days of around-the-clock financial news and investment advice available everywhere from the Web to television, it is easy to forget how revolutionary all this was. Prior to Porter, the vast majority of financial guidance was aimed at high-net-worth readers of newspapers like the Wall Street Journal. Porter was among the first financial writers to understand that people without megabucks needed help managing their money, too. Through her conversational and straightforward writing style, she explained how broad financial trends impacted one’s pocketbook and then told people how to handle the money contained therein.

…

Prudential, for example, found that more than half the women they interviewed felt “‘very’ comfortable letting another take the ‘lead’ to do planning, research and analysis” to determine what financial products would be best for them. Many others over the years have come to similar conclusions. Ameriprise found 46 percent of women had sought help with retirement planning from a financial services professional. Men? Thirty-eight percent. This differential is seen in even high-net-worth individuals. When the Spectrem Group, a marketing group that studies the affluent and retirement markets, looked at the investment habits of those worth more than $5 million, 46 percent of women felt they had needed the advice of financial professionals, versus 34 percent of men. As a result, taking care of the ladies is increasingly viewed as a good business model, a way to establish a profitable outpost in the money management business as women are “a loyal and lucrative niche,” in the words of the Christian Science Monitor.

pages: 368 words: 32,950

How the City Really Works: The Definitive Guide to Money and Investing in London's Square Mile
by Alexander Davidson
Published 1 Apr 2008

As an asset class, they are more stable than equities, although they show much lower long-term gains. Pension funds and insurance companies (see Chapter 18) are the largest traditional investors because bonds can help to match their liabilities more precisely than equities or other instruments. Rates on annuities (see Chapter 31) are linked to bond returns. Mutual funds, central banks and high net-worth individuals favour bonds. In September 2006, the outstanding value of bonds from UK issuers was £1,854 billion, up 10 per cent on the end-2005 total, and more than three times the amount 10 years earlier, according to the May 2007 edition of International Financial Markets in the UK, published by International Financial Services, London (IFSL).

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If the company achieves a London Stock Exchange (LSE) listing, it may remain a VCT investment for ﬁve years. Should the VCT be taken over, its investors will be entitled to a cut of the payment. VCTs may be bought directly, or though a stockbroker or ﬁnancial adviser. The range of buyers has broadened beyond high net-worth investors, sophisticated investors and corporates. There are specialist VCTs and generalist VCTs, involving listed and unlisted companies. Independent ﬁnancial advisers may be keen to sell VCTs because of the high commission structure, typically 5 to 7 per cent, and have been known to highlight the tax break.

pages: 372 words: 109,536

The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money
by Frederik Obermaier
Published 17 Jun 2016

That’s how Mossfon sees it too: a Mossfon employee writes to an interested party from Germany, telling him that ‘the vast majority’ of its clients are ‘so-called high-net-worth individuals’, who may have assets ‘of more than $500,000’. The Mossfon employee alerts the individual to the fact that ‘structures that require the highest degree of confidentiality and professionalism can often cost many thousands of dollars each year’. Not a problem for the super-rich. And there are richer people still: in the world of asset managers, ‘ultra-high-net-worth individuals’ are those who can generally be expected to invest at least $30 million. There are currently around 103,000 people who fall into this category, and the number is increasing year on year.

Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World
by Branko Milanovic
Published 23 Sep 2019

It is in the interest of current citizens to set the price of citizenship high. Citizenship is thus marketed only to rich individuals. The costs of acquiring it, either directly or through first obtaining a residency permit, are high: they range from €250,000 in Greece to £2 million in the United Kingdom. But these are hardly insuperable costs for high-net-worth individuals (people whose financial assets are between $1 million and $5 million): it is estimated that about one-third of these wealthy individuals, that is, about 10 million people worldwide, have a second passport or dual citizenship (Solimano 2018, 16, calculated from 2017 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report).

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I have already touched upon it by showing how currency controls, which were common across the world including in advanced economies, as well as nonconvertible currencies, limited the ability to transfer money abroad. In addition, there was not much of a framework in place to enable corruption in countries that were potential recipients of money. The growth of banks that specialize in high-net-worth individuals and of legal offices whose main role is to facilitate transfers of illegally acquired money happened in tandem with globalization. Greater opportunities for corruption, or in this case an increased “supply” of parties interested in hiding or investing their money abroad, called forth greater “demand” for such funds, as reflected in the creation of new occupations that specialize in helping illegally acquired money find a new home.

pages: 651 words: 180,162

Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Published 27 Nov 2012

As I was depleting the topics of conversation with the (Polish) driver, I wondered whether Haussmann was not right, and whether London would be better off if it had its Haussmann razing neighborhoods and plowing wide arteries to facilitate circulation. Until it hit me that, in fact, if there was so much traffic in London, as compared to other cities, it was because people wanted to be there, and being there for them exceeded the costs. More than a third of the residents in London are foreign-born, and, in addition to immigrants, most high net worth individuals on the planet get their starter pied-à-terre in Central London. It could be that the absence of these large avenues and absence of a dominating state is part of its appeal. Nobody would buy a pied-à-terre in Brasilia, the perfectly top-down city built from scratch on a map. I also checked and saw that the most expensive neighborhoods in Paris today (such as the Sixth Arrondissement or Île Saint-Louis) were the ones that had been left alone by the nineteenth-century renovators.

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At Davos, during a private coffee conversation that I thought aimed at saving the world from, among other things, moral hazard and agency problems, I was interrupted by Alan Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, who tried to sell me a peculiar investment product that aims at legally hoodwinking taxpayers. It allowed the high net worth investor to get around the regulations limiting deposit insurance (at the time, $100,000) and benefit from coverage for near-unlimited amounts. The investor would deposit funds in any amount and Prof. Blinder’s company would break it up into smaller accounts and invest in banks, thus escaping the limit; it would look like a single account but would be insured in full.

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BOOK IV: Optionality, Technology, and the Intelligence of Antifragility The Teleological Aristotle and his influence: Rashed (2007), both an Arabist and a Hellenist. The nobility of failure: Morris (1975). Optionality Bricolage: Jacob (1977a, 1977b), Esnault (2001). Rich getting richer: On the total wealth for HNWI (High Net Worth Individuals) increasing, see Merrill Lynch data in “World’s wealthiest people now richer than before the credit crunch,” Jill Treanor, The Guardian, June 2012. The next graph shows why it has nothing to do with growth and total wealth formation. FIGURE 39. Luxury goods and optionality. On the vertical the probability, on the horizontal the integral of wealth.

pages: 121 words: 36,908

Four Futures: Life After Capitalism
by Peter Frase
Published 10 Mar 2015

Another island, the island of Manhattan, is also gradually being turned into an enclave of the global rich: in 2014, over half of Manhattan real estate sales worth $5 million or more were to foreigners or anonymous buyers behind shell companies (most of whom are believed to be non-American).15 These purchases serve the dual purpose of laundering money and hiding it from prying governments, as well as providing a landing place in case of unrest in their home countries. At the intersection of paranoia and tasteless consumption, there’s Vivos, whose website promises “the ultimate life assurance solution for high net worth families.” The company is building an eighty-apartment, radiation-proof megabunker, carved into a mountain in Germany. These aren’t your ordinary bomb-shelters, but rather luxury apartments featuring all the leather and stainless steel trappings of the nouveau riche. Company founder Robert Vicino described the complex to the Vice website as comparable to “an underground yacht.”

Small Change: Why Business Won't Save the World
by Michael Edwards
Published 4 Jan 2010

Some wealthy individuals are already heading in this direction. For example, the Arcus Foundation in the United States (founded by the medical equipment entrepreneur Jon Stryker) invests in efforts to promote and protect gay and lesbian rights and other areas of social and racial justice; and the Resource Generation network works with young high-net-worth individuals to “support and challenge each other” to use their wealth to contribute to “social, racial and economic justice.”18 The Omidyar Network recently gave $2.1 million to Harvard University to “identify and adapt military tools and approaches that aim to prevent genocide.” Corporate Voices for Working Families links over ﬁfty companies that have developed family-support policies for their own workforces and that advocate together for government policies that do the same; and the Hewlett Foundation’s recent gift of $113 million to create one hundred endowed chairs at the University of California, Berkeley is a great demonstration of support for public goods.

pages: 426 words: 115,150

Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
by Vicki Robin , Joe Dominguez and Monique Tilford
Published 31 Aug 1992

Let it become a habit to record any and all movements of money, the exact amount and the reason for the exchange. Every time you spend or receive money, make it second nature to note it instantly. In The Millionaire Next Door the authors, Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, note that people who have achieved a high net worth relative to income know how much they are spending on clothes, travel, housing, transportation, etc., and those who don’t achieve high net worth relative to income have no idea how much they spend. It’s a stark contrast. Figure 2-3 is a fictional example of two days’ entries. Note the degree of detail given for each expenditure. Notice how expenditures at work are specifically labeled as such.

pages: 561 words: 114,843

Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business, + Website
by Matt Blumberg
Published 13 Aug 2013

Throwing $200,000 into an idea is extremely low-risk for a VC but they will only provide follow up investment for a handful of those deals. If yours isn’t one they follow up on, you could be sunk. Angel Investors Though there are institutional “angel” groups, angel investors are typically high-net-worth individuals who put personal money into a company. The Good: Angels are often your friends and family, so they don’t play hardball when negotiating terms. The Bad: Angels are typically your friends and family, so every dinner party you attend has the potential to morph into an ad hoc investor relations conference.

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Great investors recognize when they have a conflict around a portfolio company and are clear to represent their points of view with proper context, recusing themselves from meetings or votes when appropriate. You owe it to yourself to have great investors backing you. Find ones who meet every criterion on this list. DEBT If you don’t have access to high-net-worth individuals—and you don’t have significant savings yourself—starting a company can be extremely difficult. There are a number of types of debt you can take on to finance your business. While debt typically makes more sense for mature business, there are times when debt can work for a startup.

pages: 381 words: 112,674

eBoys
by Randall E. Stross
Published 30 Oct 2008

Arthur Rock, the senior dean of American venture capitalists and an early investor in Intel, always insisted whenever his venture firm put money into a start-up that the entrepreneur co-invest one third of his total net worth, whether it be large or small. If the entrepreneur was extremely wealthy, the venture firm had higher expectations about his co-investing. The venture guys didn’t want the high-net-worth entrepreneur to regard the start-up as a hobby. To prove commitment, he was asked to have skin in the game, and that was what Beirne asked of Borders, whose net worth Beirne assumed to be around $100 million. Borders put in $3.5 million, along with Benchmark’s $3.5 million, and $3.5 million was sought from another venture firm, not to spread financial risk—the amount involved was too small relatively for that to be a pressing issue—but in order to tap the other firm’s access to capital markets—more OPM—which would be needed.

…

Even the corporate change master who had approached Benchmark originally, the person who had professed that he had seen the light, that he got it, got a shaky hand when given a pen to sign. After eight weeks of courtship, Henry Paulson, Jr., Goldman Sachs’s CEO who had seemed so ready to commit to founding with Benchmark an entirely new online banking service for high-net-worth individuals, balked in the end. “What if there were to be another Meg Whitman?” he asked Dunlevie. What would happen, that is, if the head of this new Goldman Sachs entity, which would be structured like a Silicon Valley start-up, and its CEO, given an equity stake similar to that given to other Valley CEOs, was very successful, went public, and its CEO—like eBay’s Whitman—became extraordinarily wealthy?

pages: 364 words: 112,681

Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back
by Oliver Bullough
Published 5 Sep 2018

And the highly intelligent bankers, accountants and lawyers will keep hunting for tunnels for their clients to slip their money through. Wealth-X, a consulting company that maps the movements of the super-rich as if they are wildebeest, calculates that in 2016 there were 226,450 people in the world with assets worth more than $30 million (it calls them ultra-high-net worth people, or UHNWs), a 3.5 per cent increase on the year before. Collectively, their wealth had increased over the previous twelve months by 1.5 per cent to $27 trillion, which is roughly equivalent to the entire output of China and the United States added together. And the outlook for further increases is good: ‘SOLID GROWTH EXPECTED ACROSS THE ULTRA WEALTHY SECTOR,’ proclaims the company’s World Ultra Wealth Report 2017.

…

157–8 Henley & Partners 136–9, 149–51, 155–6, 251 Henry, James 47 Herbert, William ‘Billy’ 144, 145–8 Hergé 38 Heritage Foundation 261 Heydarov, Kamaladdin 273–4 Heydarov, Nijat 11, 274 Heydarov, Tale 11, 274, 275 Holder, Eric 186 Hong Kong 19, 46, 98, 143–4 Hoppner, Harold 137 Human Rights Watch 119 Hydra Lenders 54 IBC Bank of Laredo 270 Idaho 57, 255 Iglesias, Julio 226 incorporation agents 77–8, 83–4, 93, 94–5 Indian Creek, Florida 226–7, 229 Indonesia 9, 10 inequality 5–6, 11, 14–15, 27, 102 and plutonomy 233–5, 240–1 International Maritime Organization (IMO) 159, 162 International Monetary Fund (IMF) 28, 34, 277 Angola 213 and corruption 133–4 illegal money 181 Russia 65, 66, 67 St Kitts and Nevis 151 Ukraine 192 Isle of Man 19, 21, 186, 265 Ismaylova, Khadija 55 Israel 240 Italy 81 Ivanov, Viktor 206 Ivanyushchenko, Yuri 194 Jackson, Michael 183 Japan 85–6, 166 Jersey 19, 46, 60–4, 71, 184, 250, 269, 276, 278 Christensen 61–2 and FIMACO 66–7 Powell and Harper 62–4 Kadyrov, Ramzan 166, 239 Kalin, Christian 135–6, 137, 149–51, 155–6 Kaplin, Sergei 116 Kapur, Ajay 233–7, 240–1 Karimova, Gulnara 97–8 Karpov, Pavel 179–80 Kasko, Vitaly 189–90, 191–2, 194–5 Kazakhstan 10, 92, 184 Kelly, Karen 242 Kensington and Chelsea 221–3 Kenya 184–5 Keogh, Jim 35 Keynes, John Maynard 28, 277 Khan, Nadeem 83–4 King, Justice Eleanor 52 Kleinfeld Bridal 210, 211, 212, 216 kleptocracy 122, 123, 125, 130 see also corruption Klitgaard, Robert 130–1 Knight, Pau 81 Korner, Eric 41–2 Kovtun, Dmitry 203–4, 206, 207 Kramer, Al 264–5 Kyrgyzstan 6 Labour Party (St Kitts and Nevis) 142–3, 144–5, 149 Landscape of Lies 81 Las Vegas 254 Latvia 98, 189, 193 Lawrence, Laurie 52 Legal Nominees Ltd 82–3, 84 Lenin, Vladimir 209 Lesin, Mikhail 208 Lethal Weapon 2 160–1 libel tourism 169, 172–5, 179–80 Liberia 19, 49 Libya 9, 11, 91, 195 Liechtenstein 19, 76, 183 Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) 50, 91 Lindblad, Göran 274 Litvinenko, Alexander 196–209 Litvinenko, Marina 196–200, 205 Lombard Odier 98 London 9, 23, 25, 33 Harley Street 74–84 Kleptocracy Tours 17–20 Litvinenko murder 196–209 private banking 99, 101, 102 property 10, 17–20, 87, 218, 221–4, 237, 269 see also City of London London Kleptocracy Tours 17–20 Los Angeles 9 Low, Jho 156 Lugovoy, Andrei 203–4, 205–7 Luxembourg 17, 46, 71 eurobonds 39, 40, 41 McGown, Ally 211, 214 Macias Nguema, Francisco 119, 130 McLean, Andrea 81 Macpherson, Elle 229 Macron, Emmanuel 55, 59 Magnitsky, Sergei 55, 92, 178–80 Mainichi Shimbun 85–6 Malaysia 7, 9, 240, 270 Malta 136, 137, 138, 155, 156 Manafort, Paul 13–14, 17, 19, 69, 270–1 Marchenko, Oleg 112 Marcos, Imelda 121 Marcovici, Philip 250 Marshall Islands 274 Marx, Karl 209 Mauritius 19 May, Theresa 187 Mayer, Jane 272 MC Brooklyn Holdings LLC 14 MCA Shipping 19 Merrill Lynch Bank 240 Mexico 15, 99–100, 111, 270 Mezhyhirya palace 1–3, 9 Miami 9, 23, 87–8, 226–30 Miller, Jed 18–19 Miller, Jonathan 220–1 Mishcon de Reya 162 Mitchell, Daniel 261 Mitchell, Don 146 Moghadam, Alizera 156 Monaco 9, 19, 186 Moneyland 21, 22–6, 278 creation 26, 27–48, 70–1 defending 20, 24, 135–209 fighting back 24, 242–53, 269–78 hiding wealth 10, 12–14, 24, 49–102, 254–68 spending 17–20, 24, 210–17, 218–41 stealing 1–12, 14–16, 23, 24, 103–34, 270–1 Montana 95 Montenegro 136 Montfler SA 275 Moore, Michael 237 Moran, Rick 242 Morgenthau, Henry 87, 272 Morning Star 50, 57 Moscow, John 61–2 MPLA 212, 213, 214 Mueller, Robert 12–13, 14, 69, 270 Murray, Andy 269 Musy, Oleg 113–15 NAV Sarao Milking Markets Fund 54 Nazarabayev, Nursultan 184 Netherlands 91, 98 Netherlands Antilles 43 Neufeld, David 50 Nevada 269, 278 company formation 93–4, 95, 96 trusts 255, 256–8, 261–5, 266 Nevis 49–60, 139, 144, 266–8, 269, 277 Nevis International Trust Company (NITC) 57 New York 9, 23, 25, 98 banking 33, 36, 101, 102 Manafort 12–14 property 10, 218–21, 224–6, 230–1, 269 New York Times 156 New Zealand 16, 92 Nigeria 10–11, 12, 270 Achebe 123–5 advanced fee fraud 128–9 asset recovery 10, 54–5, 182, 183, 184, 185 corruption 9, 86–7, 123–6, 128–30, 132, 269 Nisbett Invest SA 275 No Longer At Ease (Achebe) 123–4 Nobre, Luis 80–1, 84 Nominee Director Ltd 84 North Korea 16 Northern Ireland 272 Norway 81 Novata Gazeta 72–3 Obama, Barack 267 Obiang, Teodorin 131–2, 133, 237–8 Obiang, Teodoro 119, 131, 183, 237–8 Oesterlund, Robert 53 offshore 36, 45–7, 273 eurobonds 39–43 eurodollars 36, 252 sharing data 246, 248–53, 259 see also Moneyland offshore radio stations 35–6 O’Flaherty, Victoria 140–2 Okemo, Chrysanthus 184 Olenicoff, Igor 244 Olson, Mancur 21–2 Olswang 179 One Hyde Park 224 Onipko, Natalya 104–5, 108–10 Orange Revolution 23 Oregon 96 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 251 Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) 57 Orwell, George 121 Owen, Robert 207 Oxfam 133, 251 P&A Corporate Services Trust Reg 76 Pakistan 12 Palmer, Richard 69–70 Panama 19, 270 Panoceanic Trading Corporation 19 passports 20, 136–56, 251, 277 Paton, Leslie 75 Pawar, Charlotte 83, 276 Penney, Andrew 258 Pennsylvania 95 People’s Action Movement (PAM) (St Kitts and Nevis) 142–3, 145, 149 People’s Prosecutor 116 Perepada, Gennady 224–6, 271 Perepilichny, Alexander 208 person with significant control (PSC) 276 Peru 7 Peters & Peters 171, 188, 191, 192 Philippines 7, 9, 121, 182–3, 240 Pichulik, Dylan 230–1 Piketty, Thomas 14, 233 pirate radio stations 35–6 plutonomy 217, 233–41 Poland 125 Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) 100 polonium-210 202–3, 204, 207, 208 Pompolo Limited 270 Power, Graham 62–4 PR agencies 176–7 Premier Trust 257 privacy 273 bank accounts 245–53, 259–61, 270, 276 corporate structures 82–4, 275–6 trusts 261–3 private banking 99–101, 132–3 Professional Nominees 82–3, 84 Proksch, Reinhard 76 property 10, 57, 218–32, 237, 269, 276 London 17–20, 87 Purnell, Jon 98 Pursglove, Sarah 53 Putin, Vladimir 5, 16, 72–3, 272 and Browder 178 and Litvinenko 201, 204, 206 and organised crime 172–3 and Skuratov video 72 and Ukraine 166 Pyatt, Geoffrey 192–3 Qualified Intermediary (QI) scheme 245, 246, 247, 249 Rajatnaram, Sinnathamby 121–2, 125 Raven, Ronald 75 Rejniak, Marek 80 Reno 253, 254–5, 257–8, 261–3, 265 Riggs Bank 131 Rijock, Kenneth 146–7, 148 Robins, Craig 229 Rolling Stones 31 Romania 81 Rothschild & Co 258, 265 Rowling, J.K. 271 Russia 11, 121, 270 Bentley cars 5–6 Berezniki 219–20 Browder 177–80 corruption 17, 25, 65–70, 72–3, 95, 173 and Crimea 11–12, 105 FIMACO 65–8, 72 inequality 5–6, 15–16, 240 and Litvinenko murder 203–9 Magnitsky affair 92 and Nevis 55, 57, 58, 59 offshore wealth 9, 47, 66–70, 95, 182 overseas property 219–20, 222, 225, 228 sanctions 137, 166 Teva Pharmaceutical 111 and Ukraine 11–12, 166 and US presidential election 13, 271, 272 watches 238–9 Yukos oil company 96 Rybolovlev, Dmitry 219–20 Saez, Emmanuel 233 St Kitts 56, 139 St Kitts and Nevis 49, 139, 142, 278 Economic Citizenship Programme 139–56 see also Nevis St Lucia 138, 155, 159–60, 161–4 St Vincent and the Grenadines 17, 19 Sakvarelidze, David 192, 193, 194, 195 Salinas, Raul 99–100 Sanchez, Alex 260 Sarao, Navinder 54 Saviano, Roberto 127 Savills 223 Say Yes to the Dress 210–12, 214–16 Schwebel, Gerry 270 Scotland 9 Second World War 26, 27 secrecy see privacy Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (US) 111 Semivolos, Andrei 105–6, 116, 117 Serious Fraud Office (SFO) (UK) 187, 189, 190–1, 194 Seychelles 9, 19, 84 Sharp, Howard 184–5 Shchepotin, Igor 103, 105, 110, 114, 115–17 Shedada, Kamal 154–5 shell companies 10, 17, 19, 50–5, 87–97 Sheridan, Jim 274 Sherpa 89 Sherwin & Noble (S&N) 78–80 Shvets, Yuri 206 Sidorenko, Konstantin 104, 110–11 Sigma Tech Enterprises 84 Silkenat, James 89 Simmonds, Kennedy 144, 148, 153 Singapore 46, 121, 240 Skripal, Sergei 208 Skuratov, Yuri 65–6, 72 Sloane Rangers 221–2 Smith, Mr Justice Peter 90 Smith, Vaughan 171–2 Snyder, Shawn 51 Soffer, Donald 229 Soffer, Jackie 229 Soffer, Jeffrey 229 Soloman, Sam 83 Somalia 16, 91, 127 Sonangol 213 Sooliman, Imtiaz 137 South Dakota 255, 258, 263 South Sudan 16 Soviet Union and Angola 212–13 dissolution 4–5 eurodollars 34, 35 healthcare 106 see also Azerbaijan; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Russia; Ukraine; Uzbekistan SP Trading 92 Spain 206–7 spending 24, 216–17, 235–6 Say Yes to the Dress 210–16 watches 238–9 whisky 240 wine 239 see also property Spink, Mike 224 Spira, Peter 39, 40–1 Stephens, Mark 160 Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) initiative 89 succession planning 60 sugar 149 Sukholuchya shooting lodge 3–4, 5, 8–9, 75–6 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 228–30 Sutton, Heidi-Lynn 58–60, 277 Sweden 182 Switzerland 46, 102, 266 asset recovery 98, 182–3, 184, 185 bank secrecy 37–9, 40, 41, 42, 71, 99, 242–8, 253, 259–60, 261 sharing data 251 and United States 24, 242–8 watches 238 Syria 20 Taiwan 55, 59, 240 Takilant 98 Tax Justice Network 62, 89 TEAS (The European Azerbaijan Society) 273–5 Teliasonera 98 Teva Pharmaceutical 111–12 Thurlow, Edward 91 Tintin 38 Tobon, John 87–9, 228, 276 Tonga 143 Tornai, Pnina 210–12, 214–15, 216 Transparency International (TI) 16, 89, 119, 127, 174 Trump, Donald 210, 277–8 election 13, 69, 270, 277 properties 1, 220 Russian ties 228 trust 117 trusts 60, 255–8, 261–6 Tunisia 7 Turover, Felipe 72–3 UBS 61, 245, 246–7, 248, 258–9 Ukraine 11 2014 revolution 1–4, 10, 23, 104, 105–6, 113–14, 186 asset recovery 186–95 Aveiro 275 company reporting 275 corruption 6–7, 9, 11–12, 15, 17, 20, 103–17, 170–2, 269, 270 Crimea 11–12, 105 healthcare 103–17, 170–2 Manafort 13 Mezhyhirya palace 1–3, 9 and Nevis 55, 59 Orange Revolution 23 sanctions 166–9, 194 Sukholuchya shooting lodge 3–4, 5, 8–9, 75–6 ultra-high-net worth people (UNNWs) 101–2 UNITA 212, 213, 214 United Kingdom (UK) anti-corruption agenda 278 asset recovery 185, 186–95 and Azerbaijan 273–5 Brexit referendum 138, 271, 272, 278 Bribery Act 89 companies 77, 82, 91, 276 corruption 17, 127 currency crisis 34 Financial Conduct Authority 89 inequality 235 inflows of money 182 libel laws 169–75, 179 and Nevis 57 pirate radio stations 35–6 and Russia 173, 204–5, 222, 266 and St Lucia 161 sharing data 249–50 Skripal poisoning 208 and Ukraine 186–95 visas 138 Welfare State 31 see also City of London; London United Nations 126–7 United States 2016 presidential election 271, 272 and Angola 212, 213 anti-bribery measures 277–8 asset recovery 183–4, 185, 186, 190, 192–3 bank secrecy 260–1, 270 banks 31, 44, 45 Bretton Woods system 28, 34, 43–4 corruption 17 and Equatorial Guinea 131, 183–4 eurobonds 43 eurodollars 35 FATCA 248–9, 251, 252–3, 258, 259, 261, 262, 266 Flash Crash 54 free speech 174–5 inequality 14, 15, 235, 237 and Jersey 61–2 limited liability companies 91 Magnitsky laws 178 and Nevis 50–2, 54–5, 57, 58 offshore wealth 47 and Russia 68–70 and St Kitts 156 shell companies 87–90, 92–7 and Swiss banks 24, 242–8 trusts 255–8, 261–6 and Ukraine 166, 186, 190, 192–3 visas 138 see also individual states; Miami; New York Uralkali 219, 220 Uzbekistan 97–8, 184 Vanish (yacht) 151–2 Vedomosti 238–9 Venezuela 91, 228, 270 Ver, Roger 154 Vimpelcom 98 Virchis, Andres 200 Vlasic, Mark 195 Vogliano, Ernest 247–8 Wall Street Journal 61–2 Warburg, Siegmund 36–7, 38–9, 45, 262 Washington Post 193 watches 238–9 Wealth-X 101–2 weapons smuggling 92, 148 Wegelin 248, 261 Weill, Sandy 219 whisky 240 White, Harry Dexter 28, 272 Windward Trading Limited 184 wine 239 Wisconsin 255 World Bank Doing Business 91–2 Equatorial Guinea 130 StAR initiative 195 Stolen Asset Recovery initiative 89 Wyoming 50, 95, 258 Xiao Jianhua 165 Yanukovich, Viktor 1, 6, 7, 8–9, 71, 75–7, 188 assets blocked 193 Cancer Institute visit 103–5 and Manafort 13 Mezhyhirya palace 1–3, 9 and Nevis 55, 59 Sukholuchya shooting lodge 3–4, 5, 8–9, 75–6 Yeltsin, Boris 65, 66, 67, 220 Young, Robert 61 Yukos 96 Zambia 238 Zhang, Lu 92 Zlochevsky, Mykola 170–2, 187–93, 275 Zucman, Gabriel 37–8, 46–7, 266 ALSO FROM PROFILE BOOKS Red Card: FIFA and the Fall of the Most Powerful Men in Sports Ken Bensinger The full story behind the FIFA’s headline-grabbing corruption scandal, soon to be a major film.

pages: 401 words: 115,959

Philanthrocapitalism
by Matthew Bishop , Michael Green and Bill Clinton
Published 29 Sep 2008

I think it’ll be a high percentage,” says Gates, “more like seventy percent than fifteen percent.” The annual Capgemini/Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report noted a 20 percent surge in giving by the rich in North America in 2006. This trend is not confined to America. “Led by the ranks of the ultra-wealthy, [high-net-worth individuals] are increasing the financial resources, time and thought they donate to philanthropic causes,” concluded the report, which found that those wealthy individuals who engaged in philanthropy typically gave away around 7 percent of their wealth, far more than did the average citizen.

…

An expectation that the state will take care of things is perhaps the single most important factor in the tendency of wealthy Europeans and Britons to give less than Americans. This difference was highlighted in the British investigation Why Rich People Give, by Theresa Lloyd, a philanthropy consultant. In her 2004 study, based on interviews with seventy-three high-net-worth individuals, Lloyd ascribes higher U.S. giving rates to the attachment of the rich in America to a more individualistic social model without universal welfare provision. But this is changing, reports Handy in The New Philanthropists: a European tycoon who once would have said that paying taxes was enough to fulfill his responsibilities is nowadays more likely to give back as well.

pages: 138 words: 40,496

Mind Over Clutter
by Nicola Lewis
Published 26 Feb 2019

After the birth of my second daughter, I decided it was time for a change. I needed something new and exciting – something I would enjoy doing. So I swapped my old full-time job for a completely different part-time one as Ground VIP Customer Service Assistant for Harrods Aviation at Stansted Airport, looking after private and HNWI (high-net worth individual) clients. Yes, it was a bit random and involved a huge drop in my salary, but this career step was all about being happy and moving towards what the real me was interested in. So, I transferred my skill set from working on bustling trading floors to busy runways for the rich and famous.

pages: 433 words: 125,031

Brazillionaires: The Godfathers of Modern Brazil
by Alex Cuadros
Published 1 Jun 2016

We drank espresso at a conference table overlooking Brickell Avenue’s shining new office buildings, vacant for years in the wake of the crash but now filling up again. Santiago runs a “multifamily office.” His job is to help UHNW families maintain their money from generation to generation—I had to learn acronyms like this: ultra-high-net-worth. His company created games to teach young heirs to deal with the burdens of wealth. For five-year-olds, he has a sectioned piggy bank with slots labeled SAVE, SPEND, DONATE, and INVEST. For ages eight and up, he has a Monopoly-like game called “Shirtsleeves to Shirtsleeves”—a reference to how fortunes built in the first generation tend to dissipate in the third.

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See also specific stations coronéis or “colonels” and, 90 Marinho’s monoply, 84, 89, 90 shaping of perception and, 89, 96, 97 telenovelas, 79–80, 81, 87–88, 97, 100–101, 299n97 Telles, Marcel, 30, 196, 197, 206–7, 209 Temer, Michel, 285TK Tesla, 277 Texaco, 290n39 Thatcher, Margaret, 198 3G Capital, 196, 197, 204, 210, 310n204 Time-Life, 84, 85, 86, 88 Tiririca (Grumpy), 33 Transamazônica, 68–69, 78, 139 transportation Amazon ferry service, 175, 177 public, 10, 30, 39, 53, 56, 231, 232, 237, 239, 313n239, noteTK railroads, 21, 61, 175–76, 279 railroad tycoons of the 1800s, 55, 244 roads, 21, 61, 68–69, 78, 139 World Cup 2014 and, 56, 237 Trump, Donald, 152, 277, 304n152 Tucuruí dam, 72, 295n72 Turkey, 236 TV Globo, 81, 84–89, 95, 97–98, 100, 122, 252, 299n97 Anos Rebeldes miniseries, 92 Avenida Brasil, 80, 81, 93, 97 crusade against Macedo, 120 Fantástico, 262 government ad buys, 88, 95, 297n88 government favors and, 90, 298n90 influence of, 96, 97, 131, 299n96 Jornal Nacional, 81, 86, 87, 88, 92, 95, 299n96 licensing, 84, 88, 297n84, 297n88 Lula debate editing and, 92, 95 protests of 2013 and, 233–34, 313n234 Que Rei Sou Eu?, 91 Salve Jorge, 100–101, 102–7, 131 TV Record, 108, 110, 115, 121–22, 123, 126, 300n110 Macedo’s takeover of, 119–22, 301n120 R7 news, 231 TV SBT, 256 TV Tupi, 84, 297n84 TVX, 153–54, 155–56, 170, 180, 187–88 UBS (Swiss bank), 28, 218 UHNW (ultra-high-net-worth), 23 Ulloa, Santiago, 22–23 Ultragaz, 40, 42, 291n41, 291n42 Ultrapar, 291n41 United Arab Emirates, 180, 181, 183, 184, 217–18, 253 United States billionaires, 24, 26 Brazilian investment in, 18, 19, 144 campaign financing, 286, 317n286 capitalism and bubbles, 244 CIA and Brazilian politics, 39 crony capitalism, 55 Federal Reserve and 2008 crisis, 181 Hoover’s “Buy American Act,” 184 interest rates, 18 prosperity gospel and, 109 shale gas extraction, 67 “too big to fail” banks, 274 Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, 108–18, 123–26 Congress of Winners, 116–17, 124–25 cures and liberation, 115–17 Fogueiras Santas campaigns, 118 Globo targeting of, 122 Love Therapy, 114, 115 number of churches, 108, 110, 300n109 number of followers, 109, 300n109 radio network, 301n118 revenues, 110, 112, 118–19, 300n110 São Paulo church, 111, 114, 301n114 solicitation, 118–19, 125, 301n119 Solomon’s Temple replica, 126, 301n114 suits against, 301n118, 301n119 tax fines against, 123, 302n123 in the U.S., 109–10 University of São Paulo, 11 Uruguay, 24, 177 Vale, 136, 137, 138, 140, 160, 168, 171, 214, 305n160, 306n167 Valor Econômico, 244–45 Vanguarda Agro, 59 Vargas, Getúlio, 83, 86, 96, 172 Veja, 44–45, 120, 164, 166 Vilardi, Celso, 228–29 Villela family, 290n39 Volkswagen, 290n39, 294n69 Voz da Comunidade, 101, 106–7, 208 “Wagner,” 178, 179, 180–81, 205 Waimiri-Atroari tribe, 69 Wallace, David Foster, 194 Wallach, Joe, 88 Walton, Sam, 197 Warby Parker, 213 Wealth of Nations, The (Smith), 176, 280 Welch, Jack, 197 White, Richard, 244 Wilson, Charlie, 293n56 Winkler, Matt, 96 Workers Party, 54, 55, 56, 67, 95, 96, 131, 183, 191, 239–40, 257, 275.

pages: 420 words: 126,194

The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam
by Douglas Murray
Published 3 May 2017

And among those who had qualifications many were, in any case, entering a society where these qualifications were not recognised as having parity and so they had to start down the chain in their profession. But the only way to present migrants as contributing not just equally but actually more than those already working and paying taxes in Britain is if we talk almost exclusively about highly educated, high net-worth individuals from first-world countries. The cliché of the ‘average immigrant’ being an economic boon for the country only works when such exceptions are made to appear as though they are the rule. All efforts to make an economic case for mass immigration rely on this trick. Among those to have used it are EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and UN Representative Peter Sutherland.

…

Indeed ‘recent’ arrivals from the EEA were the sole migrants for whom such a positive claim could be made. Away from the spin, what UCL’s own research quietly showed was that non-EEA migrants had actually taken out around £95 billion more in services than they had paid in in taxes, meaning that if you took the period 1995–2011 and included all immigrants (not just a convenient high net-worth selection), then by UCL’s own measurements, immigrants to the United Kingdom had taken out significantly more than they had put in. Mass migration, in other words, had made the country very significantly poorer over the period in question. After some criticism for its methodology, manner of spinning and burial of crucial data, the following year UCL published its completed findings.

pages: 199 words: 48,162

Capital Allocators: How the World’s Elite Money Managers Lead and Invest
by Ted Seides
Published 23 Mar 2021

The middle of the food chain is populated by money managers. When overseeing their business, they make choices like those of business executives. When producing their product, they make capital allocation decisions like CIOs, picking investments and constructing portfolios. CIOs sit at the top of the food chain. Endowments and foundations, high net worth individuals, family offices, corporate and public pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds are end owners of capital. CIOs lead their investment operations. End owners of capital frequently staff their investment team with a small number of professionals. The team occasionally invests directly in securities or deals, and more frequently allocates capital to the products run by money managers.

pages: 175 words: 45,815

Automation and the Future of Work
by Aaron Benanav
Published 3 Nov 2020

Between the late 1980s and the early 2010s, labor productivity grew faster than average wages, which in turn grew faster than median wages across the OECD.46 Over time, immiserating employment growth becomes self-reinforcing. Sectors of the economy expand by taking advantage of pools of underemployed labor and then come to depend on their continued availability. As thoughtfully depicted in Bong Joon-ho’s award-winning 2019 film Parasite, it begins to make sense for high-net-worth and managerial households to hire working-class households to perform more of the tasks they would otherwise do for themselves—as tutors, domestic servants, drivers, childminders, and personal assistants—simply due to large differences in the prices of their respective labors.47 These trends suggest that the apocalyptic crisis of labor market dysfunction anticipated by automation theorists will not take place.

pages: 505 words: 142,118

A Man for All Markets
by Edward O. Thorp
Published 15 Nov 2016

Partnership capital had grown from the initial $1.4 million to $7.4 million, and the general partners’ compensation increased proportionately. Since the Investment Company Act limited us to ninety-nine partners, each investor’s stake would have to average over $1 million in order for our pool to reach $100 million. Therefore we wanted high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors who would make an initial investment in PNP that would be substantial for us but a small part of their overall funds. We also liked that high-net-worth investors tended to be more knowledgeable, more experienced, and better able to judge the risks of the partnership, as well as having their own advisers. To increase the amount of new capital we could get from the dwindling number of spots available for new partners, we raised the minimum to join from our initial $50,000 to $100,000, then $250,000, $1,000,000, and eventually $10,000,000.

pages: 368 words: 145,841

Financial Independence
by John J. Vento
Published 31 Mar 2013

A secondto-die life insurance policy could theoretically be used to cover the payment of these estate taxes. If you have a substantial net worth and believe your estate will be subject to significant estate taxes, a permanent life insurance policy may then be the right choice for you. Although most people only need term insurance, high-net-worth individuals can take advantage of the significant tax savings a permanent insurance policy can offer. When combining a permanent life insurance policy with an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT), you can significantly preserve your family’s financial legacy. (Estate planning with life insurance is covered in more detail in Chapter 10, Preserving your Estate.)

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bapp03.indd 339 26/02/13 3:06 PM About the Author J ohn J. Vento1 is the president of a New York City-based certified public accounting firm as well as the Certified Financial Planning® firm of Comprehensive Wealth Management Ltd., since 1987. His firm works with clients throughout the country and is focused on professional practices, high-net-worth individuals, and those committed to becoming financially independent. He has been the keynote speaker at various seminars and conferences throughout the United States, which focus on tax and financial strategies that create wealth. John has been ranked among the most successful advisors of a nationwide investment service firm and has held this distinction since 2008.

pages: 457 words: 143,967

The Bank That Lived a Little: Barclays in the Age of the Very Free Market
by Philip Augar
Published 4 Jul 2018

Its chief executive was a big star on the Canadian business scene: in 1994, Barrett was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour, was named the country’s ‘Outstanding chief executive of the year’ in 1995 and won the Canadian Catalyst Award for fostering the advancement of women in banking. By the time he left, BMO had a strong position in everything it did: retail, commercial and investment banking and private banking for high net worth individuals. It made over half of its earnings outside Canada and was indeed a mini-version of everything that Barclays wanted to be. Could Barrett do it again on a bigger stage? The country boy who had started by carrying cheques around the City in 1962 was now a thoroughly modern chief executive.

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An equity swap is an agreement for two parties to exchange future payments from specified financial instruments. 13: Dutch Courage, 2007 fn1 The exchange rate was €1.50 to the pound. 15: Night Falls, 16 September – 13 October 2008 fn1 Myners has not disclosed the identity of the caller other than to say ‘It’s not who you might think.’ fn2 The money can come directly from high net worth individuals (HNWIs) but more usually comes from pooled investment vehicles such as pension funds, insurance companies or the various types of investment companies in which investors can buy units or make contributions. fn3 Most asset management firms at the time employed fund managers to weigh up investment decisions based on advice and analysis and invest in stocks and markets accordingly.

pages: 426 words: 136,925

Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America
by Alec MacGillis
Published 16 Mar 2021

Real estate prices in metro Washington increased more than prices in any other city over the first decade of the century—more than New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The industry drew a new class to Washington—more interested in technology than government, more driven by profits than power. One research group estimated that the area’s number of high-net-worth households, with investable assets of more than $1 million, had risen by 30 percent, to 166,000, between 2008 and 2012—that is, the period when much of the country was still struggling to recover from the Great Recession. There was an Aston Martin dealership in Tysons Corner—more than five hundred people in the area drove the bespoke James Bond car, which cost around $280,000.

…

“I just view myself as an American”: Olivia Oran, “‘Obama Not Anti-Business’: Carlyle’s Rubenstein,” Reuters, October 11, 2013. Thirty-three federal building complexes: Dana Priest and William Arkin, “Top Secret America,” The Washington Post, July 19, 2010. the government’s spending on contractors: Priest and Arkin. they mumbled, “With the military”: Priest and Arkin. high-net-worth households: Annie Gowen, “Region’s Rising Wealth Brings New Luxury Brands and Wealth Managers,” The Washington Post, December 17, 2012. The Cuvee No. 25: Alina Dizik, “High-End Dining for the High-Chair Set,” The Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2018. mansion modeled on Versailles: Justin Jouvenal, “Planned Palace Upset Some Neighbors in Tony D.C.

pages: 186 words: 49,251

The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry
by John Warrillow
Published 5 Feb 2015

Once the meeting starts, mobile phones are turned off, doors are closed to outsiders, and the members get down to business. At the center of every meeting is the Portfolio Defense—a one-hour presentation from a member who is asked to reveal the intimate details of his portfolio so that the other members can critique his investment approach. Asking high-net-worth investors, successful entrepreneurs, and captains of industry to reveal the intimate details of their financial lives is not easy, but it works for TIGER 21 because the Portfolio Defense is a requirement of all members. Further, because each member has crossed the threshold of wealth required for membership, there is mutual respect within the group.

pages: 166 words: 49,639

Start It Up: Why Running Your Own Business Is Easier Than You Think
by Luke Johnson
Published 31 Aug 2011

Too many entrepreneurs think formal venture capital is the place to look for start-up funding, when in reality venture capitalists tend to focus on making very large bets in industries like high technology and biotech. In short, VC money is probably not for you if you’re just starting out. Operations in mainstream sectors like retailing and restaurants almost invariably secure backing not from VCs but from angel investors, high-net-worth individuals or the founder’s savings. Funding start-ups and new technology is exceedingly risky, but it has enabled the development of many of the most important companies of the last fifty years, including DEC, Intel, FedEx, Cisco and Google. Most of them, of course, are US based. That is where most of the world’s true venture capital is managed.

pages: 190 words: 53,970

Eastern standard tribe
by Cory Doctorow
Published 17 Feb 2004

We broke up, just before I got sent to the sanatorium. Our circadians weren't compatible. 4. April 3, 2022 was the day that Art nearly killed the first and only woman he ever really loved. It was her fault. Art's car was running low on lard after a week in the Benelux countries, where the residents were all high-net-worth cholesterol-conscious codgers who guarded their arteries from the depredations of the frytrap as jealously as they squirreled their money away from the taxman. He was, therefore, thrilled and delighted to be back on British soil, Greenwich+0, where grease ran like water and his runabout could be kept easily and cheaply fuelled and the vodka could run down his gullet instead of into his tank.

pages: 504 words: 143,303

Why We Can't Afford the Rich
by Andrew Sayer
Published 6 Nov 2014

Wouldn’t the world miss their philanthropy and the ‘trickle-down effects’ of their spending? In fact, isn’t this book just an example of ‘the politics of envy’ – directed at those whom former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair used to call ‘the successful’? Shouldn’t we thank, rather than begrudge, these ‘high net worth individuals’? It’s the objections regarding the alleged role of the rich in wealth extraction, as opposed to wealth creation, that present the biggest challenge and occupy the bulk of this book, though I’ll attempt to answer other objections too. In the process it will become clear that this is not about the politics of envy – a cheap slur used by those who want to duck the arguments and evidence – but the politics of injustice.

…

, CRESC Discussion Paper, p 8. 121 Canada, US, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan. 122 Wikileaks (2013) ‘Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP)’, https://wikileaks.org/tpp/pressrelease.html. 123 Wikileaks (2013). 124 Monbiot, G. (2013) ‘The lies behind this transatlantic trade deal’, Guardian, 2 December, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/02/transatlantic-free-trade-deal-regulation-by-lawyers-eu-us. 125 Corporate Europe Observatory (2013) ‘A transatlantic corporate bill of rights’, 3 June, http://corporateeurope.org/trade/2013/06/transatlantic-corporate-bill-rights. 126 McDonagh, T. (2013) ‘Unfair, unsustainable and under the radar’, San Francisco: Democracy Center, http://democracyctr.org/new-report-unfair-unsustainable-and-under-the-radar/. Chapter Eighteen: What about philanthropy? 127 Blair, T. (2012) Speech to conference on philanthropy, China Philanthropy Forum, Beijing, 28 November. 128 Wikipedia Hélder Cámara, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hélder_Câmara 129 According to research by Barclays Bank, 97% of the world’s ‘high net worth individuals’ give annually to charity. But only one third of these give away over 1% of their net worth:Too Much (2013) ‘A Whistleblower for Philanthropy’, 5 August, http://toomuchonline.org/weeklies2013/aug052013.html. See also Brennan, P. and Saxton, J. (2007) ‘Who gives to charity?’, nfpSynergy report, and Rowlingson, K. and McKay, S. (2011) Wealth and the wealthy, Bristol: Policy Press, pp 136 ff. 130 Buffett, P. (2013) ‘The charitable-industrial complex’, New York Times, 27 July, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/27/opinion/the-charitable-industrial-complex.html?

pages: 497 words: 144,283

Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization
by Parag Khanna
Published 18 Apr 2016

Leveraging the tax-free status and location inside America’s security perimeter, Puerto Rico’s massive new Port of the Americas will subsume the entire southern city of Ponce and allow for efficient transshipment of smaller cargoes up and down the entire East Coast as well. Puerto Rico has also become a favored American tax haven, changing its laws in 2013 to eliminate capital gains taxes to attract the investment of ultra-high-net-worth hedge fund managers such as John Paulson, who calls it the “Singapore of the Caribbean.”8 Just as Tennessee and Michigan compete for automotive assembly, America’s onshore is now competing with America’s offshore in ports, shipping, and finance as well. Over the horizon, America’s southern ports may also be welcoming goods from what just a few years ago seemed the most unlikely of origins: Cuba.

…

Today Dubai’s population is 70 percent South Asian, and Asians label the Gulf region not “Middle East” but rather “West Asia.” Remittances from the U.A.E. to India amount to $30 billion per year, far larger than from any other part of the twenty-five-million-strong diaspora. When private bankers need to service their high-net-worth Indian clients, they usually head to Dubai. For both Pakistan’s Bhutto clan and its recently ousted military leader, Pervez Musharraf, Dubai is the exile of choice. As the world’s main interregional gateway, Dubai caters to all continents at the same time. As capital and demographic flows from south to south and south to north augment the traditional flows from north to south and west to east, Dubai is the conduit for entire new patterns of investment.

pages: 562 words: 146,544

Daemon
by Daniel Suarez
Published 1 Dec 2006

These people shouldn’t be left home alone, much less put in charge of people’s investments. Gragg cleaned up the router’s connection log. More than likely the scam wouldn’t be detected for months, and even then, the company probably wouldn’t tell their clients. They’d just close the barn door long after the Trojan horses were gone. So far, Gragg had a cache of nearly two thousand high-net-worth identities to sell on the global market, and the Brazilians and Filipinos were snapping up everything he offered. Gragg knew he had a survival advantage in this new world. College was no longer the gateway to success. Apparently, people thought nothing of hanging their personal fortunes on technology they didn’t understand.

…

He had about fifty or sixty thousand in cash on hand at various banks under various identities. Good thing, because he couldn’t trade the identity database he had copied from the Filipino server with any of his Abkhazian contacts. It was just too hot. He felt a wave of humiliation again. Over twenty thousand high-net-worth identities down the drain—a fortune on the open market. How did they know it was him? Gragg had cracked their database through a Unicode directory traversal that allowed him to install a back door on their Web server. They hadn’t properly patched it, and the sample applications were still on the server, so it was a fairly trivial matter to gain Administrator rights.

pages: 579 words: 160,351

Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now
by Alan Rusbridger
Published 14 Oct 2018

The fashion expert recommends ostrich-feather adorned jeans (‘top of my lust list this season’) for £1,200. The jewellery specialist has gasped when the chairman of a diamond company shows her a £70 million stone he has recently bought. The watch specialist recommends eight watches, average price about £20,000. The property writer praises a new apartment block in Mayfair, London, for UHNWI (‘ultra-high net-worth individuals’). They are likely to sell at £25 million each. The motoring writer contemplates buying a Bugatti Chiron – prices start at £2.08 million – and test drives a £575,000 Aston Martin (‘there is a healthy queue of eager buyers’). At the other end of the magazine from the Gucci adverts is a gentle interview with the ‘fashion world’s favourite CEO’ – Marco Bizzarri of Gucci.

…

Sullivan case (1964) ref1 New Yorker (magazine) ref1, ref2, ref3 Newland, Martin ref1 Newmark, Craig ref1 Newmarket Road (Cambridge) ref1, ref2, ref3 News Corporation ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7n News Digital Media ref1 News Group Newspapers (NGN) ref1, ref2, ref3 News International (NI) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10n News Network ref1 Newsday.com ref1 Newseum (US) ref1 Newsnight (TV) ref1 Newspaper Money (Hirsch/Gordon) ref1 Newsworks’ Shift conference ref1n NHS ref1 Nielsen NetRatings ref1 1984 (Orwell) ref1 Nixon, President Richard ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 North Africa ref1, ref2 North Briton (newspaper) ref1 North Korea ref1 Northcliffe, Lord ref1 Northcliffe Media ref1 ‘Not Invented Here’ (NIH) resentment ref1 Nottingham Evening Post (newspaper) ref1 Nougayrède, Natalie ref1 Obama, President Barack ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 Ofcom ref1, ref2, ref3 Official Secrets Act (OSA) ref1, ref2 Official Secrets (Hooper) ref1 O’Hagan, Andrew ref1 oil companies ref1, ref2, ref3 O’Kane, Maggie ref1 Old Bailey ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Oliver, Craig ref1, ref2 Omidyar, Pierre ref1 On Demand ref1 ‘On Journalism’ (Scott essay) ref1, ref2n, ref3n Open Democracy ref1, ref2, ref3 Open Weekend (2012) ref1, ref2 Operation Weeting ref1 O’Reilly, Tony ref1 ‘original sin’ ref1 Orphan ref1 Orwell, George ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 Osborne, Peter ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Oscars ref1 ownership model ref1 Oxford University ref1 Pacino, Al ref1 page views ref1 Panopticon ref1, ref2, ref3n Panorama (TV) ref1 Paris climate talks ref1, ref2 Parker, Andrew ref1 Paton, John ref1 Patriot Act (2001) ref1, ref2 PayPal ref1 paywalls ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11n ‘hard’ ref1, ref2 metred ref1, ref2 Peake, Maxine ref1 Pearson & Co ref1, ref2 Pemsel, David ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5n, ref6n, ref7n Pentagon ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 People Like Us (Luyendijk) ref1 Perch, Keith ref1n Perettu, Jonah ref1 Periscope ref1 perjury ref1 Permira Advisers Ltd ref1 Peterloo Massacre ref1, ref2, ref3 Petraeus, General David ref1 Pfauth, Ernst-Jan ref1 PFE (Proudly Found Elsewhere) ref1 philanthropy ref1 Philby, Kim ref1 Piano, Renzo ref1 Pilhofer, Aron ref1, ref2n Plastic Logic ref1 Plender, John ref1 podcasts ref1, ref2n Podemos ref1 Podesta emails ref1, ref2 Poitras, Laura ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 police ref1, ref2, ref3 passim, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6n, ref7n, ref8n political subsidy ref1 Politico ref1 Politics.co.uk ref1 Popbitch ref1 Popplewell, Sir Oliver ref1, ref2 Porter, Henry ref1 Post Office Act (US 1792) ref1 Pound, Ezra ref1 power ref1 Prescott, John (MP) ref1 Press Acquisitions Ltd ref1 Press Association ref1, ref2 Press Complaints Commission (PCC) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7n Press Holdings Ltd ref1 Preston, Peter ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8 price war ref1, ref2 Price Waterhouse Cooper ref1 Pride and Perjury (Aitken) ref1 The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Eisenstein) ref1 printing presses ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8 prisons ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12 privacy ref1 Private Eye (magazine) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8n private investigators ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 private sector ref1 Proctor & Gamble ref1 Prodigy Internet Service ref1 Product Development Unit (PDU) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Professional Footballers’ Association ref1 proportionality ref1 ProPublica ref1, ref2 Proudler, Gerald ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 public goods ref1, ref2 public interest ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 passim, ref1, ref2 passim, ref1 passim, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5n, ref6n Public Library of Science (PLoS) ref1 public service ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10 passim, ref1, ref2, ref3 public space ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 ‘publicness’ ref1 ‘purchase driver’ ref1 Putnam, Robert ref1 pyjama injunction ref1 Qantas ref1 Qatar ref1, ref2, ref3 Quatremer, Jean ref1 Qur’an ref1 R2 ref1 Raines, Howell ref1 Randall, Mike ref1 rape ref1, ref2, ref3n Rath, Matthias ref1 Ray Street offices ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 ‘reach before revenue’ model ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9 readers ref1 American ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 knowledge ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 letters ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9 readers’ editor ref1, ref2, ref3n response ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 talkboards ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5n see also circulation Reading Football Club ref1 Real Networks ref1 Reckless, Mark (MP) ref1 Reddit ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Redford, Robert ref1, ref2 Reds (film) ref1 Rees, Jonathan ref1, ref2, ref3 referendum (UK 2016) ref1, ref2 regulation ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Regulatory Funding Council ref1 Reid, Harry ref1 religious stories ref1 rendition, Gibson report on ref1 Reuters ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5n Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 Richard (reporter) ref1 Rinehart, Gina ref1 riots ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5n Ritz hotel (London) ref1, ref2, ref3 Ritz hotel (Paris) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 rivalry ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7n Robards, Jason ref1 Roberts, Brian ref1 Roberts, Justine ref1 Robinson, Geoffrey (MP) ref1 Robinson, Stephen ref1 Rockefeller Foundation ref1 Rohm, Wendy Goldman ref1 Rolling Stones ref1 Rosen, Jay ref1, ref2, ref3 Rosenstiel, Tom ref1 Rossetto, Louis ref1 Rothermere, Lord ref1n, ref2n Rowlands, Tiny ref1 Royal Air Force (RAF) ref1 Royal Courts of Justice ref1, ref2, ref3 Rusbridger, Alan ref1, ref2n, ref3n, ref4n, ref5n Russian intelligence service ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Ryanair ref1 Saatchi, Maurice ref1 Sachs, Jeffrey ref1 Saffron Walden (Essex) ref1 Said Business School (Oxford) ref1 St Paul’s Cathedral ref1 Salon ref1 samizdat methods ref1 Sampson, Anthony ref1 San Jose Mercury (newspaper) ref1 Sanandaji, Tino ref1 Sandel, Michael ref1 Sanders, Bernie ref1, ref2 Sandy Hook ref1 Sandys, Duncan (MP) ref1 Sardar, Ziauddin ref1 Sark ref1, ref2 Sark Newspaper ref1 SAS ref1 Saudi Arabia ref1, ref2, ref3 Savoy Hotel (London) ref1, ref2, ref3 Savoy Taylors Guild ref1 Sawers, Sir John ref1 Schirrmacher, Franz ref1 Schmidt, Eric ref1, ref2 Schneier, Bruce ref1 Schudson, Michael ref1n science ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8n scoop ref1 Scoop (Waugh) ref1 Scotland Yard ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 Scotsman (newspaper) ref1, ref2, ref3 Scott, C.P. ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9n, ref10n Scott, David ref1 Scott, Edward ref1 Scott, Henry E. ref1 Scott, John ref1 Scott, Richard ref1 Scott Trust ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15n Sellers, Frances Stead ref1 Selvey, Mike ref1 Senate Church committee (US) ref1 Senate Intelligence committee (US) ref1 Sensenbrenner, Jim ref1 September 11 (2001) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ref1 Shadid, Anthony ref1 Shainin, Jonathan ref1 Shaw, Fiona ref1 Sheehan, Neil ref1 Sheen, Michael ref1 Shenker, Jack ref1 Sherwood, Charles ref1 Shirky, Clay ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 Siegal, Allan M. ref1 Silicon Valley ref1, ref2, ref3 passim, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12 comes to Oxford (SVCO) ref1 Simon, David ref1 Simonds, Gavin ref1 Simpson, O.J. ref1 Singer, Marc ref1 Skype ref1 Slate Group ref1 smartphones ref1, ref2 Smith, Ben ref1 Smith, Brad ref1 Smith, Julian (MP) ref1 Smith, Shane ref1 Smith, Tim (MP) ref1 Snapchat ref1 Snowden, Edward ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 passim, ref1 passim, ref1 passim, ref1, ref2n, ref3n Snowden (film) ref1 Soho offices ref1 Sony ref1 Soros ref1 Sorrell, Martin ref1 sources ref1 South Africa ref1, ref2, ref3 South, Christopher ref1 Sparrow, Andrew ref1 Spectator (magazine) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Spielberg, Steven ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6n sponsorship ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10 sport ref1 Spotify ref1, ref2 Springer, Axel ref1 The Square and the Tower (Ferguson) ref1 Stalin ref1, ref2 Standage, Tom ref1 Starr, Paul ref1, ref2 ‘Start Me Up’ (song) ref1 Start the Week (radio) ref1 State of the Union speech (Clinton) ref1 Steele, Christopher ref1 Steele, Jonathan ref1 Stephenson, Sir Paul ref1, ref2, ref3 Stewart, Mr Justice ref1 Stone, Biz ref1 Stone, Oliver ref1, ref2, ref3n Strathairn, David ref1 Streep, Meryl ref1 subscription ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14n ‘subsidariat’ ref1, ref2n Suez ref1 Sullivan, Andrew ref1, ref2n Sulston, John ref1 Sulzberger, A.G. ref1, ref2, ref3n Sulzberger, Arthur ref1n super-injunctions ref1 Supreme Court (UK) ref1 Supreme Court (US) ref1, ref2 Sweden ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4n Sweeney, John ref1 Swift, Jonathan ref1 Switzerland ref1, ref2, ref3 Sydney Morning Herald (newspaper) ref1, ref2 Sykes, Richard ref1 Syria ref1, ref2 tabloids ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 passim, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9n, ref10n Tahrir Square (Cairo) ref1 Taliban ref1, ref2, ref3 talkboards ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5n Tapscott, Don ref1 Task Force 373 ref1 tax ref1 avoidance ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5n havens ref1, ref2, ref3 Taylor, Gordon ref1, ref2, ref3 Taylor, John Edward ref1, ref2 Taylor, Matthew ref1 Technorati ref1 Terrorism Act (2000) (UK) ref1, ref2 terrorists ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12 counter-terrorism ref1, ref2, ref3 Terry, Quinlan ref1 Tesco ref1, ref2, ref3n, ref4n Thailand ref1, ref2, ref3n Thalidomide ref1, ref2n Thatcher, Prime Minister Margaret ref1 Thatcher, Carol ref1 Thatcher, Mark ref1 The Onion Router (TOR) ref1 Thewlis, David ref1 Thirty Club ref1 Thompson, Bill ref1 Thompson, E.P. ref1, ref2 Thompson, Robert ref1 threads ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 ‘threat reports’ ref1 Three Little Pigs boiling the Big Bad Wolf (film) ref1 Thurlbeck, Neville ref1 Time (magazine) ref1 Times Educational Supplement (magazine) ref1 Tomasky, Michael ref1 Tomlinson, Ian ref1, ref2 Topix.net ref1 torture ref1 Tow Center for Digital Journalism ref1, ref2 toxic waste ref1 Trafigura ref1, ref2, ref3n training ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 travel writing ref1, ref2n Travis, Alan ref1 Treanor, Jill ref1 Tribune Co (US) ref1 Trinity Mirror ref1, ref2, ref3 TripAdvisor ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5n trolls ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 Trump, President Donald ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15 Trump Bump ref1, ref2, ref3n, ref4n trust ref1, ref2 passim, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 passim, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 passim, ref1n Trust ownership ref1 truth ref1 passim, xxiv, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12 reverse burden of ref1, ref2n Tucker Carlson Tonight (TV) ref1 Tugendhat, Mr Justice ref1 Turkey ref1 Tweetdeck ref1 Twitter ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8 passim, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7n Tyas, John ref1 typesetting ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5n UHNWI (ultra-high net-worth individuals) ref1 UKIP ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4n, ref5n Ukraine ref1 unions ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11 Unique Selling Point ref1 unique users ref1 United Nations (UN) ref1, ref2 University of California (Berkeley) ref1 Upworthy ref1 USA Today (magazine) ref1, ref2 Usenet ref1 Utley, T.E. ref1, ref2n van Beurden, Ben ref1 The Vanishing Newspaper (Meyer) ref1, ref2 Vanity Fair (magazine) ref1, ref2 Vaz, Keith (MP) ref1 Verizon ref1 ‘verticals’ ref1 Vice (magazine) ref1, ref2 Vickers, Paul ref1 video ref1, ref2, ref3 Vietnam War ref1 ‘viewspaper–newspaper’ ref1, ref2, ref3 Vignette ref1 Viner, Kath ref1, ref2, ref3 Vodafone ref1 Volkswagen ref1 Vyshinsky, Andrey ref1 Wadsworth, A.P. ref1 Wagner, Adam ref1 Waldman, Simon ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4n, ref5n Wales, Jimmy ref1 Walker, Christopher ref1 Wall Street ref1 Wall Street Journal (newspaper) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9 Wallis, Neil ref1 Walter, Justin ref1 WAN-IFRA ref1 WannaCry ref1n Wapping ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 War Office ref1 Watergate ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Watson, Tom (MP) ref1 Waugh, Evelyn ref1 We the Media (Gillmor) ref1, ref2 Weatherup, James ref1 Web 1.0 ref1, ref2 Web 2.0 ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 ‘web monkeys’ ref1 Webster, Phil ref1 Weinstein, Harvey ref1 Weisberg, Jacob ref1 Wellcome Trust ref1, ref2, ref3 Wells, Holly ref1 West Africa ref1 West Coast giants see Silicon valley Westminster ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 What the Media Are Doing to Our Politics (Lloyd) ref1 whistleblowers ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 White House (US) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 White, Michael ref1 Whitehall ref1, ref2, ref3 Whittam Smith, Andreas ref1 Whittow, Hugh ref1 ‘Why I Write’ (Orwell essay) ref1 WikiLeaks ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 Wikinomics (Tapscott) ref1 Wikipedia ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 Wilby, Peter ref1 Wilkes, John ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6n Williams, Francis ref1 Wilton’s (restaurant) ref1 Windows 95 ref1 The Wire (TV) ref1 Wired (Anderson) ref1 Wired (magazine) ref1 Witherow, John ref1, ref2 witnesses ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 Witty, Andrew ref1 Wolf, Armin ref1 women ref1, ref2 Wood, Graeme ref1 Woodward, Bob ref1, ref2 Workthing ref1, ref2 World Cup (football) ref1 World Economic Forum ref1 A World Without Bees (Benjamin) ref1 Worsthorne, Peregrine ref1 WPP plc ref1 Wu, Tim ref1 Yahoo ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 Yates, John ref1, ref2, ref3 The Year the Future Began (Campbell) ref1 Yemen ref1 Yo!

pages: 261 words: 57,595

China's Future
by David Shambaugh
Published 11 Mar 2016

The second telltale sign that the regime is corroding from within (in addition to widespread corruption) is that the economic elites—who in many cases also are Party members (given the nexus of commercial cronyism)—have begun to leave the country in increasingly large numbers.40 China’s economic elite have one foot out the door, and they are ready to flee en masse if the system really begins to crumble. In 2014, Shanghai’s Hurun Research Institute, which studies China’s wealthy, found that 64 percent of “high net worth individuals” it polled—393 millionaires and billionaires—were either emigrating or planning to do so.41 Rich Chinese are sending their children to study abroad in record numbers (in itself, an indictment of the quality of the Chinese higher education system). They are buying property abroad at record levels and prices, and are parking their financial assets overseas, often in well-shielded tax havens and shell companies.

pages: 199 words: 57,599

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
by T. Harv Eker
Published 15 Feb 2005

Rich people understand the huge distinction between working income and net worth. Working income is important, but it is only one of the four factors that determine your net worth. The four net worth factors are: Income Savings Investments Simplification Rich people understand that building a high net worth is an equation that contains all four elements. Because all of these factors are essential, let’s examine each one. Income comes in two forms: working income and passive income. Working income is the money earned from active work. This includes a paycheck from a day-to-day job, or for an entrepreneur, the profits or income taken from a business.

pages: 251 words: 63,630

The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends That Will Disrupt the World
by Shaun Rein
Published 27 Mar 2012

For instance, according to our research, many state-owned banks like ICBC and Bank of China focus more on their business dealings with other state-owned enterprises, leaving private companies and retail consumers highly dissatisfied with their service. China Merchants Bank recognized this and concentrated heavily on delivering better service for high-net-worth individuals and credit card holders. The company has since become the dominant credit card player. Consumers give it one of the highest satisfaction levels of any Chinese company about which my firm has conducted surveys. Similarly, one of the last major sectors to undergo meaningful reform in China is the education and training sector.

pages: 241 words: 63,981

Dirty Secrets How Tax Havens Destroy the Economy
by Richard Murphy
Published 14 Sep 2017

6.Does the jurisdiction require that companies include country-by-country reporting in their accounts? Tax and financial regulation 7.Are all people making payments of interest and dividends to non-resident people required to report this to the jurisdictions tax authority? 8.Does the jurisdictions tax authority have a unit dedicated to reviewing the affairs of high-net-worth individuals, and does it use standardised systems ensuring that information they receive regarding a taxpayer’s affairs are automatically matched to the right file? This is, in effect, a measure of the tax authorities likely efficiency in tackling tax abuse. 9.Are the worldwide income and capital gains of tax resident people and companies in the jurisdiction subject to taxation within it?

pages: 231 words: 60,546

Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century
by Georgina Adam
Published 14 Jun 2014

This ‘event’ side of art fairs mirrors the luxury-goods industry, which is aware that to bring the consumer into a shop, it has to offer an ‘experience’ that goes beyond just walking in and buying a product, which after all could be as easily bought online. Banks also spotted the opportunity that art fairs presented, with sponsorship giving them the chance to offer something to their high net worth individual (HNWI) clients as well as enhancing their ‘cultural’ credentials. Frieze sponsor Deutsche Bank has a separate area, with its own entrance, where clients can await the 11 am opening: they are then launched into the heart of the fair while other VIP visitors are still queuing up outside.

pages: 526 words: 158,913

Crash of the Titans: Greed, Hubris, the Fall of Merrill Lynch, and the Near-Collapse of Bank of America
by Greg Farrell
Published 2 Nov 2010

It’s making sure we really understand it.” Another question involved Merrill’s stake in BlackRock, and whether it would make sense for Merrill to sell it in order to raise more capital. “No,” Thain declared. “That’s a strategic stake and it’s important to us going forward. It fits very well with our high net worth business.” FROM A MERRILL LYNCH point of view, the interview was a success. Thain projected an image of authority in what amounted to “the trenches,” the place where Merrill had lost money under O’Neal and would now make money under Thain. The interview also showed that under Tutwiler, who had learned her craft in Washington, D.C., with the “A team” of Republican Party communications experts, public relations would be handled differently from the way it was handled at other Wall Street banks, where the focus tended to be on the institution first, then the CEO.

…

Fleming countered with the arguments he’d used before: Selling BlackRock would hurt Merrill’s earnings, jeopardize its credit rating, and, given the decline in BlackRock’s share price in recent weeks, result in much smaller gain than the stake was potentially worth. After another extended back-and-forth, Thain relented. Finally, Fleming suggested, it might be a good time to sell a stake in Financial Data Services, a processing business catering to high net worth individuals housed within Merrill’s wealth management unit. Todd Kaplan had brought FDS to Fleming’s attention in April, when the Merrill Lynch president was brainstorming for ideas on how to raise capital without selling more shares. Among other things, FDS marketed a software product that allowed big-ticket investors to retrieve historical prices of all kinds of stocks, making it easier to place a value on their portfolio.

pages: 575 words: 171,599

The Billionaire's Apprentice: The Rise of the Indian-American Elite and the Fall of the Galleon Hedge Fund
by Anita Raghavan
Published 4 Jun 2013

But the opening of the capital markets in the early eighties and the advent of technology that powered the way to the growth of complex mathematically driven trading strategies changed Wall Street. What securities firms needed most were financial wizards who actually had the brains to dream up newfangled products—derivatives and junk bonds—and sell them to an ever-increasing number of clients, savings and loans, pension funds, and high-net-worth individuals. It needed analysts who could understand the sophisticated products and technologies of the corporations they analyzed—and not simply swallow the spoon-fed and curdled explanations that companies served them. With their highly quantitative backgrounds, the new emigrants from South Asia were perfect for the job.

…

Gupta and a friend, Ravi Trehan, whom Gupta met one summer when Trehan rented a guesthouse in Connecticut from Gupta, had come to sound out Rajaratnam on the idea of buying an investment management company. The firm—which Trehan had found in Florida—was a so-called fund of funds, which raises money from institutional and high-net-worth investors and then allocates money to different kinds of hedge funds. Gupta and Trehan, a seasoned investor with an enviable track record of structuring deals, told Rajaratnam that they thought they could buy the company for 2 percent of assets. At the time, investment managers were trading at about ten times assets.

pages: 552 words: 163,292

Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art
by Michael Shnayerson
Published 20 May 2019

These were Gagosian’s inner circle, not unlike Gagosian in personality. “Larry is inherently impatient,” noted one of his staffers, “so he gravitates to other impatient people.” Irving Blum, the grand old gallerist of the sixties, liked to note, too, that everyone in Gagosian’s circle was a man: a happy, swaggering group of high-net-worth, high-testosterone captains of finance. With collectors like these, Gagosian saw no threat from Zwirner. He barely knew the guy. His rival was Arne Glimcher. The two dealers were often pitted against each other on a field of battle utterly foreign to David Zwirner and Iwan Wirth: Hollywood. Gagosian had been dealing in Hollywood for some two decades now, thanks to Barry Lowen, Doug Cramer and his ex-wife Joyce Haber, and above all David Geffen, who had gone on to buy most of S.

…

The novelty was that art now was more than a rarefied pleasure or sign of social status. With the bursting of the dot-com bubble in early 2000, interest rates had dropped to near zero and stayed down. For many, art was perceived to be a better investment than stocks. And so grew the exciting if not always reliable notion of art as an alternative asset. Several banks with high-net-worth client divisions jumped in, making loans against brand-name art, earning fee income for the bank and building relationships with dealers and collectors, though as Gagosian and other dealers had learned in the last recession, terms tended to be short and interest rates high. Dealers became bankers in a sense, too, making interest-free loans to collectors, sometimes even enlisting them as partners in pricey purchases.

pages: 233 words: 67,596

Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning
by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris
Published 6 Mar 2007

These changes cleared the path for an enterprise-wide initiative to improve BankCo’s analytical orientation, beginning with the creation of an integrated and consistent customer database (to the extent permitted by law) as well as coordinated retail, trust, and brokerage marketing campaigns. At the same time, an enterprise-wide marketing analytics group was established to work with the marketing teams on understanding client values and behavior. The group began to identify new market segments and offerings, and to help prioritize and coordinate marketing efforts to high-net-worth individuals. It also began to develop a deeper understanding of family relationships and their impact on individual behavior. By bringing together statisticians and analysts scattered throughout the business, BankCo could deploy these scarce resources more efficiently. As demand quickly outstripped supply, it hired analytical specialists with industry expertise and arranged to use an offshore firm to further leverage its scarce analytical talent.

pages: 251 words: 69,245

The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality
by Branko Milanovic
Published 15 Dec 2010

Bush famously promised that every American family, regardless of its income, would be able to own a home. Thus was born the great American consumption binge that saw the household debt increase from 48 percent of GDP in the early 1980s to 100 percent of GDP before the crisis. The interests of several large groups of people became closely aligned. High-net-worth individuals and the financial sector were, as we have seen, keen to find new lending opportunities. Politicians were eager to “solve” the irritable problem of middle-class income stagnation. The middle class and those poorer than them were happy to see their tight budget constraints removed as if by a magic wand, consume all the fine things purchased by the rich, and partake in the longest U.S. economic expansion since World War II.

pages: 213 words: 70,742

Notes From an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back
by Mark O'Connell
Published 13 Apr 2020

He had set up shop in the Black Hills in the hope of drawing some customers from the multitude of bikers who had descended on South Dakota that week for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Vicino was among the most prominent and successful figures in the doomsday preparedness space, a real estate magnate for the end of days. His company specialized in the construction of massive underground shelters where high-net-worth individuals could weather the end of the world in the style and comfort to which they had become accustomed. The company was named Vivos, which is the Spanish word for living. (As in los vivos—as distinct, crucially, from los muertos.) Vivos claimed to operate several facilities across the United States, all in remote and undisclosed locations, far from likely nuclear targets, seismic fault lines, and large urban areas where outbreaks of contagion would be at their most catastrophically intense.

pages: 225 words: 70,241

Silicon City: San Francisco in the Long Shadow of the Valley
by Cary McClelland
Published 8 Oct 2018

It’s not just good-citizen stuff, it’s about putting sweat into the city. You have to give up something. Government’s not functioning, so you’ve got to jump in and do it yourself. It’s just a philosophy I was born with. It’s your duty to be civically engaged. If you can’t donate money, donate time. If you’re not high-net-worth, fine, go out and do volunteer work. Get your company to adopt a school and volunteer in that school. That’s the least you can do. Probably less than 5 percent of the tech workforce in San Francisco, around seventy thousand people, go out and do volunteer work once a week. If you don’t want to do that, then go do something else.

pages: 233 words: 71,775

The Joy of Tax
by Richard Murphy
Published 30 Sep 2015

This has encouraged the appointment of directors with little or no knowledge of tax, and the appointment of non-executive directors to its Board all of whom8 are drawn from the large-business community even though there are only 700 such companies in the UK and 31 million taxpayers in all. This corporate structure has very clearly failed. HMRC has failed to act in the public interest, as many hearings before the Public Accounts Committee have shown,9 and has, too often, appeared to enter into cosy relationships with large companies10 and high net worth individuals11 that have resulted in them either enjoying what seem generous tax settlements or not being brought to account for the tax crimes that they may have committed. If there is to be confidence in the tax system in the United Kingdom then it is essential that this cosy relationship is ended between big business, its directors and tax advisers, and HMRC.

pages: 232 words: 70,835

A Wealth of Common Sense: Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in Any Investment Plan
by Ben Carlson
Published 14 May 2015

Ellis concluded this story by sharing the lesson that advice doesn't have to be complicated to be good. How Hard Can It Be? Over the course of my career I've invested in, advised on, or performed due diligence on nearly every investment strategy, asset class, security, or product type that you could think of. You name it; I've been involved with it in some fashion. I've worked with high-net-worth individuals, low-net-worth individuals, and million- and billion-dollar institutional portfolios. One thing I can say for certain through this experience in the markets is that it is not easy being an extraordinary investor. It's quite rare and extremely difficult. How difficult? Neurologist-turned-investor and author William Bernstein says that there are four basic abilities that all investors must possess in order to be successful: (1) An interest in the investing process, (2) math skills, (3) a firm grasp of financial history, and (4) the emotional discipline to see a plan through.

pages: 733 words: 179,391

Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought
by Andrew W. Lo
Published 3 Apr 2017

Watching the hedge fund industry can give us tremendous insight into what’s happening to the market environment. Hedge funds innovate rapidly, and because they tend to be highly leveraged, they have a disproportionate impact on markets. Central banks and sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and pension funds invest in hedge funds alongside high net worth individuals. How well these large institutions fare affects the financial lives of the everyday consumer, people who are just a single step away in the financial ecology. You may not be interested in hedge funds, but hedge funds may be interested in you. AN EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF THE HEDGE FUND Let’s use the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis to take a closer look at hedge funds.

…

However, Murphy’s conclusion comes with an important caveat. His results only apply to the top level of banking executives—they don’t translate to other employees. Lower-level employees with lower levels of wealth also had much less to lose from risk-taking. The financial penalties that matter to a high net worth individual may not matter to someone with little wealth or stake in a company. Did low-level employees of financial firms take excessive risks in pursuit of potential profit? As we’ve seen with rogue traders, the Wall Street bonus culture isn’t sufficient to prevent low-level employees from taking excessive risk; other forms of monitoring and risk management are needed.

pages: 741 words: 179,454

Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk
by Satyajit Das
Published 14 Oct 2011

Between 2002 and 2004, Jefferson County issued more than $3 billion of adjustable rate bonds, predominantly auction rate securities (ARSs), bonds with a long maturity where the rate is regularly reset through a Dutch auction6 typically held every 7, 28, or 35 days. ARSs provided borrowers with low cost, adjustable rate debt. Institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals received a higher interest for short-term investments because of the assurance of liquidity through the auction process. The investor’s risk was low, as highly rated bond or monoline insurers guaranteed repayment. Jefferson County entered into interest rate swaps, with JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Lehman Brothers, to hedge its exposure to fluctuating interest rates.

…

Indeed, the old problem of banking panics can reappear in new guises.”29 Now, AIG simply did not have the cash. FP dealt with a “global swath” of sovereigns, supranationals (like the World Bank), municipalities, banks, investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds, endowments, hedge funds, fund managers, and high-net-worth individuals. All major market participants were linked to each other by a complex network of contracts that few fully understood. In October 2008, Gorton wrote: You have this very, very complicated chain of...risk, which made it very opaque about where the risk finally resided...the whole infrastructure of the financial market became kind of infected, because nobody knew exactly where the risk was.30 If AIG failed, then the institutions that relied on it to insure its risk would have a problem, and then the institutions that relied on those institutions, and so on.

pages: 829 words: 187,394

The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest
by Edward Chancellor
Published 15 Aug 2022

The Victorian philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill argued that wealth consists of anything, ‘though useless in itself’, which enables a person ‘to claim from others a part of their stock of things useful or pleasant’. By Mill’s definition, a high-flying but otherwise useless cryptocurrency was wealth, as were other evanescent assets: the portfolio of a ‘high net worth individual’ invested in equity and bond derivatives; a private collection of contemporary art, featuring works by Jeff Koons, Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon, whose value could be monetized and used as collateral for further investments; loss-making or semi-fraudulent unicorns in Silicon Valley; unfunded pension promises; trillions of dollars’ worth of ‘good will’ on corporate balance sheets; and further trillions of bank reserves held at the Federal Reserve, an artefact of the central bank’s money-printing.

…

‘Like leggy plants given too much fertiliser,’ wrote Oliver Wainwright in the Guardian, ‘these buildings are a symptom of a city irrigated with too much money.’58 Less constrained for space, developers in Los Angeles built outwards. Across the Hollywood Hills dozens of ‘ultra high-end spec houses’ built for ‘ultra high net worth individuals’ went up. A $35 million Bel-Air property was launched with a Great Gatsby-themed party, where a trapeze artist dangled upside-down pouring champagne into the guests’ glasses while a colleague floated across a pool trapped inside a transparent plastic bubble. The party at another spec house, priced at $39.995 million, was styled after Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’, complete with actors dressed as Adam and Eve.

pages: 278 words: 74,880

A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Carbon Emissions
by Muhammad Yunus
Published 25 Sep 2017

There really is no viable alternative if we hope to enjoy a future on this planet. While short-term trends may appear to benefit a few of us at the expense of many others, in the long run only policies that will allow all the people of the world to share the progress are truly sustainable. The fate of high-net-worth investors served by bankers on Wall Street and that of poor women working in a garment factory in Bangladesh are linked together. The fate of a sorghum farmer in Uganda, a maize farmer in Mexico, and a soybean farmer in Iowa are all intertwined. Over the past decade, we’ve seen our world lurch from one crisis to another: financial disasters, famines, energy shortages, environmental catastrophes, military conflicts, floods of refugees, rising political instability.

pages: 243 words: 77,516

Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, and Billion-Dollar Deals
by John Lefevre
Published 4 Nov 2014

They didn’t want or need to do us, or our clients, any favors; Asia was still a rounding error in terms of revenue for most of the larger global banks. But by 2006, everything had changed. We started recruiting many of the new analysts for Asia from the pool of résumés that were sent in to the private bank by their ultra-high-net-worth clients looking for favors. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and most other firms would do the same thing through their respective private wealth management divisions. It became the running joke any time one of our counterparts at another bank brought a new analyst to a meeting or roadshow luncheon.

pages: 283 words: 77,272

With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
by Glenn Greenwald
Published 11 Nov 2011

Erzinger’s profession.” In other words, Erzinger engages in such vital activity that charging him with a felony would be wrong because it might seriously disrupt his work: managing the money of multimillionaires and billionaires. According to Worth magazine, Erzinger “oversees over $1 billion in assets for ultra high net worth individuals, their families and foundations.” If he were charged with a felony, he would be required to report that fact to licensing agencies; a felony conviction could result in his fund manager license being rescinded. Apparently, as far as the district attorney was concerned, it would be terribly unfair to subject someone like Erzinger to the risk of damaging his career, though presumably someone with less to lose could—and would—be charged as a felon without any such worries.

pages: 300 words: 77,787

Investing Demystified: How to Invest Without Speculation and Sleepless Nights
by Lars Kroijer
Published 5 Sep 2013

There is unfortunately not a great amount of good and reliable data on private investments (outside the more institutional methods like venture capital, etc.). Many involved with private investments are notoriously bad at sharing performance data with the wider world. This is probably because many high-net-worth investors are reluctant to share information about their private portfolios, although exposure to the tax authorities may also play a role. Poor information non-withstanding, according to a recent survey of studies on angel investing6 the average annual return to angel investors was 27.3%, which is obviously phenomenal.

pages: 251 words: 76,868

How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance
by Parag Khanna
Published 11 Jan 2011

Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Warren Buffett, George Soros, Richard Branson, and foundations including Ashoka, Schwab, Skoll, and the Omidyar Network (the latter two named for eBay’s founders) all provide a steady flow of capital to ventures that aim to level the economic playing field. Led by Gates and Buffett, forty billionaires have pledged half their net wealth to charity during their lifetimes. Synergos, the Global Philanthropy Forum, and other groups turn high-net-worth individuals and dot-com billionaires into social entrepreneurs with portfolios of progressive activities. Today’s students of the Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford’s Saïd Business School learn to be social intrapreneurs as well: going inside large corporations and changing their psychology and mission from within.

pages: 325 words: 73,035

Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life
by Richard Florida
Published 28 Jun 2009

Low prices mean that fewer people, relatively speaking, want to live in any given location, which would make hiring more complicated and difficult if a firm were to relocate. Location matters more than ever in the era of spiky globalization. A 2008 report by real estate giant Knight Frank asked high net worth individuals to name the most important factors in the location of a primary residence or second home. Accessibility topped the list, with 76 percent naming it for a primary residence and 71 percent citing it for a second home. When the list was narrowed to even more specific factors, access to work came in first, crime and security second, and access to airports third, well ahead of social networks, taxes, educational institutions, and leisure activities.3 Star Struck Using long-term trends in housing prices as their gauge, Wharton real estate expert Joseph Gyourko and his colleagues Todd Sinai and Chris Mayer of Columbia University identified the rise of what they call “superstar cities” (comprising central cities and their suburbs) across North America.4 According to Gyourko and his collaborators, the dramatic real estate appreciation in superstar cities is a long-term trend.

pages: 267 words: 71,941

How to Predict the Unpredictable
by William Poundstone

on his side, he’s likely to succeed. The only countermeasure is using a random password long enough to guarantee search times of your life expectancy or greater. Don’t be too sure you couldn’t be a target. A small business’s competitors may be willing to steal a laptop and expend the needed resources. So may a high-net-worth spouse in a divorce case. Hackers may take a disliking to someone’s business or politics. Twitter, meaning the whole site, was once compromised because an administrator unwisely chose the password happiness. In 2009 a hacker learned the Twitter password in a dictionary attack and posted it on the Digital Gangster site, leading to hijackings of the Twitter feeds of Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Facebook, and Fox News.

The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America
by Margaret O'Mara
Published 8 Jul 2019

The boom years turned out to be relatively brief, but they left a long shadow. THE GO-GO YEARS Wall Street’s tech boom started in the summer of 1966, when Digital held its first public offering. The mini maker’s 350,000 shares of common stock, offered at $22 a pop, sold out almost immediately. Ken Olsen instantly became a multimillionaire. High net worth didn’t markedly change the company’s low-key business culture, however. Olsen’s biggest splurge after the Digital IPO was to buy a second canoe .1 Another Boston-based pacesetter was Wang Laboratories, which had its IPO in the late summer of 1967, exactly a year after Digital’s debut. “I had a banker call me and ask for 100,000 shares,” said one broker.

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It was the latest iteration of the free-market narrative that had propelled the Valley from the start. The mythos had only intensified as the semiconductor generation matured, and the personal-computer industry gained market velocity. Now the independent zeitgeist was topped with a dollop of high-net-worth self-satisfaction. Reporters mingling among a trade-show crowd in 1979 remarked on the Valley’s “singular sense of frontierism, its self-awareness that says, ‘Hey, we’re the people making it all happen.’” Tech was the domain of rebels, of cowboys, of revolutionaries. It was business with an authentic soul.

pages: 280 words: 82,623

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter
Published 9 Jan 2007

Sharon thought she was encouraging the staff to grow and eventually emulate her success. The staffers outside her inner circle thought she was encouraging sucking up. Sharon is guilty of Habit #14: Playing favorites. Case 3. Martin is a financial consultant for a prominent New York City firm. He manages money for high-net-worth individuals. The minimum starting account is $5 million. Martin is very good at what he does. He takes home a seven-figure salary. That’s a lot less than most of his clients make in a year. But Martin doesn’t envy or resent his clients. He lives and breathes investments. And he loves providing a valued service for his well-heeled clients, many of them CEOs, some of them self-made entrepreneurs, some of them entertainment stars, and the rest of them beneficiaries of inherited wealth.

pages: 223 words: 10,010

The Cost of Inequality: Why Economic Equality Is Essential for Recovery
by Stewart Lansley
Published 19 Jan 2012

In the US and the UK, wealth management teams operating inside investment and specialist banks enjoyed booming business. Many of these companies started to handle only clients offering substantial sums. In the UK, for example, the wealth management firms Fleming Family and Partners, JO Hambro and Sarasin only handle a group known in the industry as ‘ultra high net worth’: those with assets to spare of at least £10 million. Some of the money supported proprietary trading desks in investment banks. Yet using the banks’ own capital in this way loaded additional risk and potential conflict. ‘Not only do they risk putting their own interests before those of their clients’, as the Economist magazine argued in 2007, ‘they are also increasingly exposing themselves to the dangers of an abrupt turn in the credit cycle.

pages: 296 words: 82,501

Stuffocation
by James Wallman
Published 6 Dec 2013

For an example of how people are still shopping in a time of too much stuff, consider Emily Sheffield, “How We Shop Now”, British Vogue, February 2013. Sheffield writes that “a fashion consultant called Anita Borzsyzkowska says: ‘So I am actually spending more per item, but there are fewer buys.’“ And Sheffield quotes a report from high-net worth consumer specialist Ledbury Research, which points to “consumers adopting a ‘less is more’ mentality. So they are focusing more on quality and good experiences than ‘look at me’ purchases.” The New ‘n’ Improved Features and Benefits of the Experience Economy This section – and much of the chapters about the experience economy – is inspired and informed by B.

pages: 268 words: 81,811

Flash Crash: A Trading Savant, a Global Manhunt, and the Most Mysterious Market Crash in History
by Liam Vaughan
Published 11 May 2020

Nav erected an impenetrable wall between his home life and his business affairs, and when Daljit, his mother, left the house each morning to work behind the till at a local chemist, or Nachhattar, his father, walked to the doctor’s office to pick up a prescription, they did so with no inkling that their son was a multimillionaire. Money for Nav was an abstraction, and the more of it that flooded in, the more he turned to MacKinnon and Dupont for guidance. By now the pair had taken to describing themselves as Nav’s “family office”—a kind of one-stop shop that handles every aspect of a high-net-worth individual’s financial and investment affairs—and not long after the wind deal was finalized, they introduced him to another opportunity, this one involving a mysterious young Mexican businessman named Jesus. Jesus Alejandro Garcia Alvarez was the owner and CEO of a Zurich-based company called IXE, an Aztec word apparently meaning “one who shows their face and keeps their word.”

pages: 297 words: 83,528

The Startup Wife
by Tahmima Anam
Published 2 Jun 2021

I ask the question that’s been on my mind since the call came: “How do you pay for all of this?” “I’ve been given a mandate,” Li Ann says. “On the one hand, we operate like any other startup incubator. But our mission is also to find solutions to the inevitable demise of the world as we know it. Our endowment is made up of tech companies, high-net-worth individuals, even some government pension funds. I think there’s a general sense that we are going to face unprecedented challenges in the future, and everyone wants to be prepared.” What will Cyrus say? I haven’t thought about him for at least half an hour, which is the longest I’ve not thought about him since our reunion.

pages: 290 words: 83,248

The Greed Merchants: How the Investment Banks Exploited the System
by Philip Augar
Published 20 Apr 2005

The veteran Wall Street analyst Jim Hanbury explains how this worked: ‘In such an organization sales, research, trading, underwriting, advisory, asset management and brokerage are under one roof and the professionals work together smoothly. Some easy examples include analysts proposing candidates for M&A or financing; sales and trading informing bankers of client needs, bankers introducing clients to high net worth brokers and so on. In the great firms this generates a lot of revenues.’2 Following the global settlement of 2003, the link between research analysts and investment banking has been broken and more care is being taken to manage other conflicts of interest. But the integrated, diversified investment banks remain in an unbeatable position compared to other market users.

pages: 291 words: 90,771

Upscale: What It Takes to Scale a Startup. By the People Who've Done It.
by James Silver
Published 15 Nov 2018

‘Very often it’s an investor who has had a good experience with something that they see as being analogous in some respects to your startup. And that’s true through every single stage: if they can see something about a company that they’ve had success with in the past, then that founder is going to be pushing on an open door. ‘But, ultimately, it is very much network, and for seed stage it’s a mixture of [high net-worth] individuals and small funds.’ Having the right backers at seed stage is critically important, she emphasises. ‘These are the people who are going to be the most heavily invested - literally - in helping you build your next stage relationships.’ Doing this without ‘warm’ introductions is hard, because many investors prefer to back someone they’ve got to know.

pages: 444 words: 84,486

Radicalized
by Cory Doctorow
Published 19 Mar 2019

You never knew. He could afford it. He could afford all of it. Martin and the market understood each other. He was a star at the firm, personally managing a portfolio with $11 billion in it, which he had personally grown from $9 billion. There was talk of giving him his own fund, giving the most ultra-high-net-worth types the chance to subscribe directly, and giving him tons of freedom to do as he saw fit with it. When he thought about this, his brain kind of split into two different, mutually exclusive thought processes: the first one started adding up bonuses and commissions and new base pay; the second one wondered how much of that would arrive before The Event.

pages: 306 words: 82,909

A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend Them Back
by Bruce Schneier
Published 7 Feb 2023

Hedge funds have been doing this since their inception in the 1960s, first by “hedging”—or offsetting—risks against each other, then by using diverse investment strategies, then by engaging in computer-assisted trading. The very existence of hedge funds relies on hacking the financial regulatory system. Since their inception, hedge funds have been protected by a series of legislative loopholes that exempt them from SEC oversight. Because they only accept high-net-worth and institutional investors as clients, hedge funds are exempt from oversight under the Securities Act of 1933, which is designed to protect individual buyers in the market. By toeing the line on criteria outlined in the Investment Company Act of 1940, hedge funds exempt themselves from bans on investment techniques that are applied to registered investment companies—most notably, shorting.

Uncomfortably Off: Why the Top 10% of Earners Should Care About Inequality
by Marcos González Hernando and Gerry Mitchell
Published 23 May 2023

Similarly, Paul, who as an architect was sensitive to housing trends, and living between Liverpool and London was able to contrast them, commented on the relationship between wealth and the unsustainability of extreme gentrification: ‘It’s not possible for a city to survive for any extended period of time if it only meets the needs of a small, 133 Uncomfortably Off wealthy minority. Even the most abstract financial service work depends upon an infrastructure of waged and unwaged care labour; even unoccupied trophy housing requires ongoing maintenance to keep deterioration at bay. A relative handful of high-wage jobs and so-called high-net-worth individuals cannot keep a city going, to say nothing about questions of justice.’20 Accumulating and hoarding Inequality increases our concern with status and the importance of money. In her book Get It Together, journalist Zoe Williams states that ‘wanting stuff is basically social’ because it is a way of sending signals to each other about who we are.

pages: 297 words: 91,141

Market Sense and Nonsense
by Jack D. Schwager
Published 5 Oct 2012

The idiosyncratic risk in hedge funds, which raises the specter of a total or near-total loss, can easily be eliminated by confining hedge fund investments to diversified, professionally managed funds of funds, as opposed to single hedge fund investments. Investment Misconception 35: Hedge fund investment is appropriate only for high-net-worth, sophisticated investors. Reality: An analytical, rather than emotional, evaluation of portfolio alternatives would indicate that hedge funds are a desirable investment even for unsophisticated, lower-net-worth individuals—that is, via a fund of funds vehicle, which provides both professional management and diversification.

pages: 310 words: 91,151

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children
by John Wood
Published 28 Aug 2006

A few weeks later, in November of 2004, the San Francisco team planted their flag by generating over $90,000 at a “Reading Room” event with facsimiles of four libraries (from Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, and India), one in each corner of the room. Within weeks, the London chapter hosted a private dinner for high-net-worth individuals who collectively pledged over $100,000. It was all done in a spirit of friendly competition, and it was fun to watch the mails fly around the world as the bar continued to be raised. The Hong Kong chapter treated the British record as though it were made to be broken. Our chapter leaders jokingly told me, “The Brits take forever to make decisions.

pages: 265 words: 93,231

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
by Michael Lewis
Published 1 Nov 2009

If you got your ISDA, you could in theory trade with the big Wall Street firms, if not as an equal then at least as a grown-up. The trouble was that, despite their success running money, they still didn't have much of it. Worse, what they had was their own. Inside Wall Street they were classified, at best, as "high net worth individuals." Rich people. Rich people received a better class of service from Wall Street than middle-class people, but they were still second-class citizens compared to institutional money managers. More to the point, rich people were typically not invited to buy and sell esoteric securities, such as credit default swaps, not traded on open exchanges.

pages: 351 words: 93,982

Leading From the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies
by Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer
Published 14 Apr 2013

Later that morning, I met his business partner, Guilherme Leal, another co-founder of Natura. After merging his own company with Natura in 1979, Guilherme helped build Natura into the largest direct-sales cosmetics company in Brazil. What struck me most was seeing how these two men interacted with each other. Often very successful and high-net-worth people tend to go it alone. Instead these two men seemed to have a relationship that was delicate, respectful, caring, appreciative. None of these words really get to the essence. If I had to choose a single word, maybe it would be selfless. They seemed to genuinely enjoy their differences and to support each other in them.

pages: 312 words: 91,538

The Fear Index
by Robert Harris
Published 14 Aug 2011

‘The only thing that keeps me awake at night is the thought of a paternity suit.’ ‘RIGHT,’ SAID QUARRY, when Genoud had gone, ‘let’s talk about this presentation – if you’re still sure you’re up for it?’ ‘I’m up for it.’ ‘Okay, thank God for that. Nine investors – all existing clients as agreed. Four institutions, three ultra-high net worths, two family offices, and a partridge in a pear tree.’ ‘A partridge?’ ‘Okay, not a partridge. There is no partridge, I concede that.’ Quarry was in great high spirits. If he was three parts gambler he was also one part salesman, and it was a while since that crucial part of him had been allowed its head.

pages: 287 words: 86,870

The Glass Hotel
by Emily St. John Mandel
Published 14 Jun 2020

She begins a slow circle of the yard, sometimes flickering slightly. She looks much younger than she was the last time he saw her. This may actually be the same suit she was wearing when he met her for the first time, which would’ve been, what, 1986, ’87? A lunch in Paris. She’d just started her own investment advisory business and she had a few high-net-worth French and Italian clients for him. On the morning of Alkaitis’s arrest, her clients had a combined total of $320 million of their money in the Ponzi. Yvette Bertolli died of a heart attack that afternoon. Now she circles the yard, glancing every so often at Alkaitis. He closes his eyes, pinches himself, every trick he can think of, but she’s still there when he goes inside an hour later, conferring with Faisal under a tree

pages: 279 words: 90,888

The Lost Decade: 2010–2020, and What Lies Ahead for Britain
by Polly Toynbee and David Walker
Published 3 Mar 2020

Together Westminster and the borough of Kensington and Chelsea were home to 12,000 people in this income category, amounting to one in twelve residents of the latter borough, who, of course, included those in Grenfell Tower. Some 9,370 people were worth at least £23 million each, which in 2019 was 9 per cent up on the previous year. Nigel Green, the founder and owner of the deVere Group, is ‘high net worth’, the euphemism for being exceedingly rich. His wealth-management firm looks after the investments of 100,000 clients, mostly British expats, advising them on the tax-efficient zones in which to park their money. His firm has 1,500 employees in fifty countries, from Switzerland to Botswana, China and Luxembourg to South Africa.

Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead
by Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman
Published 22 Sep 2016

Some consumers will still want to buy their own car, an expensive specialty model that’s designed for a specific purpose, perhaps an office on wheels, or a mini, autonomous “home away from home,” boasting a bright and recognizable logo. Consumers who purchase these costly specialty models will be a desirable demographic: high-net-worth individuals, the same people who own a second home for vacations, or who prefer to charter a private jet to go on vacation rather than flying commercial. While a partnership with a software company will still be required, the focus of the sale will be on the quality of the entire car, both hardware and software.

Concentrated Investing
by Allen C. Benello
Published 7 Dec 2016

(The younger brother who told Greenberg that he’d see out the year has been a client ever since, and “has a very large account.”33) Money started pouring into the firm as clients started telling their friends about the firm. Even so, for the first eight years, Chieftain only managed money for high net worth individuals. In 1990, Greenberg was invited along with other young alumni for a “back-to-class” weekend at Yale. David Swensen, who administered Yale’s endowment, gave a talk about the endowment’s investment strategy. Swensen had been in charge of the endowment for several years, and had placed a quarter of its capital in stock market index funds.

pages: 267 words: 90,353

Private Equity: A Memoir
by Carrie Sun
Published 13 Feb 2024

The industry would have its ups and downs; it wasn’t until the last decades of the twentieth century that the daring funds began to attract much wider attention for their masters-of-the-universe performance numbers. The eighties and nineties were the halcyon days for hedge funds. They operated on the fringes of the mainstream financial system without much oversight. Most of their investors were high-net-worth individuals or family offices with healthy appetites for risk. Those were also the years before Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), a rule the SEC instituted in 2000 to try to level the playing field by forcing companies issuing shares to the public to disclose material information to all investors, large and small, simultaneously.

pages: 1,088 words: 228,743

Expected Returns: An Investor's Guide to Harvesting Market Rewards
by Antti Ilmanen
Published 4 Apr 2011

Antti Ilmanen Bad Homburg, November 2010 Abbreviations and acronyms AM Arithmetic Mean ATM At The Money (option) AUM Assets Under Management BEI Break-Even Inflation BF Behavioral Finance B/P Book/Price, book-to-market ratio BRP Bond Risk Premium, term premium B-S Black–Scholes C-P BRP Cochrane–Piazzesi Bond Risk Premium CAPM Capital Asset Pricing Model CAY Consumption wealth ratio CB Central Bank CCW Covered Call Writing CDO Collateralized Debt Obligation CDS Credit Default Swap CF Cash Flow CFNAI Chicago Fed National Activity Index CFO Chief Financial Officer CMD Commodity (futures) CPIyoy Consumer Price Inflation year on year CRB Commodity Research Bureau CRP Credit Risk Premium (over Treasury bond) CRRA Constant Relative Risk Aversion CTA Commodity Trading Advisor DDM Dividend Discount Model DJ CS Dow Jones Credit Suisse DMS Dimson–Marsh–Staunton D/P Dividend/Price (ratio), dividend yield DR Diversification Return E( ) Expected (conditional expectation) EMH Efficient Markets Hypothesis E/P Earnings/Price ratio, earnings yield EPS Earnings Per Share ERP Equity Risk Premium ERPB Equity Risk Premium over Bond (Treasury) ERPC Equity Risk Premium over Cash (Treasury bill) F Forward price or futures price FF Fama–French FI Fixed Income FoF Fund of Funds FX Foreign eXchange G Growth rate GARCH Generalized AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity GC General Collateral repo rate (money market interest rate) GDP Gross Domestic Product GM Geometric Mean, also compound annual return GP General Partner GSCI Goldman Sachs Commodity Index H Holding-period return HF Hedge Fund HFR Hedge Fund Research HML High Minus Low, a value measure, also VMG HNWI High Net Worth Individual HPA House Price Appreciation (rate) HY High Yield, speculative-rated debt IG Investment Grade (rated debt) ILLIQ Measure of a stock’s illiquidity: average absolute daily return over a month divided by dollar volume IPO Initial Public Offering IR Information Ratio IRP Inflation Risk Premium ISM Business confidence index ITM In The Money (option) JGB Japanese Government Bond K-W BRP Kim–Wright Bond Risk Premium LIBOR London InterBank Offered Rate, a popular bank deposit rate LP Limited Partner LSV Lakonishok–Shleifer–Vishny LtA Limits to Arbitrage LTCM Long-Term Capital Management MA Moving Average MBS (fixed rate, residential) Mortgage-Backed Securities MIT-CRE MIT Center for Real Estate MOM Equity MOMentum proxy MSCI Morgan Stanley Capital International MU Marginal Utility NBER National Bureau of Economic Research NCREIF National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries OAS Option-Adjusted (credit) Spread OTM Out of The Money (option) P Price P/B Price/Book (valuation ratio) P/E Price/Earnings (valuation ratio) PE Private Equity PEH Pure Expectations Hypothesis PT Prospect Theory r Excess return R Real (rate) RE Real Estate REITs Real Estate Investment Trusts RWH Random Walk Hypothesis S Spot price, spot rate SBRP Survey-based Bond Risk Premium SDF Stochastic Discount Factor SMB Small Minus Big, size premium proxy SR Sharpe Ratio SWF Sovereign Wealth Fund TED Treasury–Eurodollar (deposit) rate spread in money markets TIPS Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, real bonds UIP Uncovered Interest Parity (hypothesis) VaR Value at Risk VC Venture Capital VIX A popular measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options VMG Value Minus Growth, equity value premium proxy WDRA Wealth-Dependent Risk Aversion X Cash flow Y Yield YC Yield Curve (steepness), term spread YTM Yield To Maturity YTW Yield To Worst Disclaimer Antti Ilmanen is a Senior Portfolio Manager at Brevan Howard, one of Europe’s largest hedge fund managers.

…

For equity investors it is important to understand that existing investors of listed shares only benefit from growth in current firms; historically, this includes less than half of aggregate real earnings growth (see Sections 8.4.3 and 16.4.1). • Some wealth classifications add up management vehicles instead of assets: pension assets, insurance assets, mutual fund assets, private equity, and hedge funds. How do SWFs (sovereign wealth funds) and HNWIs (high-net-worth individuals) fit these classifications? And should we treat PE, HF, and structured products as wealth classes or management vehicles; the former choice may imply double-counting? Without being pedantic about definitions, I quote here some interesting classifications and quantifications. A.1 GLOBAL TOTAL • McKinsey Global Institute (2009) reports the size of global financial assets at $178 trillion ($194 trillion) at end-2008 (end-2007).

pages: 976 words: 235,576

The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite
by Daniel Markovits
Published 14 Sep 2019

Meritocracy directs this talent overwhelmingly to serve the private side of the interface between government regulation and the rich—to promote elite economic interests against the state. An entire industry now devotes itself to defending the elite’s income and wealth—to resisting, as a recent Citigroup brochure directed at the bank’s high-net-worth clients said, the “ways of expropriating wealth” favored by “organized societies” confronting “plutonomy.” This income defense industry overwhelms the state, sometimes literally. Donald Trump’s former top economic adviser Gary Cohn observes that “only morons pay the estate tax.” Cohn’s language may be crass, but it reports a simple fact: a systematic elite effort—including a media strategy, campaign contributions, lobbying, and tax planning—has effectively annihilated the estate tax.

…

A combination of high exemptions and generous opportunities for tax planning means that in 2016, even before the 2017 tax reform further weakened the tax, fewer than fifty-three hundred families across the entire country paid any estate tax at all. The estate tax is extreme but not exceptional. The broader complex of lawyers, accountants, and bankers advising the rich on tax havens is sufficiently large to allow what the industry calls high-net-worth individuals (people with more than $30 million of investable assets) worldwide to move roughly $18 trillion of assets offshore. Overall, during the same decades in which the top 1 percent’s share of national income roughly doubled, the tax rates that it faced fell by perhaps a third. When Warren Buffett decries that he pays taxes at a lower rate than his secretary, he is reporting not an outlier but rather the limit case of a pervasive development.

pages: 381 words: 101,559

Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Gobal Crisis
by James Rickards
Published 10 Nov 2011

Quantitative easing in its simplest form is just printing money. To create money from thin air, the Federal Reserve buys Treasury debt securities from a select group of banks called primary dealers. The primary dealers have a global base of customers, ranging from sovereign wealth funds, other central banks, pension funds and institutional investors to high-net-worth individuals. The dealers act as intermediaries between the Fed and the marketplace by underwriting Treasury auctions of new debt and making a market in existing debt. When the Fed wants to reduce the money supply, they sell securities to the primary dealers. The securities go to the dealers and the money paid to the Fed simply disappears.

pages: 357 words: 94,852

No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need
by Naomi Klein
Published 12 Jun 2017

A great many of us who would never have voted for him have grown numbly accustomed to the notion that the mere fact of an individual having a large bank account (or many bank accounts, lots of them hidden offshore) somehow means they have bottomless expertise. Indeed, governments of all stripes have been happy to hand over more and more of what used to be seen as public policy challenges to a tiny group of very high-net-worth individuals. Trump’s assertion that he knows how to fix America because he’s rich is nothing more than an uncouth, vulgar echo of a dangerous idea we have been hearing for years: that Bill Gates can fix Africa. Or that Richard Branson and Michael Bloomberg can solve climate change. The Breaking Point: Bailing Out the Banks The divide between the Davos class and everyone else has been widening since the 1980s.

pages: 346 words: 101,763

Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic
by Hugh Sinclair
Published 4 Oct 2012

A third company, called NOTS (Not One The Same—whatever that means), also wanted to start yet another microfinance fund, and Mark and Eelco came up with the cunning plan of setting up a separate, for-profit, private limited company to manage all these funds under one roof. They would have the same capital under management but could reap the benefits of private shareholdings. It was essentially a privatization. Oxfam Novib’s money came predominantly from the Dutch government, ASN Bank’s funds from pensioners and savers, and NOTS’ capital mainly from high-net-worth individuals. The funds were then channeled through a private company, Triple Jump. DOEN is an investment fund that obtains its funding from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and has been active in some of the most original and cutting-edge investments in the broad field of development for decades. It was an early investor in microfinance, via the Triodos-DOEN fund—a fund managed by the genuinely decent bank and microfinance fund manager Triodos Bank.

pages: 370 words: 94,968

The Most Human Human: What Talking With Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive
by Brian Christian
Published 1 Mar 2011

Just to keep it interesting, you know?” The strangeness he experienced, and the kinds of “bullet points” that speed dating can frequently devolve into, are so well-known as to have been lampooned by Sex and the City: “Hi, I’m Miranda Hobbes.” “Dwight Owens; private wealth group at Morgan Stanley; investment management for high-net-worth individuals and a couple pension plans; like my job; been there five years; divorced; no kids; not religious; I live in New Jersey; speak French and Portuguese; Wharton business school; any of this appealing to you?” The delivery certainly isn’t. People with elaborate checklists of qualities their ideal mate must have frequently put entirely the wrong types of things.

pages: 349 words: 95,972

Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives
by Tim Harford
Published 3 Oct 2016

It is easy to mock the pickup artists with their “openers” and their willingness to “eject” from an interaction that isn’t going well. But do the rest of us really do any better? Is this line, transcribed from a first date, delivered by a human or a computer? “Dwight Owens. Private wealth group at Morgan Stanley. Investment management for high-net-worth individuals and a couple pension plans. Like my job, been there five years, divorced, no kids, not religious. I live in New Jersey, speak French and Portuguese. Wharton business school. Any of this appealing to you?” It’s a trick question: these words actually come from the TV comedy Sex and the City.

pages: 391 words: 97,018

Better, Stronger, Faster: The Myth of American Decline . . . And the Rise of a New Economy
by Daniel Gross
Published 7 May 2012

But when I met with Sunil Godhwani, chief executive officer of Religare Enterprises, an Indian financial services company, in the lobby of the Morosani Posthotel in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2011, he wanted to talk about his U.S. strategy. With 2,200 offices in six hundred cities and $15 billion in assets under management, Religare is perfectly situated to cash in on the rising tide in India, where the population of high-net-worth individuals (those with over $1 million in assets) rose 80 percent between 2008 and 2010. Why would anyone want to go elsewhere? Well, in February 2010 Religare paid $200 million for a majority stake in Northgate Capital, a private equity firm based in San Francisco. In December 2010, just weeks before we met, Godhwani had bought a 55 percent stake in Landmark Partners, a fund of funds based in Simsbury, Connecticut, for $171 million.

pages: 146 words: 43,446

The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
by Michael Lewis
Published 29 Sep 1999

The idea was to get the word out to the accountants he wanted to hire and to create a buzz about the company, without alerting the competition. Once again, he was fairly clear in his mind who the competition was. "I want to avoid waving a red flag to Microsoft," he explained to me, "so instead of 'the wealthy masses' I've been saying 'high net worth individuals,' and instead of laying out the whole idea I just say we'll be doing tax planning." Sure enough, not long after Clark leaked his new story to the press, the accountants began to call. In just a few weeks several hundred people Clark had never heard of came looking to be a part of the new enterprise.

pages: 296 words: 98,018

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
by Anand Giridharadas
Published 27 Aug 2018

As Stephen Marche has written of the historian turned thought leader Niall Ferguson, who reportedly earns between $50,000 and $75,000 per speech: Nonfiction writers can and do make vastly more, and more easily, than they could ever make any other way, including by writing bestselling books or being a Harvard professor…. That number means that Ferguson doesn’t have to please his publishers; he doesn’t have to please his editors; he sure as hell doesn’t have to please scholars. He has to please corporations and high-net-worth individuals. While individual thought leaders like Gladwell might resist the temptations of changing their ideas for, say, a banking convention, the plutocrats’ money amounts to a kind of subsidy for ideas they are willing to hear. And subsidies have consequences, as the Harvard Business School professor Gautam Mukunda observes in a piece about how Wall Street clings to power, including by cultivating ideas that make us believe “that those with power are good and just and doing the right thing”: The ability of a powerful group to reward those who agree with it and punish those who don’t also distorts the marketplace of ideas.

pages: 371 words: 98,534

Red Flags: Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy
by George Magnus
Published 10 Sep 2018

WMPs warrant some additional explanation because they have constituted an important and, some say, risky, part of the shadow banking sector. They have certainly been in the crosshairs of regulators for some time. In March 2017, for example, China Minsheng Bank, the biggest joint stock bank, was fined by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) for breaching internal controls regarding the sale of WMPs to high-net-worth individuals. The RMB 3 billion that the bank raised was allegedly used to make good a credit note which had been fraudulently drawn up to cover losses on a loan to a subsidiary of the state-owned China Railway Group. This particular incident served as a reminder of the vulnerability of investors to, and the abuse by financial institutions of, this part of the product family.

pages: 340 words: 100,151

Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It
by Scott Kupor
Published 3 Jun 2019

Inflation (particularly in health-care costs) and demographics (more retirees than current employees) eat away at the value of these pensions, absent the ability to generate real investment returns. Family offices (e.g., U.S. Trust, myCFO)—These are investment managers who are investing on behalf of very-high-net-worth families. Their goals are set by the individual families but often include multigenerational wealth preservation and/or funding large charitable efforts. There are single-family offices (as the name suggests, they are managing the assets of a single family and its heirs) and multifamily offices (essentially, sophisticated money managers who aggregate the assets of multiple families and invest them across various asset classes).

pages: 329 words: 99,504

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud
by Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman
Published 17 Jul 2023

They never have a chance. David can never know for sure, but he suspects that forex was how his father stumbled upon Stallion Wings, a cryptocurrency investment firm promising incredible returns. ° ° ° Lin and Aaron Sternlicht run a boutique addiction services firm in New York City catering to high–net worth individuals and their families. In 2018, as the last bull market cycle of crypto ended in collapse—prices fell some 80 percent in less than a year—Lin and Aaron started to see a new kind of client: crypto addicts. They were all men under forty; some of them were Wall Street whiz kids, others upper class professionals.

pages: 337 words: 101,281

Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming
by Mckenzie Funk
Published 22 Jan 2014

“Imagine the president calls you up and says there’s a climate emergency,” Koonin told the group. “How quickly can you respond? What do you do?” These JASONs, whose club was named after the Jason of Greek mythology, were again being asked to save the world. In a phone call in 2009, Novim’s executive director mentioned that he had “just been invited to a meeting of high-net-worth individuals next week who are interested in investing in the area of geoengineering.” He didn’t want to share any names. “But you’d recognize some of them,” he said. I later noticed that a Novim study on the global temperature record received $100,000 from Bill Gates’s FICER—perhaps a coincidence, perhaps not.

pages: 345 words: 100,989

The Pyramid of Lies: Lex Greensill and the Billion-Dollar Scandal
by Duncan Mavin
Published 20 Jul 2022

But Greensill – Lex and the business – were too good a fit for the new direction at Credit Suisse. None of the concerns carried enough weight to block the Greensill pitch. The Swiss bank started with a single Greensill fund in 2017. In a glossy magazine the bank published that year and distributed to its high-net-worth clients, Credit Suisse executives gushed over the promise of supply chain finance. The article, headed ‘Good Mood Included’, emphasized that these were safe, reliable investments with a broad benefit to investors and corporate clients alike. SCF funds were ‘short-term, low-risk investments that feature attractive returns’, according to Luc Mathys, the head of fixed income in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

pages: 334 words: 103,106

Inheritance
by Leo Hollis

The names of the distinguished landowners, who have made their fortunes from developing and speculating upon the ground beneath our feet, are etched into the urban spaces. Grand houses. Street names. Neighbourhoods. These enclaves have defined elite housing since the eighteenth century, and are still the most sought-after addresses amongst the world’s Ultra High Net Worth Individuals. Some aristocratic landlords have risen, other have collapsed, but the overbearing power of private property has remained constant. It is London’s lodestar. But to tell that story, and Mary’s, we need to start before her birth, with the formation of her inheritance: the Manor of Ebury, and the man who bought the land and then passed it to the Davies family. 1 ‘The Way to be Rich’ ON FRIDAY 23 January 1663, following a visit to a coffee house and a discussion on the state of trade with his friend Sir John Cutler, the clerk to the Navy Board, Samuel Pepys, found himself wandering by the Temple Bar, at the western end of Fleet Street.

pages: 354 words: 105,322

The Road to Ruin: The Global Elites' Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis
by James Rickards
Published 15 Nov 2016

Soon Belizean banks cooperated with G20 information requests and the financial oxygen was gradually restored. Release of the infamous “Panama Papers,” consisting of client records from a law firm that facilitated tax avoidance, is another recent example. What’s wrong with effective tax collection? Why shouldn’t corporations and high-net-worth individuals pay their fair share? They should. Yet the notion of “fair share” is debatable, and a moving target. The G20 engaged in nonsustainable borrowing to bail out major banks. That debt must be repaid either through direct taxation or inflation, a hidden tax on savers. G20 governments will not tax at fair rates; rather, they will apply whatever rate is needed to defease the debt.

pages: 471 words: 109,267

The Verdict: Did Labour Change Britain?
by Polly Toynbee and David Walker
Published 6 Oct 2011

New disclosure rules in 2004 allowed the tax authorities to take swifter action on loopholes; court rulings gave them access to 400,000 offshore bank accounts held by UK residents, 100,000 of which were not declaring income or interest. After the crash, in a stable-doors exercise, rescued banks had to list where they sheltered their money – one had 500 tax-haven subsidiaries. In April 2009 HMRC set up a High Net Worth Unit, looking at complex share and property dealings. The Germans had shown the power of shame when in 2008 they started buying stolen computer discs containing Swiss and Liechtenstein bank records. At last, as a result of the recession, the UK cut subsidies for the Isle of Man, forcing its toy-town government to put up taxes.

pages: 389 words: 109,207

Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street
by William Poundstone
Published 18 Sep 2006

He persuaded many of them to roll their money over into a new fund that Koonmen was starting, Eifuku Master Trust. One of the first things Koonmen had to explain to his investors was how to pronounce “Eifuku.” It was ay-foo-koo. Eifuku means “eternal luck.” Soros invested in Eifuku. So did several high-net-worth Kuwaitis and UBS, a Swiss bank still smarting from the distinction of having been Long-Term Capital Management’s largest investor. Like Meriwether, Koonmen believed that his management was worth a 25 percent cut of the profits. He also intended to rake in 2 percent of the fund’s assets each year, profitable or not.

pages: 519 words: 104,396

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (And How to Take Advantage of It)
by William Poundstone
Published 1 Jan 2010

The IRS allows businesses and individuals to write off alcoholic “entertainment” as long as it is “ordinary and necessary.” Nobody seems to doubt that it’s both. When the economy goes south, alcohol-lubricated deal making is one of the last things to be cut. As the New York real estate market tanked in 2008, Prudential Douglas Elliman was offering high-net-worth customers condo tours awash in free Talisker and Lagavulin whiskey—which sell for $60 and $77 a bottle. “A little bourbon” could be good for sales, suggested one broker, who sounded confident that the liquor budget would be recouped and then some. Real estate journalist Christine Haughney wrote, “Just as a few drinks may coax timid traders onto a dance floor, it could help them muster the courage to buy multimillion-dollar apartments.”

pages: 385 words: 111,807

A Pelican Introduction Economics: A User's Guide
by Ha-Joon Chang
Published 26 May 2014

They arrange the issuance of shares and corporate bonds by their client companies and sell them on their behalf. When they sell shares and bonds for their client companies, investment banks do not deal with ‘retail’ investors, namely, small individual investors who only buy small quantities. They only deal with large investors, such as extremely rich individuals (‘high net worth individuals’ is the jargon) or institutional investors, that is, large funds created by individual investors pooling their money. The most important types of funds include: pension funds, investing money that individuals save for their pensions; sovereign wealth funds, which manage state-owned assets of a country (Government Pension Fund of Norway and Abu Dhabi Investment Council are two of the biggest examples); mutual funds or unit trusts, which manage money pooled by small individual investors that buy into them in the open market; hedge funds, which invest actively in high-risk, high-return assets, using a pool of large sums given to them by very rich individuals or other, more ‘conservative’, funds (e.g., pension funds); private equity funds, which are like hedge funds, but make money solely out of buying up companies, restructuring them and selling at a profit.

pages: 341 words: 107,933

The Dealmaker: Lessons From a Life in Private Equity
by Guy Hands
Published 4 Nov 2021

As well as setting up our own meetings we also used placement agents, who function a bit like matchmakers and put private equity firms that raise capital in touch with the potential investors, who provide capital to private equity buyout funds. In this case, we used Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, and both address books proved invaluable in this respect. The two firms also helped us to fine-tune our pitch to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. For any money raised, they earned a 1.5 per cent fee. Ultimately, I realised, it was our simple pitch that carried the day with potential investors. Whether people liked us, trusted us and believed we would deliver was key. Whether they detected passion in what we were pitching was the clincher.

pages: 322 words: 106,663

Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo
by Rebecca Walker
Published 15 Mar 2022

She has a PhD from Princeton University, where she studied political theory and philosophy of religion. In 2012, she founded Solidaire, a network of philanthropists dedicated to funding progressive movements, which contributed to a shift in the philanthropic field toward “movement philanthropy.” In 2017, building on that work, she cofounded Way to Win, a community where high-net-worth political donors can coordinate their electoral funding strategies. She has served on numerous boards, which now include the Solutions Project and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Her writings have been featured in the New Republic, the Nation, Huffington Post, the Guardian, and Politico, and she has been profiled by Salon, Avenue magazine, and San Francisco magazine.

Capital Ideas Evolving
by Peter L. Bernstein
Published 3 May 2007

They matured in thirty years if interest rates remained above specified levels; otherwise the investment banks could call the notes and pay them off prior to maturity. At a time when U.S. government bonds of similar maturity offered only 4.25 percent, these notes turned out to be very popular among high net-worth individuals and some institutions, particularly in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. These investors had a lot of cash at this time, thanks to oil money and money earned from exports. They also tend to seek high yields and to worry less about embedded options and risks. Do these notes sound too good to be true?

The Permanent Portfolio
by Craig Rowland and J. M. Lawson
Published 27 Aug 2012

Types of Swiss Banks There are several varieties of Swiss banks: 1.Multinationals — These are the big banks like UBS and Credit Suisse. These banks have offices and operations all over the world. 2. Private Banks — The term “private bank” has a special meaning in Switzerland. Private banks mostly exist to serve high net worth individuals only. They mainly offer boutique services with high fees. They do business internationally, but many do not have branches outside of Switzerland. 3. Cantonal Banks — These are banks owned by the cantons in Switzerland (a Swiss canton is equivalent to a U.S. state). These banks have branches inside the canton and do not normally do business outside of Switzerland itself.

pages: 390 words: 108,171

The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos
by Christian Davenport
Published 20 Mar 2018

Concannon had been getting a lot of crazy calls lately—just the other day, someone had urged him to go search for a secret fort, down by the airport, which had been built by the Knights of Templar, a twelfth-century Christian military order. This woman seemed like just another crackpot. “But I was bored that day, so I talked to the person,” he recalled. Finally, she allowed that she worked for a “high net-worth individual,” and came out with her question: Would it be possible to recover the F-1 engines from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean? Concannon had no idea what she was talking about. He Googled it and realized that F-1s were either from a racecar or the Apollo-era Saturn V rockets. The former meant nothing to him; but recovering the engines from the rockets that took astronauts to the moon, well, that would be a coup, especially for an explorer like him.

pages: 571 words: 106,255

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
by Saifedean Ammous
Published 23 Mar 2018

If bitcoin continues to appreciate while a central bank doesn't own any of it, then the market value of their reserve currencies and gold will be declining in terms of Bitcoin, placing the central bank at a disadvantage the later it decides to acquire reserves. Bitcoin is still viewed as a quirky Internet experiment for now, but as it continues to survive and appreciate over time, it will start attracting real attention from high‐net‐worth individuals, institutional investors, and then, possibly, central banks. The point at which central banks start to consider using it is the point at which they are all engaged in a reverse bank run on Bitcoin. The first central bank to buy bitcoin will alert the rest of the central banks to the possibility and make many of them rush toward it.

pages: 354 words: 110,570

Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World
by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope
Published 17 Sep 2018

“They wanted to have a security that gave them exposure to the housing market,” Blankfein said. “The unfortunate thing is the housing market went south.” Goldman did not operate retail bank branches, and few Americans knew much about investment banks, whose clients are largely companies, governments, pension funds, high-net-worth individuals, and other banks. But Blankfein was becoming the poster boy for financial sector greed. The collapse of the housing market had left many Americans destitute. Goldman’s profit, by contrast, soared to a record $13.4 billion in 2009. Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, asked Blankfein to tell the room his bonus for the year.

pages: 334 words: 104,382

Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley
by Emily Chang
Published 6 Feb 2018

To explain: LPs fund VCs, and VCs fund entrepreneurs. (Sometimes VCs invest a small portion of their own money into their portfolio companies depending on the firm’s policies.) Either way, the money that LPs provide to VC funds is critical. This capital comes from pension funds, school and family endowments, high net-worth individuals, hedge funds, and the like. Just as start-ups raise money from venture capitalists in exchange for equity, general partners (GPs) at VC firms raise money from limited partners in exchange for the promise of big returns over a certain period of time, usually ten years or so. Whether Binary’s LPs knew of Justin Caldbeck’s reputation is an open question.

pages: 334 words: 102,899

That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea
by Marc Randolph
Published 16 Sep 2019

On the day you take a company public, only some of the stock is bought by individuals—“retail,” in Wall Street terms. The majority of what gets sold on day one is institutional: large funds managed by sophisticated investors who are taking the long view. Think pension funds, university endowments, retirement funds, mutual funds—not to mention “ultra-high-net-worth individuals,” people with so much money that they hire entire offices of investment professionals to manage it. Since Merrill Lynch, the lead bank in the consortium that was taking us public, had committed to selling more than $70 million worth of stock on opening day, they weren’t going to leave anything to chance.

pages: 460 words: 107,454

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet
by Klaus Schwab
Published 7 Jan 2021

In the US, President Reagan famously fired all air traffic controllers who participated in a union-organized strike, thereby breaking the back of unions in the US. And in the UK, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher broke a major miners’ strike, ending the dominance of unions in her country. Both leaders also significantly lowered top tax rates. This was supposed to free up money for investment by companies and high net worth individuals and realize a trickle-down economy. But it also deprived the state of income to fund public services including education programs. For a long time, it seemed like those kinds of policies indeed helped the economies of the UK and the US. The next years marked a period of high growth in both countries, and by the 1990s, the neoliberal ideology was even adopted by the Democrats and New Labour.

pages: 369 words: 107,073

Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History
by Jim Campbell
Published 26 Apr 2021

It specializes in equity derivatives clearing, providing central counterparty clearing and settlement services to 16 exchanges. § The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) is the largest US options exchange. CBOE offers options on over 2,200 companies, 22 stock indices, and 140 exchange-traded funds. * “Family offices” refers to high net worth investors and money managers who manage their own money. * A “structured note” is a hybrid debt product whose return is linked to the performance of one or more underlying assets or benchmarks, such as derivatives. * Prime brokerage includes a bundled package of services provided by investment banks and securities firms for hedge funds: borrowing facilities; acting as an independent clearing entity and custodian of securities safeguarding customer assets.

pages: 339 words: 103,546

Blood and Oil: Mohammed Bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power
by Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck
Published 14 Sep 2020

A new da Vinci could bring hordes to an up-and-coming museum, boosting tourism dollars and putting a city on the cultural map. The last thing they expected was a Middle Eastern buyer, not least because of the painting’s obvious Christian themes. As the November 15 auction day neared, the Christie’s team winnowed potential buyers down to about seven contenders, including ultra-high-net-worth individuals with global stature and nouveau riche from China and Russia. One previously unknown but remarkably pushy candidate emerged, Badr bin Farhan Al Saud. A quick Google search yielded nothing on the young Saudi, and Christie’s executives with years of experience in the Middle East had never heard of him.

pages: 403 words: 105,550

The Key Man: The True Story of How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale
by Simon Clark and Will Louch
Published 14 Jul 2021

“Countries like Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Iran will require more than $500 billion in the next two decades,” Kito wrote to Arif in an email in May 2016. “The need is for a Marshall Plan 2.0—a plan that recognises the key role that private sector equity has. “Motivated capital will have to be explored and developed. Governments, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Multilateral Financial Institutions, and Ultra High Net Worth individuals are searching for means to move from aid to sustainable funding of socially valuable initiatives. In addition, there is also faith based funding. Palestine represents an intersection between Christianity and Islam. Islam is seeking to deploy vast sums of Zakat funds in ways that address concerns raised about opacity and impact.

pages: 460 words: 107,454

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet
by Klaus Schwab and Peter Vanham
Published 27 Jan 2021

pages: 385 words: 106,848

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
by Zeke Faux
Published 11 Sep 2023

Oseary was the one who connected many of the celebrities to the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Most didn’t go through the whole ridiculous Coinbase–Ethereum–fox icon process. A company called MoonPay, which Paris Hilton had mentioned on Jimmy Fallon’s show, had provided what it called a “white glove service for high net worth individuals who want to purchase NFTs in the simplest way without all the hassle.” (MoonPay took advantage of its celebrity ties to raise money at a $3.4 billion valuation.) Aronow, Solano, and their colleagues started producing more ape-related NFTs. They made $300 million selling plots of land in an online game for the Bored Apes—they called it a metaverse—that didn’t exist yet.

The Deepest Map
by Laura Trethewey
Published 15 May 2023

There were other factors that might have played into the tepid response, including the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions. Still, the utter lack of interest in the world’s deepest-diving submersible surprised the Five Deeps team. “I really can’t explain why there was not as much interest in acquiring the system, either [by] government or high-net-worth individuals,” Victor said. “Over the last couple of years, the whole team, including our scientific groups that have been on the ship, it’s a constant lament: ‘Space is exciting and new and loud.’ . . . But the ocean just doesn’t get the funding.” After the surge of investment in ocean initiatives during the late aughts and early 2010s, the enthusiasm for ocean exploration had plateaued.

pages: 367 words: 110,161

The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All
by Mary Childs
Published 15 Mar 2022

Its primary and most effective advertising was Bill Gross on TV, in The Wall Street Journal, along with its network of salespeople pushing its products to wirehouses that sold to the mom-and-pops; and its army of salespeople targeting pensions, insurance companies, and consultants, with their own vast institutional networks. The firm could tap more into sovereign wealth funds, the mega pools of money belonging to Singapore or China or Saudi Arabia, or the UAE. Or it could focus more on high-net-worth individuals. But to help with any of that, it needed something shiny to sell. That could be hedge funds, those high-fee vehicles that had proliferated after they emerged from the dot-com bust unbloodied and victorious—by 2007, it seemed a new one was founded every minute. Pimco had some small offerings, quietly launched with loyal institutional clients, but few outside knew about them.

pages: 397 words: 112,034

What's Next?: Unconventional Wisdom on the Future of the World Economy
by David Hale and Lyric Hughes Hale
Published 23 May 2011

She has written four legal treatises: Corporate Compliance Practice Guide, eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel, Corporate Legal Departments, and International Corporate Practice. THIERRY MALLERET IJ Partners Thierry Malleret is Senior Partner, Head of Research and Networks at IJ Partners. Prior to that, he was managing partner of Rainbow Insight, an advisory boutique that provided tailor-made intelligence to global chief executives and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. Until March 2007, Dr. Mallevet headed the Global Risk Network at the World Economic Forum, a network that brings together top-end opinion and policymakers, CEOs, and academics to look at how global issues affect business and society in the short, medium, and long term. He has organized Davos and spoken at global, industry, and regional events for several consecutive years.

pages: 407 words: 114,478

The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
by William J. Bernstein
Published 26 Apr 2002

Small clients are naturally not accorded the time and effort given to larger ones (or “whales,” as the biggest are known in the brokerage business). This actually works in the small client’s favor, as he or she is likely to be put into a load fund or a few stocks and forgotten about. On the other hand, the high-net-worth client is the ultimate brokerage firm cash cow and is likely to be traded in and out of an expensive array of annuities, private managers, and limited partnerships. The wealthy are different than you and I: they have many more ways of having their wealth stripped away. Summing It Up In the words of Walt Kelly, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

pages: 549 words: 116,200

With a Little Help
by Cory Efram Doctorow , Jonathan Coulton and Russell Galen
Published 7 Dec 2010

It took decades of relationship-building for Ate to sell its first product to a vat-person." 2060 *And we haven't sold anything else since,* Leon thought, but he didn't say it. No one would say it at Ate. The agency pitched itself as a powerhouse, a success in a field full of successes. It was the go-to agency for servicing the "ultra-high-net-worth individual," and yet... 2061 One sale. 2062 "And we haven't sold anything since." Brautigan said it without a hint of shame. "And yet, this entire building, this entire agency, the salaries and the designers and the consultants: all of it paid for by clipping the toenails of that fortune.

pages: 393 words: 115,263

Planet Ponzi
by Mitch Feierstein
Published 2 Feb 2012

The market Any market has two halves: buyers and sellers. On Wall Street, the sellers are typically large firms‌—‌Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Barclays, Deutsche and so on. They’re selling securities to investors (the buy-side), a group which includes pension funds, hedge funds, insurance companies, high net worth individuals, and plenty of others besides. Naturally, because sell-side firms are also traders, they often buy securities as well as selling them. Nevertheless, it’s conceptually useful to look at the specific incentives faced by sell-side salespeople and traders, because those incentives lay the foundation for much of what’s wrong with the system.

The Global Money Markets
by Frank J. Fabozzi , Steven V. Mann and Moorad Choudhry
Published 14 Jul 2002

They include: ■ the sovereign authority, including the central government (“Treasury”), as well as government agencies and the central bank or reserve bank; ■ ﬁnancial institutions such as the large integrated investment banks, ■ ■ ■ ■ commercial banks, mortgage institutions, insurance companies, and ﬁnance companies; corporations of all types; individual private investors, such as high net-worth individuals and small savers; intermediaries such as money brokers, banking institutions, etc.; infrastructure of the marketplace, such as derivatives exchanges. A money market exists in virtually every country in the world, and all such markets exhibit the characteristics we describe in this book to some extent.

pages: 385 words: 119,859

This Is London: Life and Death in the World City
by Ben Judah
Published 28 Jan 2016

That’s why I’ve written a little dictionary, in which I go out of my way explain it all to anyone visiting from Lagos. This is how it begins . . . . ‘Urban People – Blacks. ‘Inner City People – Blacks. ‘North London Intellectual – Jew. ‘Devout Muslim – Practically Fundamentalist. ‘Practising Jew – Barely English. ‘Migrant – Poor Immigrant. ‘Expat – Rich Immigrant. ‘Ultra High Net Worth Individual – Oligarch. ‘Vibrant Multicultural Area – Ethnic Ghetto. ‘Hardworking People – The Poor. ‘Oh and of course . . . ‘Disadvantaged People – that means you’re fucking impoverished.’ RYE LANE William Blake had his first revelation in Peckham. This strange boy was running through the common.

pages: 479 words: 113,510

Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve Is Bad for America
by Danielle Dimartino Booth
Published 14 Feb 2017

Fat profit margins meant high levels of compensation for Cassano. At a conference in 2007, Cassano boasted that his company worked with a “global swath” of the world’s premier “banks and investment banks, pension funds, endowments, foundations, insurance companies, hedge funds, money managers, high-net-worth individuals, municipalities and sovereigns and supranationals.” Most of AIG’s industry peers who had followed them into such markets hedged their exposure by buying their own insurance. AIGFP did not, seeing little to no risk in its financial models. “It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of these transactions,” Cassano had said.

pages: 399 words: 114,787

Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction
by David Enrich
Published 18 Feb 2020

To celebrate her hiring as a managing director and “senior private banker,” Deutsche took out an ad in The New York Times, listing her direct phone number and email address. Elevating the private bank into a “dominant position . . . is a core strategic priority for Deutsche Bank,” the company declared. Bowers trumpeted that “Rosemary is widely recognized as one of the top private bankers to the U.S. ultra-high-net-worth community.” To differentiate itself from a crowded field of competitors, Deutsche planned to do deals that were too risky or too complicated for rival banks to stomach—the same strategy that Mike Offit had deployed a decade earlier when trying to get the commercial real estate business off the ground.

pages: 359 words: 113,847

Siege: Trump Under Fire
by Michael Wolff
Published 3 Jun 2019

Bob and Rebekah fly out to this fundraising thing he’s got scheduled in the Hamptons for Saturday where they know Trump is going to be. They set things up to see Trump beforehand and they pitch him on me and Kellyanne taking over the campaign. Mnuchin was there but they threw him out. Rebekah has no bedside manner, so it was like, ‘Who are you?’ ‘I’m Steve Mnuchin, I’m doing high-net-worth contributions.’ Rebekah says, ‘Well, you’re doing a terrible job because no big donors are giving.’ In fact, Woody has a tent for a thousand. Of course, everybody in the Hamptons reads the New York Times and knows you’d be a total loser to show up—and only fifty guys show up, thirty already tapped out.

pages: 429 words: 120,332

Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens
by Nicholas Shaxson
Published 11 Apr 2011

Corporations and Federal Contractors with Subsidiaries in Jurisdictions Listed as Tax Havens or Financial Privacy Jurisdictions,” U.S. Government Accountability Office, December 2008. 29.A conference in the City of London in 1995 was told that the industry objective was to shift offshore the majority of financial assets owned by the world’s high-net-worth individuals by the end of the decade. See Steven Hiatt, ed., A Game as Old as Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption (San Francisco: Berrett Koehler, 2007), p. 55. 30.See Senator Levin, news release, “Senate, House Members Introduce Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act: Bill Targets $100 Billion in Lost Tax Each Year from Offshore Tax Dodges,” March 2, 2009.

pages: 1,172 words: 114,305

New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI
by Frank Pasquale
Published 14 May 2020

They sincerely believe they are developing a currency guaranteed by the cold, reliable efficiency of computing rather than the fickle will of managers and bureaucrats. But their digital treasure chests are only one hack away from destruction, unless they are protected by an all-too-human legal system. The same mindset shows up among ultra-high-net-worth preppers, who have invested in safe houses, bunkers, and impromptu getaway boats in case of “the event”—some catastrophic attack, plague, or natural disaster that unravels social order.15 As climate change makes the future ever less predictable, companies are hiring private guards to protect high-level executives and fence desperate survivors away from key resources.

pages: 387 words: 119,244

Making It Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men Who Blew Up the British Economy
by Iain Martin
Published 11 Sep 2013

In private, McCarthy had expressed concerns to colleagues about what Goodwin was asking him to sign up to in terms of promising growth. The percentages struck him as aggressive and he had emerged upset from several meetings, needing to be calmed down by colleagues. Today he told of prospects for growth in Ireland that were ‘almost limitless’. With so many newly rich Irish people, McCarthy had set up a team to connect with ‘high-net-worth individuals’. Ulster Bank was expanding on every front, in personal loans, mortgages, the youth market and business lending. The booming Irish economy meant a wave of infrastructure building by the government and an opportunity for RBS to profit by helping those bidding for the lucrative contracts.

Succeeding With AI: How to Make AI Work for Your Business
by Veljko Krunic
Published 29 Mar 2020

If your answer was, “I didn’t make any money off my neighbors,” welcome to the club. Almost without exception, everyone asked has the same response. I’ve asked quite a few executives the same question. As you can imagine, many of them live in well-to-do neighborhoods. Their neighbors often have high net worth and command large budgets. And most of those executives have never made any money off their neighbors. Even successful executives aren’t particularly successful in monetizing random knowledge. A common assumption that organizations make is that the more you know about someone (client, customer, competitor, employee), the more money you’ll make.

pages: 386 words: 112,064

Rich White Men: What It Takes to Uproot the Old Boys' Club and Transform America
by Garrett Neiman
Published 19 Jun 2023

If it all sounds pretty dire, that’s because it is. However, a growing number of Americans are fighting back. The Poor People’s Campaign—a national social movement led by Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis—is calling for economic justice in America. Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net-worth individuals with annual incomes above $1 million and/or assets above $5 million who are committed to raising the minimum wage, combating the influence of big money in politics, and advancing a progressive tax structure.46 One for Democracy is a collaboration of philanthropists, business leaders, and donor advisers committed to donating 1 percent of their wealth to supporting community organizers and protecting our democracy.47 Over one hundred millionaires and billionaires from nine countries have signed an open letter calling for permanent taxes on the wealthy in order to reduce extreme inequality and raise additional recurring revenue for public services.48 My generation—the millennials—and subsequent generations are especially fed up with extreme wealth inequality.

pages: 460 words: 122,556

The End of Wall Street
by Roger Lowenstein
Published 15 Jan 2010

And due to inflated appraisals and, in some cases, fraudulent applications, this was becoming common. As Moody’s was undergoing a crash course in the new mortgage math, the subprime crisis claimed its first serious casualty on Wall Street. In 2004, Bear Stearns had set up a hedge fund to appeal to high-net-worth types who wanted, as such types often do, higher-than-market returns. The fund invested in CDOs, procuring much of its portfolio from Christopher Ricciardi at Merrill Lynch. For the next two years, the fund prospered. Results were so good that in August of 2006—the very peak of the housing market—Bear launched a second fund.

pages: 471 words: 124,585

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
by Niall Ferguson
Published 13 Nov 2007

The latest figures (for the first quarter of 2008) put the total at 7,601 funds with $1.9 trillion in assets. Since 1998 there has been a veritable stampede to invest in hedge funds (and in the ‘funds of funds’ that aggregate the performance of multiple firms). Where once they were the preserve of ‘high net worth’ individuals and investment banks, hedge funds are now attracting growing numbers of pension funds and university endowments.102 This trend is all the more striking given that the attrition rate remains high; only a quarter of the 600 funds reporting in 1996 still existed at the end of 2004. In 2006, 717 ceased to trade; in the first nine months of 2007, 409.103 It is not widely recognized that large numbers of hedge funds simply fizzle out, having failed to meet investors’ expectations.

pages: 413 words: 117,782

What Happened to Goldman Sachs: An Insider's Story of Organizational Drift and Its Unintended Consequences
by Steven G. Mandis
Published 9 Sep 2013

This attitude changed in the late 1980s, when, lured by the consistent profits its competitors were earning in asset management, Goldman established Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) to serve institutional and individual investors worldwide.22 Goldman struggled to determine whether it should manage money for high-net-worth individuals or institutions, in the end doing both. According to the interviews, there was strong sentiment from many partners that Goldman should not be perceived as competing with clients, but one of the key rationales was that Goldman’s competitors were doing it. Beginning in the mid-1990s, GSAM experienced explosive growth, and Goldman now points out that it is one of the largest asset managers in the world, and yet many of the largest asset managers are still Goldman’s clients.

World Cities and Nation States
by Greg Clark and Tim Moonen
Published 19 Dec 2016

The evidence of horizontal spillovers between multinational and local firms within the same industry is understandably more mixed, but there are many important examples of tacit knowledge transfer taking place hosted by globally oriented cities (Rand, 2015). • Spending by the large affluent and high‐net‐worth populations in world cities increases demand for certain kinds of national goods and services. Demand for medical care, retail, children’s education and construction have all increased considerably and the resources and talent in these sectors are often drawn from around the region and the country. • They are visitor and tourist gateways to the rest of the country for customers who otherwise would not visit.

pages: 487 words: 124,008

Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It
by Kashmir Hill
Published 19 Sep 2023

They were advertising three product lines: Clearview AI Search, a background-checking tool; Clearview AI Camera, which could sound an alert when a criminal entered a hotel, bank, or store; and Clearview AI Check-In, a building-screening system that could verify people’s identities “while simultaneously assessing them according to risk factors such as criminality, violence and terrorism.” One bank had used their tool to screen attendees for a shareholder meeting. Another wanted to use it to identify high-net-worth customers. A real estate firm wanted text alerts whenever someone on a building’s “no-fly list” walked into the lobby. A hotel was interested in developing a seamless check-in experience. Nothing was firm yet, but Clearview was small with low overhead. Though a tool that could identify almost anyone had obvious security applications, they didn’t bring up law enforcement as a target market.

pages: 1,373 words: 300,577

The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
by Daniel Yergin
Published 14 May 2011

Thus for investors—whether running hedge funds or pension funds, or retail investors—the commodity play was not just about oil itself, but about the booming economies that were using more and more oil.10 TRADING PLACES And now there were a lot more people in the oil market—the paper barrel part of the market—investing with no intention nor any need of ever taking delivery of the physical commodity. There were pension funds and hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds. There were the “massive passives”—the commodity index funds, heavily weighted to oil and with all the derivative trading around them. There were also exchange-traded funds; there were high net-worth individuals; and there were all sorts of other investors and traders, some of them in for the long term, and some of them very short term. Oil was no longer just a physical commodity, required to fuel cars and airplanes. It really had become something new—and much more abstract. Now these paper barrels were also, in the form of futures and derivatives, a financial instrument, a financial asset.

…

For it is on Sand Hill Road that are headquartered many VCs—venture capitalists—that are the ignition switch for new business formation, formerly mainly for Silicon Valley but now for the whole world. Continue down along Sand Hill and up on University Avenue and you will find scores more of the VCs. Whatever their size, they generally raise a series of investment funds from pension funds, university endowments, foundations, and high-net-worth families, and then disburse that money to people starting up companies. The ultimate objective is to deliver to their investors within five or six years—or sooner—a return that is a multiple on their original commitment. The VCs made their names, and the returns for their investors, primarily in tech; that is, information technology, computers, software, communications—and biotech.

pages: 493 words: 139,845

Women Leaders at Work: Untold Tales of Women Achieving Their Ambitions
by Elizabeth Ghaffari
Published 5 Dec 2011

Laura Roden is founder and managing director of VC Privé, LLC, a boutique investment bank that, since its establishment in January 2007, has raised money for high-quality, alternative asset funds such as venture capital funds, hedge funds, and distressed debt funds. Her firm specializes in marketing funds to private investors, including high-net-worth individuals, family offices, foundations, endowments, and independent financial advisors. Ms. Roden holds Series 7, 66, and 79 licenses to sell securities and provide investment advisory services. Previously, Ms. Roden was managing director of The Angels’ Forum, a leading association of individual and corporate early-stage investors, and was president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE), the largest nonprofit in Northern California dedicated to helping technology entrepreneurs.

pages: 430 words: 140,405

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers
by Lawrence G. Mcdonald and Patrick Robinson
Published 21 Jul 2009

In a briefcase I’d borrowed from Rick Schnall, one of my Wharton roommates, I had my new set of weapons, my salesman’s attack blueprint: local maps, business directories, and lists of country clubs, golf clubs, and big-city men’s clubs, anywhere I was likely to find people who fit Merrill Lynch’s favorite marketing phrase, “persons of high net worth.” They were my targets, and by nine o’clock I was putting together a power list and trying to convert key phrases from the meat-selling business to fit the much more complex task of selling stocks and bonds. I was using every ounce of creativity I possessed. For instance, one of the prime ways a reluctant potential client gets out of making a commitment to invest is to say “I’m sorry Mr.

pages: 624 words: 127,987

The Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume
by Josh Kaufman
Published 2 Feb 2011

—WILL ROGERS, AMERICAN COWBOY AND COMEDIAN The average household net worth of a person who reads the Wall Street Journal is $1.7 million. Seems that WSJ readers are extremely well off, right? Yes, but less than you might think. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett read the Wall Street Journal, and their wealth is measured in the billions—significantly more than even the top 0.01 percent of business professionals. Simply by existing, high-net-worth executives like Gates and Buffett skew the average much higher than it would be otherwise. If you’re relying on the average to tell you how much the typical Wall Street Journal reader is worth, you’re making a mistake. A Mean (or average) is calculated by adding the quantities of all data points, then dividing by the total number of data points available.

pages: 446 words: 138,827

What Should I Do With My Life?
by Po Bronson
Published 2 Jan 2001

I should have bargained for more—they probably wanted me to counter—but I would have hung out on that sales floor for less. I thrived in that environment. It was so loose, so unpoliced, that I felt incredibly free to be myself. After a year, the firm brought in a distinguished elderly Chinese gentleman, Mr. Bob Chang, to cover the pipeline of high net worth investors moving to the states from Hong Kong. The firm warned me to rein in my eccentricity around Mr. Chang, be a little more proper. But in two weeks I had Mr. Chang standing on an imaginary pitching mound in the middle of the sales floor, throwing fastballs of wadded paper down the aisle into my catcher’s glove.

pages: 457 words: 128,838

The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order
by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey
Published 27 Jan 2015

Investors understood this was a simple and potentially powerful way to undercut and take market share from a handful of companies, the Western Unions of the world that had a stranglehold on a huge global business. After the company was profiled in a Bloomberg article in November 2013, before it had launched a single product, Rossiello started getting calls from “high-net-worth” subscribers to Bloomberg’s financial-information platform and firms in California wanting a piece of the action. But she wasn’t prepared to give control of the company away. “I said no to a lot of big guys,” she said. Rossiello hadn’t even heard of bitcoin until Goldie-Scot mentioned it to her.

pages: 519 words: 136,708

Vertical: The City From Satellites to Bunkers
by Stephen Graham
Published 8 Nov 2016

As the municipality only limits the ratio of floor area to plot size and has no limits on height, the tower can effectively go as high as developers want once they purchase ‘air rights’ – the legal right to occupy high-up space – from adjacent occupiers. The only official permission required to build so high was that of the Federal Aviation Administration.64 Dead Windows: Planning as Social Cleansing in London Given London’s status as the site of the largest concentration for ‘ultra-high net worth individuals’ on the planet,65 it is no surprise that developers there are similarly focusing overwhelmingly on building super-high-end, and increasingly super-tall, £2 million-plus properties for the global überwealthy. As in Manhattan, many of them are holding properties for large investments, and these sites will rarely, if ever, be inhabited by people at all.

pages: 444 words: 127,259

Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber
by Mike Isaac
Published 2 Sep 2019

Even while relaxing at the bar in the Rosewood—the luxury hotel that has long acted as the social hub of tech money in Palo Alto—they’re likely to be interrupted by an awkward elevator pitch. A venture capitalist’s job is to cut through all the noise and find the startups that will deliver outsized returns for the pension funds, endowments, family offices, even other high-net-worth individuals who have invested their money as limited partners, or LPs, in the VC firm. The lifecycle of a VC fund is typically ten years, by the end of which these LPs expect returns of at least 20 to 30 percent on their initial investments. Venture capital is risky. Roughly one-third of VC investments will fail.

pages: 457 words: 128,640

Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain From the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
by Lucy Lethbridge
Published 18 Nov 2013

Tradition, or the suggestion of tradition, is still an attraction for those able to afford housekeepers, butlers and valets. At Greycoat, however, the word ‘servant’ is frowned upon: the management prefer to talk of ‘clients’ and ‘candidates’, but on the whole the style is old-school, because old-school sells among the international super-rich, the ‘high-net-worth individuals’ for whom the agency caters. A house journal, Discretion, carries advice on grooming and personal appearance for would-be professional career domestics in the language of twenty-first-century managerese: wheels must be oiled, busy clients spared from stress, feathers soothed, people’s whims and needs ‘facilitated’.

pages: 521 words: 136,802

Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
by James B Stewart and Rachel Abrams
Published 14 Feb 2023

She and Holland maintained, on the surface, a polite coexistence, even though they had little in common. Shari had graduated from law school, practiced law in Boston, raised a family, and held an executive position at National Amusements for years. Holland had skipped college and lurched from one unsuccessful business venture to another (including a dating service for high–net worth men). Before meeting, dating, and moving in with Sumner, she had been constantly pursued by creditors. She wore her glossy, raven hair long, owned an enormous collection of designer shoes, and favored provocative dresses—especially in faux animal prints—that flattered her figure. Above all, she wanted to appear “chic,” to use one of her favorite words.

Investing Amid Low Expected Returns: Making the Most When Markets Offer the Least
by Antti Ilmanen
Published 24 Feb 2022

There are still capital restrictions to both directions, and the Chinese equity market is more influenced by its retail participants than many other markets. I will remind in Chapter 4 that China showcases how economic growth and equity market returns need not go hand in hand. At least, China offers potential for global diversification and active management. 15 Individuals hold $165trn (high net worth individuals $88trn, mass affluent $77trn) and institutions $93trn (pension assets $50trn, insurance companies $34trn, SWFs $9trn). I am not sure how, say, housing and bank lending are treated; recall that broader definitions of housing and debt as wealth might imply even twice as large global wealth.

pages: 433 words: 53,078

Be Your Own Financial Adviser: The Comprehensive Guide to Wealth and Financial Planning
by Jonquil Lowe
Published 14 Jul 2010

Assets may grow as new savings are added, as income from existing assets is reinvested and as assets appreciate in value. Liabilities may reduce as they are paid off out of income or through the sale of assets. To achieve a financial goal, you may need to build up your assets. Alternatively, you may have existing assets which can be redirected towards a new goal or sold to fund it. So, in general, high net worth is likely to make it easier for you to achieve your goals. The balance sheet separates out current assets and current liabilities, so you can judge the short-term position of your household as well as its overall strength. Current assets are items which can quickly and reliably be converted to cash.

pages: 506 words: 146,607

Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst: A True Story of Inside Information and Corruption in the Stock Market
by Daniel Reingold and Jennifer Reingold
Published 1 Jan 2006

In contrast to life at Merrill, we no longer needed to simplify our writing or presentations for consumption by thousands of retail investors. And we no longer had to worry that every word we wrote or spoke might be misunderstood. In a lot of ways, I felt as if I had been released from retail jail. That’s because CSFB had no retail brokers, other than some salespeople who served very high net worth individuals who were generally quite sophisticated businesspeople and corporate executives. CSFB’s institutional sales force, about 150 strong throughout the world at the time, comprised MBAs and others with substantial experience in the markets. The only challenge was that I had to convert my recommendations to CSFB’s unique rating scheme.

pages: 538 words: 147,612

All the Money in the World
by Peter W. Bernstein
Published 17 Dec 2008

Those are the key questions; the answers, as one might imagine, are as complex as the donors themselves. To begin with, motivations for giving among the Forbes 400 vary widely. “They range from narcissism to altruism to a passionate need from their heart and souls to make a difference,” says Joan DiFuria, a principal in the Money, Meaning & Choices Institute, which advises high-net-worth families. Certainly, as French novelist Gustave Flaubert aptly put it, “Every good deed is more than three parts pride.” But many philanthropy experts say that desire to improve the lives of the less fortunate is really what drives many to give. “They place their values at the heart of their giving,” says Joe Breiteneicher, president of the Philanthropy Initiative, a nonprofit group that advises donors.

How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight
by Julian Guthrie
Published 19 Sep 2016

When Carmack got to the point where he felt like he could hold an intelligent conversation with industry types, he began attending space conferences. At first, he wandered around asking questions without anyone knowing who he was. He was just another space geek who dreamed of the stars but looked like he never felt the warmth of the sun. Soon, though, whispers circulated that he had the magical designation of an “accredited investor,” a high net worth individual who could make risky investments. Suddenly, around every corner came a new pitch. That’s when Carmack discovered the XPRIZE. He also learned about the $250,000 CATS (Cheap Access to Space) Prize, which would be given to the first private team to launch a 4.4-pound payload into space, 124 miles or higher, by November 8, 2000.

pages: 530 words: 154,505

Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu
by Anshel Pfeffer
Published 30 Apr 2018

One of them, Naftali Bennett, who had rushed back from the United States to fight with his commando unit deep in Hezbollah territory, was recommended to him as a useful addition to the team. Bennett joined as Netanyahu’s new chief of staff, but would last less than two years before falling out with Sara. THE DONORS WERE listed in four categories. The top tier combined both high net worth and high willingness to help out. Since Netanyahu had entered politics and holding primaries had become more popular with Israeli parties, the laws regulating political finance had been toughened up. Private donations were capped, corporations were forbidden to donate, and the candidates and parties had to give a full accounting of every shekel to the state comptroller.

pages: 470 words: 148,730

Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems
by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Published 12 Nov 2019

As we saw, this was a very dangerous political move; the abolition of the wealth tax and the attempt to put in place a surcharge on fuel was the original motivation for the Yellow Vest protest movement. In an attempt to quell it, Macron promised a number of giveaways, but did not reinstate the wealth tax. There are two reasons why wealth taxes are so politically difficult. First, because of effective lobbying. High-net-worth individuals finance the campaigns of politicians on the left and on the right, and few are in favor of wealth taxation, even when they are otherwise quite liberal. Second, it is easy to avoid the taxes, legally or not, particularly in small European countries where people can move or park their wealth abroad.

pages: 1,544 words: 391,691

Corporate Finance: Theory and Practice
by Pierre Vernimmen , Pascal Quiry , Maurizio Dallocchio , Yann le Fur and Antonio Salvi
Published 16 Oct 2017

Merger and acquisition (M&A) advisory services: these investment banking services are not directly linked to corporate financing or the capital markets, although a public issue of bonds or shares often accompanies an acquisition. Access to foreign exchange, interest rate and commodities markets: for the hedging of risk. The bank also uses these desks for speculating on its own account (see Chapter 50). Asset management: has its own clients – institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals – but also serves some of the retail banking clients through mutual funds. The asset management arm may sometimes use some of the products tailored by the investment banking division (hedging, order execution). This business is increasingly operated by players that are independent (totally or partially) from large banks.

…

In order to facilitate the transfer of cash, part of the equity could also take the form of highly subordinated convertible bonds, which will be converted in the event of the company experiencing financial difficulties. Interest on such bonds is tax-deductible. Materially, LBO funds are organised in the form of a management company (the general partner) that is held by partners who manage funds raised from institutional investors4 or high-net-worth individuals (the limited partners). LBO funds then call on the limited partners for the funds that they have committed to bringing, as investments are made. When a fund has invested more than 75% of the equity it has raised, another fund is launched. Each fund is required to return to investors all of the proceeds of divestments as these are made, and the ultimate aim is for the fund to be liquidated after a given number of years, most of the time 10 years.

pages: 543 words: 157,991

All the Devils Are Here
by Bethany McLean
Published 19 Oct 2010

As his pay rapidly climbed from meager (just $66,000 in 2000) to respectable, at least by Wall Street standards ($2.5 million in 2006), Tannin never forgot to whom he owed his good fortune. “I want to thank you again from the bottom of my heart for all you have done for me,” he wrote to Cioffi in early 2007. “I will be eternally grateful.” The High Grade fund started small. Some of its investors were high-net-worth customers of Bear Stearns, one of whom would later say that he thought he was getting in on a special “club.” In truth, though, High Grade wasn’t all that selective. Eventually, the three biggest investors were so-called funds of hedge funds, meaning they pooled investors’ money and doled it out to hedge funds.

Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom
by van K. Tharp
Published 1 Jan 1998

Our clients are happy with those fees as long as they can make their 15 to 20 percent returns after fees and they are not too uncomfortable with the drawdowns. What is your trading capacity? How do you expect to achieve it? What do you expect to do when you achieve it? How will that change your trading? Our capacity is about $1 to $2 billion. We expect to achieve it by our current policy of marketing to banks, large-pool operators, and high-net-worth individuals. When we reach it, we’ll simply turn away new money. As we grow, our trading needs to be continually consolidated at fewer trading desks. What’s the worst thing that can happen in terms of your client relationship? How can you prepare for that so that it will not occur? The worst thing that can happen to a client is a surprise.

pages: 522 words: 162,310

Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
by Kurt Andersen
Published 4 Sep 2017

The Puritans regarded financial success as a possible signal from God—if He had made you wealthy, maybe you were a “visible saint,” already elected to everlasting life. But in contemporary America, cause and effect have been switched. It is no longer just some dull Protestant work ethic that leads to success. As America’s I’m-a-winner individualism extinguished belief in predestination, hopeful Christians decided that prayer could directly result in a high net worth. It was a way of reconciling two irreconcilable pieces of the American character—the extreme religiosity and the refusal to believe that success isn’t up to each person individually. The solution: you can persuade God to make you rich. In the 1920s and ’30s the African-American ministers Father Divine and Sweet Daddy Grace got rich by preaching pray-for-prosperity, and their swanky lifestyles seemed like proof that it worked.

pages: 596 words: 163,682

The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind
by Raghuram Rajan
Published 26 Feb 2019

Consider, for example, skilled tax accountants, whose specialty was to know every arcane element of the tax code. Such jobs have also been displaced, in this case by tax software available for a few dollars. Interestingly, this leaves the highly trained tax lawyer, whose work is to erect customized international tax shelters for her high-net-worth clients, unscathed. Her work is not routine, since each shelter has to be crafted for the client’s specific situation, where her knowledge of the tax code, prior cases, as well as her creativity are essential. The ICT revolution helps her do her job—she can access prior cases or the relevant tax code much more easily—but it has not displaced her, at least not yet.

pages: 614 words: 168,545

Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?
by Brett Christophers
Published 17 Nov 2020

Where Piketty’s nineteenth-century rentiers earned rents primarily on agricultural land, the Reubens and Cadogans of the world have a more diversified asset base. While agricultural land is still often part of the overall portfolio (particularly, of course, for the aristocrats among the tribe), the major sources of land rents today for these high-net-worth individuals and families is commercial property: retail, offices and hotels. Residential property, meanwhile, is marginal, just as it is for the institutional land rentiers discussed earlier. Grosvenor has a significant (if opaque) residential property portfolio, but one can count on one hand the other major individual or family UK land rentiers whose wealth consists in any meaningful part in residential assets.

Alpha Trader
by Brent Donnelly
Published 11 May 2021

A TYPE II opportunity at the start of the year is a bummer because you cannot invest beyond 3% (or maybe 5% max) of free capital. On the other hand, if you are having a great year and it’s only June… You can overbet the TYPE II opportunity knowing if you’re wrong, it’s completely fine. Let’s say a high net worth individual has given you $100 million of capital to trade with instructions to shoot for 15% returns and a $5 million stop loss (i.e., stop trading if you drop to $95 million). On January 1, your free capital is $5 million and your target is $15 million. Your compensation is simple. You get paid 20% of your P&L in cash, once per year.

Fantasyland
by Kurt Andersen
Published 5 Sep 2017

pages: 1,202 words: 424,886

Stigum's Money Market, 4E
by Marcia Stigum and Anthony Crescenzi
Published 9 Feb 2007

Early on, the Treasury and the Fed viewed the initiation of trading in bond futures with a jaundiced eye; they feared various imagined abuses and undesirable consequences to which this new market might lead. In fact, the Chicago Board of Trade has been tremendously helpful in the distribution of new Treasury bond and note issues. If in any period there is $1 billion of open interest, in most cases the billion short is the Street, the billion long is customers: high net worth and other individuals to whom the Board offers the opportunity to speculate on interest rates. The willingness of these individuals to speculate and their preference for taking long positions has permitted the Street to hedge huge positions on the Board. The ability to establish such hedges enables dealers to buy a new issue when the Treasury wants to sell it and to sell the issue—sometimes at a significantly later date—when retail wants to buy it.

…

In particular, the rating agencies charge little more for rating a two-part program than for rating a one-part program, just a few basis points, and a company that does this will have its Euro MTN program up and running for the day it wants to use it. The four dominant types of investors in Euro MTNs are central banks, fund managers, insurers, and other financial institutions; corporates are small buyers of such paper. In the structured market, high net-worth individuals, financial institutions, and retail investors are the main buyers out of Asia, the Middle East, and from customers of private Swiss banks. Citigroup, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank are the dominant dealers in the European corporate bond market, followed by ABN Amro, HSBC, BNP Paribas, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

pages: 708 words: 176,708

The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire
by Wikileaks
Published 24 Aug 2015

It initially gained an injunction but, after a furious public backlash and a series of counter-actions filed by WikiLeaks supporters, was forced to back down. The negative publicity was even more damaging for the company when a former employee who had supplied the incriminating information came forward in 2011 with thousands more documents pertaining to high-net-worth clients, which he said would shed more light on the company’s practices7 and on the wealthy individuals avoiding tax. Among the other corporate targets of WikiLeaks over the years have been Kaupthing Bank, Peruvian oil dealers, Northern Rock, and Barclays Bank. WikiLeaks was also passed information on Bank of America and British Petroleum that it was unable to publish, partly because it lacked the resources to carry out a thorough fact-check.

pages: 579 words: 183,063

Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice From the Best in the World
by Timothy Ferriss
Published 14 Jun 2017

After selling his interest in The Princeton Review, Adam turned his attention in the early ’90s to the then-emerging field of artificial intelligence, developing a program that could analyze text and provide human-like commentary. He was later invited to join a well-known quant fund to develop statistical trading models, and since, he has established himself as an independent global macro advisor to the chief investment officers of a select group of the world’s most successful hedge funds and ultra-high-net-worth family offices. What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? Our unconscious mind is working all the time, processing orders of magnitude more information, and with astoundingly greater facility, than is our conscious mind.

pages: 677 words: 206,548

Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
by Marc Goodman
Published 24 Feb 2015

Exploit tool kits like Blackhole and SpyEye commit crime “automagically” by minimizing the need for human labor, thereby dramatically reducing costs to Crime, Inc. They also allow hackers to pursue the “long tail” of opportunity, committing millions of thefts in small amounts so that victims don’t report them and law enforcement has no way to track them. While particular high-value targets (companies, nations, celebrities, high-net-worth individuals, or objects of affection or scorn) are specifically and individually targeted, the way the majority of the public is hacked is by automated scripted computer malware—one large digital fishing net that scoops up anything and everything online with a vulnerability that can be exploited.

pages: 695 words: 194,693

Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible
by William N. Goetzmann
Published 11 Apr 2016

It turned up right where you might expect it: in the records of one of the banks that managed money at the time. Hoare’s bank is a handsome building at 37 Fleet Street in London, about 200 yards from Temple Church, under the sign of the golden bottle, where it has been since 1690. It is a private bank that manages money for high net worth individuals. Hoare’s was founded by Richard Hoare (1648–1714), who was one of the original directors of the South Sea Company. In 1720, it was headed by his son Henry Hoare, who, among other things, built the most magnificent of all English gardens, Stourhead. Hoare’s opened its archives from the bubble period to Temin and Voth, who were able to trace the pattern of trades by one of the most well-connected institutions in the city at the time.

pages: 701 words: 199,010

The Crisis of Crowding: Quant Copycats, Ugly Models, and the New Crash Normal
by Ludwig B. Chincarini
Published 29 Jul 2012

Client Services Private Client Services (Private Wealth Management) Private client services is an area within many investment banks, including Lehman. Some banks call it private wealth management. This group focused on the investment needs of very wealthy individuals and small to mid-sized institutions worldwide. Private client service groups perform all kinds of functions, designing special investment vehicles for high-net-worth investors and managing clients’ money to achieve their goals. As an example, suppose a small company’s CEO had a concentrated stock position in that company—an undiversified and risky investment. Lehman (and other investment banks) worked to diversify the CEO’s portfolio, trading company returns for returns on a more diversified index.

pages: 778 words: 239,744

Gnomon
by Nick Harkaway
Published 18 Oct 2017

She finds the name itchily à propos, a handful of sand in her cognitive shoe. The Hunter case does stick out. She said that in the interview earlier, but only the channel known as TLDR is actually hosting the whole segment and so far no one has accessed the file. TLDR is basically an archive, paid for by donations from high net worth individuals who believe in archiving. She reviews the case preamble: Hunter, awake and obdurate, a cranky old lady with round cheeks and a bad attitude that must have been fashionable when she was in her twenties. ‘Do you wish at this time to undergo a verbal interview which may obviate the need for a direct investigation?’

pages: 935 words: 267,358

Capital in the Twenty-First Century
by Thomas Piketty
Published 10 Mar 2014

In particular, since 2010, Crédit Suisse, one of the leading Swiss banks, has published an ambitious annual report on the global distribution of wealth covering the entire population of the planet.8 Other banks, brokerages, and insurance companies (Merrill Lynch, Allianz, etc.) have specialized in the study of the world’s millionaires (the famous HNWI, or “high net worth individuals”). Every institution wants its own report, preferably on glossy paper. It is of course ironic to see institutions that make much of their money by managing fortunes filling the role of government statistical agencies by seeking to produce objective information about the global distribution of wealth.

pages: 1,073 words: 302,361

Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World
by William D. Cohan
Published 11 Apr 2011

William Clay (“Bill”) Ford Jr., a director of Ford Motor Company and Thornton’s friend from Hotchkiss, received four hundred thousand shares of Goldman’s IPO; Ford had paid Goldman $87 million in banking fees since 1996. “There is no equity in the equity markets,” Representative Oxley proclaimed in releasing his report. Naturally, Goldman found Representative Oxley’s report to be outrageous. Lucas van Praag, Goldman’s spokesman, said that Goldman had simply made IPO stock available to its high-net-worth clients—of which there were seventeen thousand with investable funds of more than $25 million—and the CEOs Oxley singled out just happened to be among them. In addition, the information he was basing his claim on had been given to Congress by Goldman. “Their conclusion is not based on anything in fact,” he said.

pages: 1,104 words: 302,176

The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
by Robert J. Gordon
Published 12 Jan 2016

They use computer algorithms to choose assets consistent with the client’s desired allocation at a cost that is a mere fraction of the fees of traditional human advisers. Thus far, robo-advisers mainly appeal to young people who have not yet built up much wealth; this application of artificial intelligence has not yet made much of a dent in advising high-net-worth individuals. It has been estimated recently that the combined assets under management by robo-advisers still amounts to less than $20 billion, against $17 trillion for traditional human advisers.60 Another use of artificial intelligence is now almost two decades old: the ability to use modern search tools to find with blinding speed valuable nuggets of existing information.

pages: 1,213 words: 376,284

Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, From the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First
by Frank Trentmann
Published 1 Dec 2015

Anglo-Saxon observers often report that conspicuous consumption is unknown in Scandinavia, but this has probably more to do with their inability to read local codes than with its absence. Spending goes on summer houses, interior design and high-end ski wax rather than on wristwatches and SU Vs. ‘Luxury fever’ is not a peculiar disease born out of Anglo-Saxon inequality. Take France, one of the few countries that so far has managed to escape widening income inequality. A high-net-worth French millionaire spends $30,000 on luxury goods a year, $8,000 more than the equivalent American.105 The inegalitarian thesis would predict the opposite. When we speak of luxury, we are, in fact, dealing with several markets. The high-end one includes classic Porsches and Tiffany and follows the ups and downs of the stock market.106 Luxury handbags and watches make up a second, more diffused market with a logic of its own.

pages: 1,199 words: 384,780

The system of the world
by Neal Stephenson
Published 21 Sep 2004

Daniel returned, “for of the Three Desiderata: location, location, and location, this ruin has all! The tide of London’s expansion is lapping at its foundations!” “Are you the land-lord, Dr. Waterhouse?” inquired Mr. Threader, suddenly interested. “I am looking after the property on behalf of a High Net Worth Individual,” returned Daniel, “who is keen to make this vale into a world-renowned center of Technologickal Arts.” “How did this individual become aware of the ruin’s existence?” “I told him, sir,” Daniel said, “and to anticipate your next question, I learnt of it from a fellow of my acquaintance, a very, very old chap, who had knowledge from a Knight Templar.”

pages: 1,797 words: 390,698

Power at Ground Zero: Politics, Money, and the Remaking of Lower Manhattan
by Lynne B. Sagalyn
Published 8 Sep 2016

Market and occupancy risk—operating deficits during tenant lease-up and sufficiency of operating cash flow to service the debt, as well as ongoing capital costs to maintain tenant occupancy. The structure of the Liberty Bond offering, including the critical credit support from the three public entities, had to insulate the bondholders from all those risks. The buyers of these bonds would be retail buyers, high-net-worth individuals who seek tax-exempt income. The development risks being covered by the deal’s credit-support agreements are typically those a developer or equity investor would take in the normal course of development. But at Ground Zero, a developer and equity investor would never willingly take on these risks because they would not have the control over the project as in a conventional development situation.53 There was nothing conventional, however, about the financial-support agreements of the East Side Site Development Plan—it was breaking new ground, even in the sophisticated Wall Street world of credit enhancement.