Chip Roame, Managing Partner of Tiburon Strategic Advisors, is one of the famous names in market research and strategic consulting in financial services. He has worked with over 360 top financial services firms, and has been engaged with over 1500 assignments. He has become a trusted advisor to financial services’ CEOs. As you might expect, this is not easy to do. He has personal and business relationships which traverse firms, years, sectors, etc. This year, I was invited as press, to attend his storied “Tiburon CEO Summit,” a semi-annual event now in its 11th year. While most of the press wrote and reported on Chip’s annual predictive industry trends, economic report, and other opinion-backed research, I remained fascinated with the Summit’s back story. I wanted to know more about: the attendees, their reasons for religiously returning year after year, and what makes the Tiburon experience so valuable? After 22 summits, this year’s CEO Summit reported record attendance. Why?
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Find Out How The Other Half Gives – - Social Engagement with Next Gen Wealthy
Wealthy baby boomers are transitioning record amounts of money to Gen-X and Gen-Y’ers at a rate estimated at as much $42 trillion over a 50 year period beginning in 1998. Whether this number is right or wrong, this creates one of the largest demands ever and associated opportunities for wealth managers who are engaged and connected with young, millennial (Gen-Y) wealth holders. The opportunity is obvious: grow old along with young clients who are living longer. What must a wealth manager/financial service firm/private banker/investment banker know about these young wealth holders? First, they need to remember that the entire courtship and engagement is social and new differentiators must be identified and communicated to this generation instead of those items important to baby-boomers. For wealth managers, the approach to engagement and eventual relationships is completely different between the Gen-X/Y wealth holder and his/her wealthy parents.
The easiest and most obvious way to engage wealthy millennials via socially responsible investing and philanthropy. Never before has the concept of “doing well while doing good” been more infectious, especially among Gen-X and Gen-Yers. Conferences like the recent Nexus Global Youth Summit convened by the Seach for Common Ground are changing the way the world thinks of giving. The purpose of this conference was to “mash-up” young wealth holders with young social entrepreneurs. Its estimated that 100 of the attendees had a combined worth of $50 billion. Read the rest of this entry »
Once You Tweet, You Cannot Delete
Without any aplomb or introduction, this is a straightforward blog about Twitter and how it works. And in a broader sense, it’s about the Internet itself and us as users of a powerful tool.
Twitter is a social networking website which allows registered users to set-up profiles and send/receive messages called “tweets.” Tweets are a maximum length of 140 characters which are displayed. As you might all know by now, Twitter can be used for sending/receiving photos as well. According to founder Jack Dorsey, “…we came across the word ‘twitter’ and its was just perfect. The definition was ‘a short burst of inconsequential information,’ and ‘chirps from birds’.” Twitter soared based on the popularity of texting. Texting is usually between two users whereas tweeting can be to millions. Some texting may or may not be archived depending on the service provider (See Kwame Kilpatrick, former Mayor of Detroit-married father of three and author of 14,000 sext messages.) Twitter uses the internet and tweets reside there forever. Moreover, users can re-tweet someone else’s tweet to their own followers. That is known as RT or retweeting. Retweeting is a common and encouraged use of Twitter as it allows many to see one message as it is virally communicated. But be careful: once you tweet, you cannot delete! You can, however, protect your tweets which does make them private and only available to your followers. This is something which high net-worth service providers may consider doing to keep their conversations private. Others want public visibility utilize Twitter for its outstanding social networking as its a means of spreading your thought-leadership. Users generally cull information from the internet, reading and their own inbound tweets and then send links out to followers and/or the Twitterverse (Twitter universe) at large. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Financial Services Firms Need Business Development Professionals
Once upon a time, professional service providers—RIA’s, wealth managers, CPAs, attorneys—were people whose personality and training led them to careers that were more ”left-brained,” “black and white,” and quantitative. Promotions were based on hours worked, diligence, demonstrated core competency and not in number of new client relationships or business development activities. Managing directors and partners used to be responsible for following up on inbound inquires that removed them from their core responsibilities (in some cases, even billable hours). This was, for the most part, ineffective for several reasons. The amount of time and energy spent in gaining a new client is significant and furtheremore, correlates to the size of the prospect. Since many of these investment professionals are seeking significant new UHNW/HNW clients, it should also be noted that it takes a greater amount of time and effort to “reel in” more significant clients. Formerly, business development within these firms was limited to golf and business lunches. That is changing today, though unevenly, among firms. Professional services firms (financial services, in particular) have been slow to adopt the notion and expense of building out marketing departments to create messaging and visibility to generate awareness and leads and hiring dedicated business developers to follow up on those leads.
Understanding Shariah Compliance and Islamic Banking—A New Revenue Stream for RIA’s?
Sharia compliance refers to the strict observance of the principles of Islamic law. Additionally, Islamic banking itself has own basic “rules” which must be adhered to in order for transactions to be considered Sharia-compliant. The strictness and transparency of Islamic banking has allowed this sector to remain virtually unscathed during the recent financial crisis.
Simply put, Sharia banking prohibits interest to be charged for loans and further, prohibits the financing or investing in businesses which are contrary to the Sharia principles. An example of this might be investing in a company which produced pork products. Muslims are expressly forbidden from eating pork. Same idea applies to gambling, liquor and other violations of Sharia.
Also, Sharia principles encourage profit/loss on a “shared basis” so that a banker and depositor, for example, share risk. This helps to ensure that deals are sound. Islamic finance also requires that transactions must be backed by real assets like real estate rather than derivatives like sub-prime mortgages. Read the rest of this entry »
