These services include ensuring that monthly payments are made, trusts have been set up and are properly administered and that advice is provided on estate and financial planning. If the client hasn't drawn up a financial plan, Glenmede officials will write one, Fowler says.

Spectrum Group's Wynn says financial planning and estate planning are the key services for successful wealth management. While the typical wealth management firm isn't required to have every potential personal service, he says, it must "know where to find them and act as a quarterback. It must oversee all of these services."

Each client, Glenmede officials explain, is assigned two senior staff members: a portfolio manager and an administrator. Fowler says administrators usually have experience in trust and estate law and financial planning. "Their advice can range from how to set up or run a trust for a grandchild to how to set up a 529 plan," Fowler says. "As stewards of our clients' wealth, our services must be comprehensive and personal."

The Good And The Bad
Glenmede officials say the essence of wealth management is found in a firm's culture. Who controls it? And what is it? If a company is run purely for the purpose of asset gathering, then it is not truly committed to wealth management clients, Fowler says. Such corporate environments can also foster a lack of teamwork, he adds.

Indeed, the essence of a superior wealth management service, Fowler concludes, is a team approach. But it is also the result of the right model. Fowler doesn't believe that merely hiring lots of people with big credentials is the key element in the success of a Glenmede or any other provider of financial services to the well-heeled.

Instead, Fowler believes being an independent firm dedicated to wealth management and nothing else is the key to delivering the highest level of advice and service. He promises it will remain that way during the years he will be leading Glenmede.
"Absolutely," he insists. "All of the stakeholders, from the board to the employees, realize that is a key attribute for our clients. We're running our business totally on this particular principle and no other line of business is or will distract us or cause us to lose focus."    

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