Signature Financial Management, a Norfolk, Va.-based firm that works mainly with entrepreneurs, uses psychographics on several levels.

Organically, it comes into play in matching the firm to clients suited to its style of wealth management. "An entrepreneur who has successfully built up a business in the current environment and successfully sold it, has probably kept up with what I'd call modern ways of sharing information and buying services," says Susan Colpitts, who co-founded Signature in the mid 1990s. "We have to be flexible enough to work with clients who want input and analysis but don't mind calling the shots."

Adds Colpitts: "You can contrast this with more established firms that may be a little less flexible than we are, and maybe more suited to older money." Such differences, she adds, are frequently discernible from a firm's branding and in its marketing materials.

On another level, Signature is using psychographics explicitly to segment clients in terms of "what they really want from their wealth," says Colpitts. "Getting at that-and it can be difficult-is tied to our need to show families that we can do more than help them manage investments."

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