Among the 124 wealth managers that were part of the benchmarking study, the median pretax profit margin went from 36.4% in 2007 to 30.0% in 2008.
M Financial Adds Canadian Firm
M
Financial Group announced the addition of Caledonia Planning Group as a
member firm, marking the first time a foreign firm has entered the
company's network.
Caledonia, based in Ontario, Canada, is a global international wealth transfer advisor to high-net-worth clients. Iain W. Scott, the firm's sole principal, founded it in 2001. It has a staff of four.
People On The Move
International
law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP announced the expansion of its
global private client practice with the hiring of partners Martyn Gowar
and Andrew Vergunst, who will head a private client team in London.
Tom Ruggie, Alan Weinstein and Seth Ellis founded RWE Private Wealth, a wealth management firm in Orlando, Fla. The firm is a full-service multifamily office serving high-net-worth clients.
Geller & Company, a financial advisory and wealth management firm in New York City, named James H. McLaughlin CEO of Geller Family Office Services LLC, its wealth management division. McLaughlin was formerly with Convergent Wealth Advisors.
Plante Moran Financial Advisors of Southfield, Mich., announced the election of Jim Baird, the firm's chief investment strategist, to partner.
Convergent Wealth Advisors has named Ron Albahary as the company's chief investment officer and David Kahn as a director in the firm's Los Angeles office. Albahary was formerly with Schroder Investment Management North America Inc. and Kahn was formerly with Wilmington Trust Company.
Hey, when I go for the close I go all the way. My leg got infected, requiring another visit to the emergency room, followed by the issuance of a pair of crutches, several weeks of bed rest and a few dozen Percocet. Suffice it to say, the prospect felt bad.
A potentially crippling accident can be an effective way to garner sympathy and motivate nice prospects to take the plunge and become clients. Of course, this approach is far less reliable with a less-than-congenial prospect and misinterpreting the situation might only result in weeks of intense pain, permanent physical damage and a pile of medical expenses. Another drawback to consider before employing this technique is its limited use. It's not just the physical and mental toll of recuperating and keeping a high-net-worth business on track, but, honestly, how many times can a person credibly sustain critical injuries in a single year?