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Back To School
Louise Kramer
09/01/2005
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The universities assume that the demand for this type of program will grow
rapidly in coming years as entrepreneurs such as Seidman sell their companies,
turn their attention to managing their wealth rather than building it and
eventually pass it on. Boston College researchers estimate that $41 trillion
will pass between the generations by 2052—the largest intergenerational transfer
of wealth in U.S. history—and this will create an enormous new class of affluent
individuals who need to understand how to manage and deploy their assets
intelligently. The universities want to profit from this growing demand for
financial and philanthropic acumen.
“Making money intelligently is easier
than giving money away intelligently,” says sociologist Paul Schervish, director
of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College. “There is a lot of
snake oil out there. The question is how to discern what is not.”
Boston
College, considered to be a leader in research on philanthropy, offered a pilot
course on wealth management last January and hopes to add it to its executive
education roster as soon as it can put the funding in place to hire a program
director. This fall, New York University will join the pack when it launches a
class targeted specifically at wealth holders. It will complement an
eight-course certificate program in wealth management for financial advisors
that it relaunched last year. Ten percent of that program’s students were
wealthy individuals seeking to manage their money themselves.
Most colleges
and universities present these programs through executive education arms of
business schools. Some of these courses are highly targeted and intensive, aimed
at sophisticated business people who need help navigating new investment
opportunities; children and spouses of wealth holders who know little, if
anything, about basic investing principals; and family wealth advisors. For
example, Harvard Business School’s Families in Business program is a weeklong
seminar offered twice yearly to owners of U.S. family businesses. (Harvard
offers an additional program for families abroad.)
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