|
|
 |
|
| Feature |
Back To School
Louise Kramer
09/01/2005
|
In any case, many individuals and
families are looking to better understand their investment options and to be
able to vet potential advisors and asset managers in a more rigorous fashion.
Indeed, according to a recent survey by the Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based
consulting firm, 30 percent of affluent individuals now consider themselves
self-directed investors, meaning they make their investment choices without the
help of an advisor. This is a much higher percentage than Spectrem found in
similar surveys in years past. The recent swell in the number and complexity of
investment vehicles—from fine art to hedge funds—mixed with the complexity of
myriad philanthropic options are also driving interest in these courses.
“You
have to know enough to ask the right questions,” says Anthony Macari, assistant
dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York
University. “These courses give you the ability to do your own due diligence and
feel confident you know enough to know the person advising you is
good.”
Because these college programs are still nascent, it is difficult to
say if their ostensible independence will be an asset or—as some bankers
maintain—a liability when seeking to attract individuals in search of
best-of-breed wealth management insights. One attempt to reach out to the next
generation of wealthy fizzled this summer when NYU pulled the plug on a proposed
camp for children because of the lack of interest. Nonetheless, school
administrators believe that programs for private investors could provide an
enticing revenue stream. “Our business school is trying to target niche markets
where we can excel and where our competitors are not really focusing,” says
Steven Todd, associate professor of finance at Loyola and administrator of the
school’s new wealth management program. He adds that no other Chicago area
universities offer such a course of study. “We are going to aggressively market
this program.”
he programs all cover financial basics to some extent, often using
a case-study approach. Increasingly, they also focus on soft issues such as
family dynamics and identifying a moral purpose to guide decisions about giving.
“I thought nobody would want the touchy-feely stuff. I was about 180 degrees
wrong,” NYU’s Macari says. “The ability to act as coach and counsel to someone
who is wealthy goes beyond knowing how to make sure the kids are provided
for.”
NYU is creating a course on the psychology of wealth management that
will delve into issues such as how to have a candid discussion about death,
wealth transfer and relinquishing control of assets. “When you’re dealing with
wealthy people who made the money themselves, they are very strong willed and
smart and aggressive,” Macari says. “The only way you can give them information
like this is in an efficient way.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
