As a member of one of the world’s loftier demographics, you have a huge target painted on your back, and forces both seen and unseen are conspiring to dissolve your wealth.

Two conferences I’ve recently attended side-by-side with family office executives, private wealth managers and insurance professionals have been rife with dire predictions. I’m sure these well-meaning folks will pass them on to you very soon. Just to highlight the U.S. macroeconomic hazards would take more space than this magazine provides me: We suffer a halfway-decent chance of a recession in late 2007 or early 2008. Home prices could continue to plummet as banks attempt to unload foreclosed homes on the open market at fire-sale prices. The U.S. equities and bonds markets may well generate nothing better than mediocre returns . . . for the next decade or so.

Even more sinister are the risks that affluent families face. As baby boomers prepare to plan for the greatest intergenerational wealth transfer in the history of the United States (some $41 trillion by 2053, according to researchers at Boston College), they struggle with how much is too little—and how much is too much—to leave their children.

We in the media, including those of us at Worth, are quite complicit in creating this climate of anxiety. An old media adage holds that greed and fear almost invariably capture eyeballs. And, to borrow from Gordon Gekko, if greed is good, then fear is even better.

Danger is a constant drumbeat in Worth. In April, we ran a three-page article on the top 10 concerns of ultrahigh-net-worth families, which ranged from the muddying of a family’s legacy to exposure to opportunistic lawsuits. In May, we published an in-depth look at the risks board members and investors face when once-hidden environmental liabilities hammer the companies they back. In June, we detailed how Iran’s maladroit mullahs are threatening to sink that country’s oil industry and throw the world into a true petrocrisis. In July, we argued that your pursuit of wealth could cost you your health and your family ties if not properly managed.

It’s a familiar refrain, and one we will continue to sing in coming months. Our December cover story is tentatively headlined: "Risks to Your Wealth in 2008." And we have no plans to change it.

Bright Spots
But as I look over this month’s table of contents, I’m slightly buoyant. By serendipity, our August issue seems filled with optimism. Light summer reading it is not, but from start to finish we do parse various opportunities to transform hazards into opportunities, even to one extreme point. Our cover story, our annual examination of some of the best estate plans in America that have come to our attention over the past 12 months, proves what the tightest-knit families can accomplish if they confront the ultimate bugaboo with intelligence and grit. In this article, our lead family provides Alaska’s residents with more charitable largesse than any other. Their very carefully devised plans to fund their foundation in perpetuity should serve as an inspiration.

Another feature tackles the most complex topic we, our children and their children will face: the apparently irrefutable effects of climate change on our planet. Rather than decry the drowning polar bears, we present some of the brightest minds in wealth management riffing on the investment opportunities presented by this global trend. But before you start investing in life-jacket companies, read what our experts have to say about injecting capital into sectors that may help us weather this potential catastrophe.

Speaking of catastrophes, our Risk & Reward department features an unusual investment just appearing on the horizon: the catastrophe bond. Offered by insurance carriers, these securities enable investors to bet that the natural disaster to which the bond is linked will not occur within a given time frame. If the investor guesses right, he is handsomely rewarded. At least in this case, there may be a real financial future in optimism.