Managing your wealth

摘要

Today, the recession aside, the US has been minting new, mostly self-made millionaires at a young age and at a breakneck pace. For those who choose to seek help managing their money, a loosening of federal regulations over the services that banks and financial-services firms can offer their clients has turned wealth management into big business. The myriad of offerings can be overwhelming, however, with everyone from the banker to the stockbroker angling for a piece of the pie. Wealth-management services are loosely defined to include several key areas of expertise: traditional banking, estate planning, tax planning, and investments. As the various wealth-management firms climb over one another to win new clients, each boasts slight advantages in one area or another, most often based on what the firm has traditionally focused on. Thus, investment banks have stronger investment teams and commercial banks often excel at traditional banking functions and estate planning.