The Wealth Consigliere

People hate being told what to do, but sometimes tough love is the only way. Consider pro football, one of the most bare-knuckled games around. It took a hammer like the Rooney Rule to pry open the clubby world of wealthy team owners and bring them into the 21 st century. Named after Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Rooney Rule mandated that at least one minority candidate be interviewed for any head coaching job. The reason: From 1921 to 2003, only seven minorities served as head coaches for the mostly white team owners.  Even my friend’s 7 th grade son knows this “ just ain’t right ”. The Rooney Rule went into effect in 2003, and since then, 13 minority coaches have been hired. There’s an open debate whether more needs to be done to promote minority hiring in the NFL. We’ll leave that for others to discuss, but the point is not lost on us that the financial services industry could use its own Rooney Rule. Country Club Living Like team owners...

I was at a wealth management event last week when I bumped into one of the industry’s thought leaders. We were chatting, and he said he gets asked a lot about Sanctuary. My ears picked up, so I asked him what he said about us. Answer: “Sanctuary is the periodontist for wealth advisors.”   WHAT? It wasn’t quite the answer I was expecting. Nor a serious contender for our new marketing tag line. The periodontist, he said, is the person who breaks the bad news that your gums are on fire and you’re going to need surgery. Unfortunately, he said, most ignore that advice unless they’re bleeding or their teeth are falling out. The inclination is to deal with it later. Yet, as soon as the doctor’s warning turns into a full-fledged dental crisis, the first person you call is the periodontist.  That specialist is the only one who can fix the problem. Sanctuary, he said, plays the same role for advisors. Many Wall Street advisors rea...