Thursday, October 13, 2016

Quiet Old Firm Launches Marketing Blitz



Brown Brothers Harriman, an old-time Wall Street partnership, shed its securities underwriting and sales units when Glass-Steagall came along. As a private bank it has gone about its business quietly – until last month. To my surprise, this ad greeted me on the last page of The New York Times news section. The following Sunday, BBH ran a two-page spread in the Times magazine. Banner ads popped up online, directing viewers to the BBH web site.

The web site, content rich, offers briefings on services, staff bios and  generous helpings of articles from three publications – for investors, business owners and women – arranged by issue and sorted by subject. Under "Wealth Management and Trusts" is this exemplary article on spousal access trusts. (The design of these trusts undoubtedly guards against the risks associated with spouses who plan to become ex-spouses. Even so, spousal access trusts must be grist for at least one financial thriller.)
From 2010 to 2015, according to Spectrem data reported in Penta, the number of households with investable assets of $20 million to $100 million grew by more than 105,000. That's a 64% increase. Over a million households now have investable assets of $5 million or more. Among those with $5 million but less than $10 million, many should cross the $10 million threshold as their business and real estate wealth gets transformed (bring on the Gatorade barrel!) by liquidity events.

As wealth managers gear up for the growing market now emerging in the top financial tiers of the nations's 124.6 million households, they may find BBH's marketing blitz worth studying. 

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