A wealth manager, asset manager, multi-family office or private bank intending to service the wealthy should first and foremost begin with empathy. Too often the agent seems to be looking at themselves when they talk about what they can do for their clients.

“The truth? You can’t handle the truth.” Col. Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson), A Few Good Men.

Imagine you wanted to issue bonds but no one would buy them from you. Now wouldn’t it be clever if you bought them yourself, but now you didn’t have the money to buy them, at least not until you issued the bonds. There is a way.

Consumption is the most important driver of economic growth, but consumption has to be in large part funded from current income, and to the extent that it is funded from borrowing, and thus future income, the ability to repay needs to be considered in the context of risk to future income.

So far I’ve focused my attention on the economic and commercial aspects of the Broken World. But there’s more to life than money.