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A review by crispinsday
Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent by Brooke Harrington
4.0
1. Introduction
2. Wealth Management as a Profession
3. Client Relations
4. Tactics and Techniques of Wealth Management
5. Wealth Management and Inequality
6. Wealth Management and the State
7 Conclusion
The chapter headings are a more than usually useful guide to the shape of this book, which is a slightly odd duck, a combination of an academic sociological study about wealth managers and their clients and a how-it's-done guide to the various vehicles the rich use to avoid taxes, inheritance laws, debts etc. It succeeds at both, in my opinion. The examination of the profession of Wealth Management and of the psychology (and psychoses) of the extremely rich people wealth managers work for is insightful and filled with interesting anecdotes. The how-to guide is both fascinating and horrifying, and also very clearly written (it's not a how-to guide in the sense it tells you the mechanics of opening an offshore bank account, but it tells you a lot about the financial instruments used). For about 10 minutes, my memory being what it is, I understood the differences between and relative advantages of trusts vs foundations vs corporations and STAR vs VISTA. The book also doesn't shy away from discussing the morality of this wealth protection, while also doing its best to explain the anti-tax, anti-law, anti-state attitudes of many of the people involved (both the rich and the wealth managers who work for them). Not a fluffy read, but interesting.
2. Wealth Management as a Profession
3. Client Relations
4. Tactics and Techniques of Wealth Management
5. Wealth Management and Inequality
6. Wealth Management and the State
7 Conclusion
The chapter headings are a more than usually useful guide to the shape of this book, which is a slightly odd duck, a combination of an academic sociological study about wealth managers and their clients and a how-it's-done guide to the various vehicles the rich use to avoid taxes, inheritance laws, debts etc. It succeeds at both, in my opinion. The examination of the profession of Wealth Management and of the psychology (and psychoses) of the extremely rich people wealth managers work for is insightful and filled with interesting anecdotes. The how-to guide is both fascinating and horrifying, and also very clearly written (it's not a how-to guide in the sense it tells you the mechanics of opening an offshore bank account, but it tells you a lot about the financial instruments used). For about 10 minutes, my memory being what it is, I understood the differences between and relative advantages of trusts vs foundations vs corporations and STAR vs VISTA. The book also doesn't shy away from discussing the morality of this wealth protection, while also doing its best to explain the anti-tax, anti-law, anti-state attitudes of many of the people involved (both the rich and the wealth managers who work for them). Not a fluffy read, but interesting.