For many years, brokers could buy vacation homes in the Hamptons just by executing trades. But when the stock market tanked, individual investors fled, and they’ve been slow to come back. “The old model [for brokers] failed. That is, I’ll tell you what stocks to buy as they go up,” says Shaw Lively, research manager at Financial Insights, an analyst company.Today, the buzzword in the financial services game is diversification. Companies are trolling for new revenue streams by trying to become one-stop shops for all their clients’ financial needs, including tax planning, asset allocation, mortgages and insurance. And the most sought-after clients are those who think they need (and can afford) the most services. So Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, UBS and other financial services companies are all in hot pursuit of a bigger slice of the high-net-worth customer pie (Merrill applies the moniker to people with $1 million or more in assets, excluding primary residential real estate). And there are plenty of them: 2 million in the United States at the end of 2002 (a slight drop from 2001), according to the “2003 World Wealth Report,” published by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Merrill Lynch. These customers provide nearly two-thirds of the more than $1 trillion in assets that Merrill’s Global Private Client Group manages. Related content brandpost ChatGPT and Your Organisation: How to Monitor Usage and Be More Aware of Security Risks By Hayley Salyer Jun 05, 2023 7 mins Chatbots Artificial Intelligence brandpost Who’s paying your data integration tax? Reducing your data integration tax will get you one step closer to value—let’s start today. By Sandrine Ghosh Jun 05, 2023 4 mins Data Management feature 13 essential skills for accelerating digital transformation IT leaders too often find themselves behind on business-critical transformation efforts due to gaps in the technical, leadership, and business skills necessary to execute and drive change. By Stephanie Overby Jun 05, 2023 12 mins Digital Transformation IT Skills tip 3 things CIOs must do now to accurately hit net-zero targets More than a third of the world’s largest companies are making their net-zero targets public, yet nearly all will fail to hit them if they don’t double the pace of emissions reduction by 2030. This puts leading executives, CIOs in particul By Diana Bersohn and Mauricio Bermudez-Neubauer Jun 05, 2023 5 mins CIO Accenture Emerging Technology Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe