You don’t have to be brilliant like me.
You need the OCD to just DO it!

I don’t agree with you about FAs, but maybe that is because I am in “The Biz” although in a different role.

Nevertheless you could always become a Fee Based FA. Then you have none of the worries that you stated.

I’m a little late to the party on this one, but I love the post. I recently left my father’s fixed income investment management practice (to preserve our relationship¦working with family can go either way I’ve learned!), which caters exclusively to HNW clients. The avg account size would probably be around $6-8mm and from what I know, nearly all of our clients are either financial services pros themselves, or have been wildly successful business executives for the majority of their careers. One thing they all have in common is that they are conservative investors (though I’d bet they were far more risk-loving when building their wealth). A lot of wealth was acquired through real estate, though I don’t know if having the property “paid off” is as relevant if you’re still living in it. Because we only manage their fixed income investments, I don’t have too much insight into their personal balance sheets. But anecdotally, all of our clients find their way to us because of the market execution that we offer…which is the largest single hurdle for individual investors (whether you have a FA or not). Having recently looked into becoming a FA at a major retail brokerage, I determined I wasn’t willing to send my clients through the ringer if I joined the program. FAs make their money by generating fees and new business…there is a premium on closing new business and the more transactions, the better (and if you don’t meet specific hurdles, you get the axe). As a result, too many individual investors are sold products that aren’t suited for them (they carry far more risk than is appropriate) and even if they are sold a good security (like a good municipal bond), there are so many dealer and broker’s broker markups that the client is getting hosed on the price. Because we execute trades on behalf of our clients in the inter-dealer market, our clients’ transaction fees are minimized; because we collect a small annual management fee of total assets, we don’t have an incentive to run up transaction fees; and because we don’t have any product to sell, we only pick securities that are in the clients’ best interest. But this is extremely rare to find in an advisor. This is the single reason why our clients come to us (we even have accounts for executives who are still working in the highest ranks of the financial services industry) and why understanding the way the FA game is played is critical. (Case in point: In a recent FA interview, I was judged more on my ability to meet fee hurdles than on my ability to make prudent decisions on behalf of my clients).

As an aside, I believe that my parents rent their apartment and have a mortgage on their summer house. So I don’t think there’s much of a correlation in that regard. But ownership of a profitable business is clearly a predictor of becoming a HNWI.

What do you mean by the health comment? So do you handle everything to do with your money? No advisors