WHAT PERKS DO PRIVATE BANKERS OFFER WEALTHY PEOPLE?

WHAT PERKS DO PRIVATE BANKERS OFFER WEALTHY PEOPLE? Posted by EXOGEN on August 17, 2013 at 1:16am in Bank Information Private banking offers perks to wealthy By Claes Bell • Bankrate.com Highlights Banks of all sizes offer private banking perks to wealthy customers. Higher level of service, better rates part of package. Drawbacks include high turnover, conflicts of interest. Consumer banks of all sizes have private banking divisions that offer enviable perks to high-net-worth individuals. Private banking clients who bring their large accounts to a bank get great rates and a degree of service that guarantees they'll never wait in line at the teller again. Find the best CD rates Bankrate can help you find the best CD rates. "I always told (my clients), 'Don't go to the branch; I'm your teller. You need a check cashed? You need checks ordered? Call me,'" says Michael Baughman, who previously worked for a private banking division of consumer bank BB&T, based in Winston-Salem, N.C. Banks pursue these wealthy clients because they generate a lot of money and repeat business. For customers, it's a little like getting a suite comped by a Las Vegas casino floor manager: The casino serves up the high-roller treatment to keep you sitting at its tables. "You have that one point of contact to call for anything that you need, whether it's ordering checks or investing money or borrowing money," Baughman says. Perks of private banking Private banking perks begin with concierge-style service for banking chores like opening CD accounts or managing checking accounts. Scott Farber, senior vice president and wealth strategist with U.S. Trust, a wealth planning division of Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, compares the private banking experience to eating out at a five-star restaurant. "You expect a higher level of service," he says. Higher rates on deposit products like CDs and approval for that hard-to-get jumbo mortgage refinance become much easier to get, Farber says. Baughman says that when he worked at BB&T, "everything was negotiable" for private banking customers, including the bank's stated fees in terms of closing costs for mortgages, closing costs for home equity lines or retail loans. "There were interest rates on CDs, checking accounts, depository accounts -- those were all negotiable, and you had a wider range of negotiating power to go out and capture those folks," Baughman says. "If you could make a case for it, the sky was the limit." Who's invited? Some private banking divisions acquire clients mainly by invitation, using information they come by during the course of normal lending activities, Baughman says. "Banks have a unique advantage in targeting individual wealth management services because they've already got a lot of financial information on clients -- folks that have taken out a personal loan or a business loan," Baughman says, who is now a Certified Financial Planner with Abacus Planning Group in Columbia, S.C. Because the bank can access tax returns and other personal documents, it's "easy to figure out, 'Hey, these folks have a million bucks sitting over at Merrill Lynch,'" Baughman says. advertisement Banks also acquire clients through referrals from existing customers. "The high-net-worth community is by definition not very large, and so when you do a good job for a client, they all talk to each other, so client referrals is one of our largest (sources of new clients)," says Farber. Read more: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/savings/private-banking-offers-perks-to-wealthy-1.aspx#ixzz2cCUb4OPu Follow us: @Bankrate on Twitter | Bankrate on Facebook Visit stage2omega at: http://www.stage2omega.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network To control which emails you receive on stage2omega, click here