Thursday, May 14, 2009

Citywealth Leaders List Asia 2009

[EDIT: editor Joe Bell went back and amended the list for factual errors I pointed out. If you want the orginal pdf list, let me know]

http://www.citywealthmag.com/PDFs/Citywealth%20Leaders%20List%202009%20Asia.pdf

Scary stuff for the uninitated.......some half-dozen of the people listed aren't working for the firms their listed under....some have been out of their listed firms for YEARS!!!!! Some real good tax/trust/financial advisers are not on the list. Clearly poorly researched and rather arbitrary list of BFFs.

Another third are what I would consider "WTF??!?!" selections. I wouldn't let them serve my enemies because I know they might screw that up too.

A few are just snake oil salesmen...peddling their wares without real value added for the client.

Some are just too high up the totem pole be dealing with client matters on a regular basis so why do they get on the list?? I remember Mickey from his days at Matheson Trust. Unless you're a $50M client, I doubt that you even get introduced to Mickey these days. Even if you do, do you really think he's contributing anything to your case? Likely not, it's just not his job to be hands-on any more.

It's a real shame that many hard working, smart and client-friendly men and women are not recognised as the shoulders that these so-called giants are standing on (or have stood on).

{EDIT} And in my haste to make fun of Citywealth for their carelessness, I forgot to praise some on the list. Truly some of the finest advisers in the world, and not just Asia, and thanks to ones that I have worked with in making my life, my clients' life that much richer.