You need a net worth of $6.3 million to feel “wealthy” in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the people who live there. In order to feel just “financially comfortable,” you need $1.4 million. Charles Schwab surveyed 1,000 people living in San Francisco and surrounding counties to find their views on managing wealth amid the Bay Area economy. Nearly all said the cost of living there was “unreasonable,” and over half think living there hurts their ability to reach their financial goals; only 18 percent said it provides opportunities for financial success. A third of Bay Area residents receive equity compensation, but nearly two-thirds of those don’t use a financial professional to manage it even though over half don’t have the confidence to do it on their own.
New York Town Cooked the Books
A New York town hid its deteriorating financial situation from municipal bond holders, including the strain from its $60 million baseball stadium, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC has charged Ramapo, N.Y., a small town in Rockland County just north of New York City, with fraud. The town falsely depicted positive balances in its operating fund of anywhere between $1.4 million to $4.2 million over six years, when in fact the town had deficits as high as $14 million. Those false balances were used in offering materials for 16 municipal bond deals. The town supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence was the mastermind behind the scheme, according to the SEC. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York also brought criminal charges against St. Lawrence and Aaron Troodler, assistant town attorney.
Wunderlich Securities has a natural on its hands. The Memphis-based wealth management firm is home to Ross Stripling, the rookie Major League Baseball pitcher who nearly threw a no-hitter in his first start. Stripling, 26, majored in finance at Texas A&M University and used his signing bonus from the Los Angeles Dodgers to invest in Facebook, Under Armour and Apple stock. Then, during his rehab from Tommy John surgery, he began studying for his Series 7 and working at Wunderlich’s Houston office. He would be the first one in the office in the mornings, working until noon, when he would leave to work out in preparation for Spring Training. “We joke in the office that he probably studied too hard because his score was so high ... close to his fastball,” Stripling's boss Matthew Houston told Sports on Earth. “Our whole office is Astros fans and everyone’s now a Dodger fan.”
Advizr and Riskalyze Integrate
Advizr is integrating its financial planning software with Riskalyze to let advisors automatically import their entire Riskalyze model portfolio set into Advizr with a single click and guide clients towards an appropriate investment portfolio. The integration also fuses the companies’ marketing tools to create a unique set of prospect engagements designed to create a flow of prescreened and predisposed leads directly into the advisor’s inbox. The companies said that the combination of the two will help advisors collaborate with clients to uncover and assign a goal-specific risk level and financial plan that fits with it.
