Those Europeans!

1. Luxembourg
2. France
3. Ireland
4. Hungary
5. Czech Republic
6. Spain
7. Denmark
8. Portugal
9. Switzerland
10. Austria
11. Germany
12. United Kingdom
13. Belgium
14. Netherlands
15. Australia

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When Marriage Is A Risk 

In this Web-friendly age, billionaires, politicians, and others who live in the public eye have a hard time keeping information about their lives private. Yes, the rich really are different from you and me. For most people, a wedding is a simple, joyous occasion. Family and friends gather to celebrate the ceremonial joining of you and your true love. For billionaires it’s more complicated, with stresses and strains that others don’t bear. They don’t just have to choose a florist and a band; they usually need a good lawyer, too. Attorneys familiar with billionaire marriages urge their clients to proceed with care and caution. A billionaire has to treat an upcoming marriage as a merger. But it’s a merger with a potential enemy. Prenuptial agreements are important, but they’re no guarantee of a satisfactory split if things go south.

Another issue that comes with prenups is privacy. Agreements can include confidentiality clauses to prevent one of the parties involved from giving out information about a marriage in case of divorce. That can mean barring anything from TV interviews about the ex to writing a book.

Consider the divorce of Steven Spielberg, now at DreamWorks Animation, and his first wife Amy Irving. She claimed their prenup was invalid because it had been written on a napkin and she hadn’t had legal representation. A judge tossed it out; Irving got $100 million. The prenup of Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, held up, but it still cost him plenty. He agreed to a deal with his wife, Sheila Johnson, in which she would receive half of their assets if they split up. By the time they did get divorced in 2002, his media empire was worth billions — and she got her half.

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Dyslexia Forces People To Master Verbal Communication 

It has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play on their strengths. A new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought. Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Cass Business School in London, found that more than a third of the entrepreneurs she had surveyed — 35%— identified themselves as dyslexic. The study also concluded that dyslexics were more likely than nondyslexics to delegate authority, to excel in oral communication and problem solving and were twice as likely to own two or more businesses.

“We found that dyslexics who succeed had overcome an awful lot in their lives by developing compensatory skills,” Professor Logan said. One reason that dyslexics are drawn to entrepreneurship, Professor Logan said, is that strategies they have used since childhood to offset their weaknesses in written communication and organizational ability — identifying trustworthy people and handing over major responsibilities to them — can be applied to businesses. Entrepreneurs are hands-on people who push a minimum of paper, do lots of stuff orally instead of reading and writing, and delegate authority, all of which suggests a high verbal facility. Compare that with corporate managers who read, read, read. Only 1% of corporate managers in the United States have dyslexia.

Individuals who have difficulty reading and writing tend to deploy other strengths. They rely on mentors, and as a result, become very good at reading other people and delegating duties to them. They become adept at using visual strengths to solve problems.

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Parallel Lessons

• Let Them Cry   Sometimes, no matter how hard it may be, you need to let them cry it out. Whether it’s an employee who wants more of something but hasn’t quite earned it yet or a baby who is overtired and needs to sleep, you can’t always get what you want. As a parent and a CEO, you can’t always give them what they ask for.
• Count to 10   Losing your temper is not a good way to show that you are in charge and worthy of respect. It’s also not a good way to help your staff/child improve. Count to 10 before you react, and think about how a measured response will get you much better results. I’ve found that in most cases when I’m really angry, it’s a very temporary thing.
• Let Them Fail   There are many times when you just need to sit back and watch people fail for their own good. Employees need to botch a sale, sometimes, in order to learn how to do it correctly. Kids have to fall down when trying to stand, walk or ride a bike. If you save either from the mistakes before they happen, you’ll deprive them of the chance to learn important lessons firsthand.
• Carrots, Not Sticks   This is a wonderful lesson that really works with kids. Rewarding good behavior creates a desire to behave well without all the trauma of avoiding pain.
• Be the Boss/Parent   There is a desire among bosses to be friendly with your staff. When push comes to shove, you have to be able to separate as a friend and be the boss. There is a huge difference between being friendly and being friends. Parents are in the same boat — you can love your kids, but you are not their friend. You need to have that separation for times when you need to use your authority.

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Watch out for a growing number of trust fund babies in Asia

The opportunities for private banks in Asia Pacific are big, and still growing. The region is home to more than a quarter of the world’s high net worth individuals (HNWIs) - the industry jargon for people with $1m of investable assets. Their wealth is growing by 8.5% a year. By 2011, their combined riches will total $12,700bn.

The difference between North America and Europe? The wealth management business in Asia is a lot more diverse than in Europe or north America - in terms of providers, legal jurisdictions and customers. Potential clients might be a Japanese aristocrat whose family has been rich for generations, or a Malaysian entrepreneur who grew up in a kampong (village) and now wants to invest the proceeds of an IPO according to Islamic shariah principles.

China continues to boom - there are estimated to be at least 300,000 Chinese HNWIs. Foreign private banks are setting up branches as quickly as they can. They are starting to move inland from the wealthy cities along the coast to service the growing number of entrepreneurs in China’s West. India is also showing enormous promise too. Asian HNWIs tend to be more mobile than their counterparts in Europe or north America. That diversity may mean opportunities in providing specialist tax services, for example.

Asian clients may have very different ideas about what private bankers should do for them. A western approach based solely on analysing risk tolerance in accordance with modern portfolio theory, and recommending appropriate products, may not sit well with a customer who is just looking for share tips. It takes time to build trust with such clients, and help them to understand that wealth preservation and growth is more complicated than betting on shares on China’s overheated stock market.

The need for private banking is likely to intensify as a big wave of wealth starts to flow down the generations. “In Asia people may not be as open with me as western clients about all of their investments, so I can’t always make appropriate recommendations,” says one private banker.  The “rags-to-riches” ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs of south-east Asia are beginning to die off. Many left home to seek their fortunes as manual workers in the tin mines of Malaya, or fled China when the communists took over, to start small businesses that grew into family conglomerates. Such patriarchs learned about business the hard way. Many may not have been educated past primary school. But their grandsons - and granddaughters - may well have been to top international business schools, and have very different ideas about how the family business should be run. They may even consider whether the business should be sold off, and the cash invested instead. Watch out for a growing number of trust fund babies in Asia.

Research suggests that many rich families in Asia are ill-prepared for generational change. Only half of the 33 families surveyed in Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Taiwan said they involved the next generation in managing the business. Many young graduates even felt that inheriting the family company would be a burden, as it constrained their career choices.

Asia, outside of Japan, and the Middle East would need 10,000 new private bankers by 2010. Private bankers need more than quantitative skills. They must watch the markets, in case the client asks their opinion. It also helps to speak a few languages, especially Chinese dialects. Such people are rare and no bank seems happy with the recruitment situation. Publicly, managers talk about providing staff with friendly environments and great career opportunities to win the battle for talent.  93% of customer relationship managers in private banks in Asia said they had been approached by rivals in the past year.  One in seven private banks risked losing a third of its staff or more. It is not unusual for entire teams to follow a talented manager and take their clients with them. 

The boom in private banking is sharpening traditional rivalries between the north and south-east Asian hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore. Both have trustworthy reputations as financial centres. Wealth managers have traditionally clustered in Hong Kong. But Singapore, which has the world’s fastest growing population of dollar millionaires, has been catching up.

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If you love each other, shouldn’t you be able to live and work together, right?

For many couples, this major decision is the ticket to wealth, self-actualization and happiness. For others, it can lead to severe financial and relationship stress. Such a move takes more than planning; it requires a full assessment of your personalities and your money issues to determine whether working and living side by side is right for you. Your first step should be a visit to a trusted certified financial planner. Here are some key steps to consider:

Give yourselves a timetable to startup. You might be tempted to give notice tomorrow morning, but it’s much wiser to lay out a timetable over the coming months with specific tasks, goals and objectives.

Study the viability of your business model. Talk about worst-case scenarios. Bring in trusted advisors to ask tough questions about what you’re planning to do and the viability of your idea. Convincing each other you’ll make it work isn’t enough.

Draft a business plan. Even if you don’t anticipate the need to seek outside financing, it is always a good idea to formalize your ideas with a business plan. Include profit and loss projections, so that you have a benchmark for evaluating your progress at a given point in time. Factor in both best- and worst-case scenarios, which could help with decisions down the road.

Understand how your tax situation will change. Depending on which business structure you choose, you may need to plan for income taxes, self-employment taxes and payroll taxes. You want to make sure you have reserves set aside for these liabilities. 

Set a spending plan for your business and personal life. Since startups have unpredictable cash inflows, you will want to establish adequate emergency funds–both business and personal–to carry you through the startup phase.

Set boundaries. Couples who live and work together need to assess whether they want to keep their work and personal lives separate. Some people are comfortable discussing their personal lives at work, while others make it clear that during working hours, they are at work and won’t discuss personal matters.

Make sure your legal documents are in order. If you haven’t had your estate planning documents updated in a while or don’t have them at all, this is a great time to have them drafted. Don’t forget to tell your attorney about your new business venture, which should be factored into the equation.

Plan for your kids in the business. There may be good opportunities to employ children for work commensurate with their skills.

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 How Well Are You Dealing With Stress?

One-third of Americans are living with extreme stress and nearly half of Americans (48%) believe that their stress has increased over the past five years. Stress is taking a toll on people — contributing to health problems, poor relationships and lost productivity at work, according to a new national survey released today by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Money and work continue as the leading causes of stress for three quarters of Americans. Nearly half of all Americans report that stress has a negative impact on both their personal and professional lives. Stress causes more than half of Americans (54%) to fight with people close to them. One in four people report that they have been alienated from a friend or family member because of stress, with 8% connecting stress to divorce or separation.

Stress in America continues to escalate and is affecting every aspect of people’s lives — from work to personal relationships to sleep patterns and eating habits, as well as their health. Physical symptoms of stress include: fatigue); headache; upset stomach; muscle tension; change in appetite; teeth grinding; change in sex drive and feeling dizzy.  Psychological symptoms of stress include: experiencing irritability or anger,  feeling nervous, lack of energy and feeling as though you could cry.  In addition, almost half (48%) of Americans report lying awake at night due to stress.

While many Americans recognize that stress has a negative impact on their health, they may lack the motivation to make lifestyle and behavior changes. Only 35% report that they would modify their behavior following the diagnosis of a chronic condition. Encouragement from a spouse or partner would motivate 38% to make behavioral changes.

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