There are good reasons to hand your money over to a bank, financial planner, or mutual fund, and there are bad reasons. Low costs and a strong record of sound management would be good reasons. A recent hot-streak or sexy advertising may be bad reasons. But then there are really bad reasons, and I would put a company's aptitude at genealogical research into that category.
According to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) is trying to seal the deal with wealthy prospects by offering the services of genealogist Andy Anderson, the bank's corporate historian. According to the article, "In recent years, the former Stanford University history fellow has turned genealogical research into an unusual marketing vehicle: After Dr. Anderson taps into rich families' fascination with their forebears, the bank aims to turn them into customers for its private-banking arm. By Wells Fargo's estimate, Dr. Anderson has had a hand in developing relationships that have led to $1 billion in new assets for the bank."
I don't even really know what to say. But next time a bank offers you nice perks, ask yourself this: How much money is the bank going to be making from my account if it can afford to deploy a Stanford history fellow to research my ancestors?
Any bank that can provide that service probably is not the lowest-cost option, which is really important when it comes to money management.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-21-2007 @ 1:21AM
James said...
Wow, are you out of line. Dr. Anderson does a lot more for Wells than merely prepare ancestral information for sales. I have worked in the trust world for the last nine years, and we deal with genealogical experts every day. Poor drafting of wills and trusts often forces banks to find relatives of Grantors and Testators. The worst nightmare I had as an administrator required a trust to not only be divided among the Grantor's surviving descendants, but his wife's surviving descendants. Our research was huge, but we did not have a choice. A Staff Genealogist is a business decision. The author of this blog painted with a broad brush dipped in ignorance.
6-15-2007 @ 9:39PM
joanne said...
As a long time business as well as individual custumer at Wells Fargo I was shocked at recent poor, poor service while getting a home loan.
The real estate papers sat on the loan reps desk for 3 weeks before they were moved to the underwriter. Calls to the executive offices at WF attempted to speed the process. However WF has a rule? that you really can't go above the district supervisor when handling problems. As a high asset custumer there seems to be a disconnect with their well managed branch offices and their executive offices when handling a problems. I'm the type of custumer(use of several services of the bank) any bank would want and out I go. Joanne in Seattle
6-21-2007 @ 11:57AM
Preston Ewing said...
Genealogical research... what a bunch of B.S. The only reason they would do this kind of research is to improve their ability to collect cash.... They are not doing anything to "Help" their customers. I had my CFO go to our local branch office to get a Cashier's check for a deposit for some property we were buying... she came back with a Money Order and had been charged $10 for a Cashiers check... that was the final straw for us... poor customer service and a number of rediculous errors... Genealogical research... what BS...
We are ending our relationship with Wells Fargo and pulling 50 million in cash from our deposits in three states. The reason is that Wells Fargo claims to be a "Super Bank" when in fact they are just a bank that has acquired a number of small banks... the corporate management may have big plans... but the local Wells Fargo branch banks still have a small bank attitude... someone on their board needs to get a clue...