The Madoff Reflex: Offshore Private Wealth Clients Flock to New Money Managers

While the headlines have been full of painful stories regarding those who lost millions to Madoff's Ponzi scheme, wealthy clients who did not invest with him are taking a fresh new look at their financial management teams…and deciding they can do better. Last week, as reports of client defections from UBS were sifting through the Internet, Credit Suisse’s CEO, Walter Berchtold, told London's Financial Times that Credit Suisse had actually been attracting more “new wealth clients” so far in 2009 than anyoneelse.  The CEO has his “eyes set on besting UBS”, still considered to be the number one player in the sector. According to another article on the subject of wealthy investors' response to the financial crisis,  42% of high net worth individuals  �…

E-Verify Delay Means Time to Get I-9 House in Order

Delayed again: for the 4th time in 2009, the U.S. governmenthas delayed the start of mandatory E-Verify compliance, extending the deadlinefrom June 30 to at least Sept. 8. The U.S. Dept. of Justice recently asked a federal court inMaryland for a stay, where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed suit againstthe law, saying it needs more time to review the rule and itsimplications.  The stay was granted onTuesday. THE PROBLEM: delaying the inevitable.  As I continue to discuss I-9 compliance withdozens of employers and their attorneys, I am flabbergasted at how theseextensions seem to take the wind out of the sails of those companiesunderstanding the critical need to establish a compliance plan BEFORE E-Verifybecomes mandatory. THE SOLUTION: it remains my admittedly self-serving o…