I’m Sorry, You Don’t Have Enough Money

 The banks are increasingly picky every year. There is a good chance you are getting the very minimum viable product out of them - nothing fancy, personalized, and definitely not the best use of your money.

They’re just not into you

If you have less than $500,000 to invest, your bank isn’t interested; you won’t hear from them and any banking you do will be at a counter at the branch. You will probably get to pick from a grand total of 5 mutual funds; the same options as someone with $500 is investing in.

But reach that half-mill mark and you’ll get attention and service.

Why is this a problem? 

Aside from the ethical dilemma of not providing a service that helps people build their wealth and live better lives, it’s nearly impossible for someone to find anyone to help them, and they end up squeaking by, seeing no significant growth in their money.

It feels shitty.

The Robots are Coming, the Robots are Coming!

The industry’s response is to push people with less toward robo advisors. See, because taking the human out of the situation makes it financially justifiable for the banks to work with people with less than $500K. Ya, no shit. Not having to pay someone saves money. That doesn’t mean you should do it.

Proponents of robo investors say,

• Trust the algorithm
• It’s easy

• You can do it from your phone!

These things may be true, but there are some critical pieces of the wealth building process missing from the robo service model. 

Robots can do a lot, but they can’t do this

Regardless of how the technology advances, robo advisors won’t ever be able to provide advice and assistance like a human can in scenarios like:

• What to do when your financial shit hits the fan
• Decisions when the markets go down
• Tax planning
• Determining which accounts you should be contributing to

With robo advisors, you’re essentially meant to put your money in, forget about it, and hope it goes well. I don’t know about you, but hoping my finances are healthy doesn’t do it for me. I want to know what’s going on and have someone alongside me to help make decisions when decisions need to be made.

My Solution

I’m working on adding an All Account solution to Lantern Wealth’s offerings, so I can take on clients of any size. I will be optimizing current processes to afford me the time to provide the service I want to provide; I’ll meet with my All Account clients, I’ll take their phone calls, I’ll support them when and where they need me. 

More to come in the next few months!