Segmenting the Wealth Market

Most often marketers divide relatively well-to-do people into three segments, based on investable assets:

Affluent - under $1 million
High Net Worth - $1 million to $30 million
Ultra High Net Worth - $30 million and up

As those with access to the online WSJ can read today, Bank of America prefers an updated three-way split:

Under $3 million
$3 million to $50 million
$50 million and up

Bank of America's bigger numbers probably make sense, considering that nobody makes the Forbes 400 with less than $1 billion.

Today's Journal article and Robert Frank's related blog post concern the snags (not entirely surprising) being encountered as Bank of America prepares to digest its fancy-pantsy new acquisition, U.S. Trust.

Check out the comments to the blog post. Sounds like Bank of America's reputation for one-size-fits-all service hasn't changed since its Nationsbank days.