Fall of the High Net Worths

In a Florida gated community for the more-or-less retired, The New York Times finds Tarnish on the Golden Years. High-Net-Worth residents worry about returning to the ranks of the Mass Affluent.

The Panic of 2008 is the stock market's most shocking fall since 1973-74. But this time it's different. No harbor seems safe:

“Older middle-class people have made plans based on a set of assumptions of how the world works, and the world has gone crazy,” said Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Those assumptions once included the notions that bank accounts and corporate bonds were secure . . . .

High-net-worth investors have learned they can't even trust money-market funds. ("Help! My cash is being held hostage in the Reserve Primary Fund!")

Will mistrust of virtually all "financial products" make wealth management a whole new ball game?