Maybe Small Isn't Better

Conventional wisdom says universal banks are dinosaurs headed for extinction. The future of wealth management will belong to small firms: two or three guys or gals who start their own investment-management business, delivering big-firm products and services because they can outsource the operational aspects of their business, including trust service.

But dealing with small firms isn't risk free, as Ron Lieber of The New York Times just learned.

Any investment adviser in any business setting might defraud his or her clients. Happily, most don't. But wouldn't clients feel safer dealing with a trust-and-investment adviser employed by an old-fashioned, financially responsible bank?