Megabanks vs. Local Banks

In a crisis, it’s no contest:

Banks Gave Richest Clients ‘Concierge Treatment’ for Pandemic Aid. Most megabanks mean well, they're just too big to cater to all their customers. (One megabank may not have meant well, according to this USA Today report.)

How a family-owned Nebraska bank became a leader on coronavirus loans. Working from home, The Washington Post reports, employees hustled to process small-business applications under the Paycheck Protection Program.

Union Bank and Trust is nowhere near the top of the banking leagues. Last year the family-owned institution, with 900 employees, was the nation’s 202nd largest bank by assets, according to the Federal Reserve. Yet 72 hours into the emergency lending program, it ranked second in the nation for number of loans approved, according to the Small Business Administration.

One of our daughters recently switched from a big, multinational bank to a local bank. She says she couldn’t be happier. I begin to see why.

Where Should Billionaires Shelter?

Proactive wealth managers help their wealthiest clients with as many of life's questions as possible. Lately top wealth holders  have faced a vexing decision: Where to shelter in place to avoid Covid-19?

Billionaires have a range of choices....

Principal residence. A Central Park South triplex or a London town house may offer every convenience, but exposure to staff and other locals who live in these Covid-19 hot spots is undesirable.

Nantucket

Summer home. Decamping to one's summer place in Nantucket or the Hamptons is a popular shelter choice. Locals, however, have proved resentful of top wealth holders and their entourages. (If only we had enough testing to make out-of-staters less threatening.)

Go West. Billionaire landholdings typically include a Texas ranch or a spread near the Grand Tetons. These isolated properties could be a good shelter choice, assuming life in the boonies doesn’t get too boring. Here again, however, the locals aren’t necessarily welcoming.

The family yacht.  David Geffen popularized this shelter alternative. Advantage: the ability to pull up anchor for periodic changes of scene. Possible disadvantages: Most billionaires’ yachts are not as big as Geffen's. Also, there’s a risk that a crew member could become infected and make a yacht unweloomc in other ports.

The family bunker. Before MAGA, top wealth holders who feared the worst included a bunker in their survival plans. Now these underground havens offer another way to shelter in place. As with the boonies, boredom could set in and there’s no sunshine. Still, a deluxe bunker in New Zealand might have appeal. New Zealand has only been grazed by the virus, so billionaires who tire of living in their burrows might feel comfortable enough to venture out into the open air.

Did This Masked Family Signal the Start of ESG Investing?

Found this disconcerting image in a 1970 Merrill Lynch ad.

“People in parts of Japan wear respiratory masks just to walk the streets,” Merrill explains. "Many

keep them handy in London. In the United States, air pollutants spew out at the rate of two-thirds of a ton per person per year. And our waters have become vast cesspools.”

Merrill’s ad goes on to tout the opportunities offered by pollution-control stocks. ESG investing? Not exactly. The term was yet to be invented. Merrill was thinking profits, not social responsibility.

Fifty years later, happily, the air in U.S. cities is mostly breathable. Less happily, wearing masks in public is becoming the new normal.