Rich in America: Secrets to Creating and Preserving Wealth [Hardcover]

Jeffrey S. Maurer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2003

Advance Praise for Rich In America

"I highly recommend Rich in America to investors of all economic levels. While certainly no company understands the wealthy better than U.S. Trust, Jeff Maurer has done a wonderful job of turning the wisdom he gathered during his distinguished career at this venerable institution into advice that will benefit anyone interested in making smarter financial decisions."
-Charles Schwab
Chairman, The Charles Schwab Corporation

"Jeff Maurer is uniquely qualified to advise the affluent and those who would be. Rich in America is packed with insight and wisdom gleaned from his long and tremendously successful career at the very pinnacle of wealth management."
-Timothy C. Forbes
Chief Operating Officer, Forbes Inc.

"For thirty-three years, Jeff Maurer helped build U.S. Trust Corporation into one of the nation's most prominent and respected wealth managers. In this book, Jeff combines his own experience with the knowledge gleaned from a decade of U.S. Trust research into who the affluent are, how they earned their money, and how they keep it. The U.S. Trust approach to building and maintaining wealth makes relevant reading for anyone eager to provide for their own and their family's financial well-being."
-Alan J. Weber
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Trust Corporation

"Jeff Maurer has distilled more than three decades of investment advice to affluent clients into a concise, informative, and extraordinarily readable work. Readers who are trying to preserve accumulated assets, as well as those who are setting out to build substantial wealth, will profit from this wide-ranging book."
-James Poterba
Mitsui Professor of Economics, MIT

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While most investment guides try to simplify the subject of personal finance for laypeople, this tendentious primer makes it bafflingly complex. Maurer, ex-chairman of the high-end financial management firm U. S. Trust, writes explicitly for the wealthiest one percent of investors. Two factors justify his decision to target such a minuscule audience. First, he assumes ordinary readers also want to know "what the affluent are like and how they manage their wealth"-that is, they may enjoy fantasizing about the financial hassles of having a multi-million dollar portfolio. Second, only the very rich can make use of the exotic investment vehicles-including zero-premium equity collars, family charitable foundations, and complicated estate-tax evasion plans-that Maurer showcases. These all fit into a "holistic wealth management" philosophy, which takes careful account of the labyrinthine complexities-risk and returns, taxes, insurance, retirement needs, estate planning, legal liability-that should inform each and every financial decision. Deploying many pages of graphs, tables and mind-numbing spreadsheets, Maurer discusses these issues in just enough bewildering detail to persuade readers that they shouldn't invest in a ham sandwich without the advice of a financial planner-better yet, a team of financial planners of the sort U. S. Trust specializes in assembling. Even professional financial planners, he asserts, need professional financial planners to plan their finances for them. Maurer hammers the point home with many dire cautionary tales about U. S. Trust financial planners who rescue seemingly savvy clients from financial or familial ruin. It all adds up to little more than a book-length brochure for the company's services.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"nuggets of wisdom for any reader" (USA Today, August 25, 2003)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471445487
• ISBN-13: 978-0471445487
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,541,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Inside Story, September 10, 2003

By 

paul fraser (hackensack, nj) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rich in America: Secrets to Creating and Preserving Wealth (Hardcover)

Other books speculate about why the rich are "rich." This book tells the real story.

Jeff Maurer has counseled rich people for decades. He knows what he's talking about. And if "lay people" really want to learn how the rich do it, they need look no further than this primer.

Other books speak anecdotally about "rich people next door" or "how I became a millionaire." They're of little instructive value. This book, by contrast, presents the areas of focus and tactics of wealth building that can actually help an ordinary person get there.

Sure some of these estate planning and tax planning and investment planning suggestions may take some thought to understand. But who ever said getting rich is easy? If it was, there'd be a lot more "millionaires next door."

The real answer to getting rich is exactly as author Maurer poses it. It takes work. It takes study. It takes focus. And it takes a strategy.

After reading this book, you'll finally understand how rich folks do it. The rest is up to you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich in America by Maurer, October 1, 2003

By 

Joseph S. Maresca "Dr. Joseph S. Maresca CPA,... (Bronxville, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rich in America: Secrets to Creating and Preserving Wealth (Hardcover)

This work is replete with comparative statistics on how the
wealthy obtained their position in life. The author makes a
point of the fact that only 4% of the wealthy come from a
preferred social class. The remainder earned their wealth
through hard work and sensible investments. Portfolios
should have both balance and diversity. Investors should not
get too greedy. Lastly, an estate needs to preserve wealth
through careful planning. This book is aimed at investors
who are self-employed or earn a living through a private
employer. The presentation would be helpful for anyone
crafting a personal financial plan for the intermediate to
long term future.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The man knows whereof he speaks, November 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Rich in America: Secrets to Creating and Preserving Wealth (Hardcover)

What impressed me most about this book is how directly useful and applicable it is, and not just for people who have bags and bags of money. Clearly, Mr. Maurer has a lifetime of experience working with very rich people and families whose affairs are very complex. But, if you have any significant property of any kind, the odds are that you fall into the same basket as many others--paying insufficient attention to making sure it works for you and that it gets into the hands you want (e.g., family and friends) rather than the hands you don't want (e.g., Uncle Sam and probate attorneys). This book feels like it's written by an expert, but written for everyone in this situation. I think it's first rate.