September 1, 2005 | Read Time: 2 minutes
As more wealthy people turn their attention to managing their wealth rather than increasing it, some universities are starting to offer courses to meet the growing demand for financial and philanthropic knowledge, reports Worth magazine (September).
“Making money intelligently is easier than giving money away intelligently,” says Paul Schervish, director of Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, which started a course on wealth management in January. “There is a lot of snake oil out there. The question is how to discern what is not.”
New York University is planning to start a class for wealthy people to complement its certificate program in wealth management for financial advisers. Harvard Business School operates a week-long seminar for owners of U.S. family businesses, and Loyola University Chicago is starting a similar program through its Family Business Center. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School has the oldest program, which it started in 1999.
Such programs teach the basics of finance, Worth says, but many of them also focus on topics like mediating among family members and moral issues surrounding giving.
While banks and trust companies have a longer track record in running wealth-management programs, universities believe their distance from the financial world could give them an edge with prospective students, writes Worth. They are pitching their classes to affluent people who want more knowledge of how to invest and donate their money and a better background for choosing a financial adviser.
Also in the September issue:
- More nonprofit groups are adopting “donor-managed investment accounts” as a way to attract financially savvy donors who want a say in how their gifts are invested. The accounts allow people to actively manage their contributions for up to a decade after they donate the money.
- Jazz at Lincoln Center has raised more than $130-million in six years for a new site and has increased its annual operating budget to over $30-million, proving wrong mainstream arts critics who proclaimed the death of jazz, and becoming an “innovative model for nonprofit success,” writes Derek E. Gordon, the group’s president.
The articles are available online at http://www.worth.com.
