Short read: What I Learned About Wealthy People as a Private Banker

As the wealth management industry in India grows apace — India added more dollar millionaires last year than any other country in Asia — a question worth asking is: what are wealthy people actually like? Elizabeth George spent 20 years as a private banker in the US, beginning with clients who needed $1 million in liquid assets to qualify, and ending by managing relationships for billionaire family offices with a $25 million minimum. She reviewed thousands of actual tax returns and net worth statements. What she found out about rich people surprised her.

Her central observation is that wealthy people are not especially different from everyone else. They struggle to save, fall for scams, don’t stick to budgets, and have no particular edge as investors. More striking still, wealth does not bring peace of mind:

“Wealthy people still worry about money — about running out, about spoiling their kids, about making the wrong investments, about not making the most of it. Wealth does not alleviate money anxiety; in fact it can exacerbate it.”

As for secret investing strategies, Ms George is blunt:

“Rich people mostly own the same ETFs and index funds as the rest of us. There are no inside investing secrets. Some love a flashy PE fund or venture capital stake to talk about on the golf course, but alternatives are generally more status flex than return enhancement.”

She offers a cast of memorable characters. A couple she met at a Hilton Garden Inn — modest house, children in public schools, favourite restaurant the Olive Garden — turned out to have $25 million in investments, accumulated by quietly investing a large portion of their salaries for decades without ever upgrading their lifestyle. Then there is the flip side: the man who arrives in a Lamborghini with $7,000 in savings, and the big-spending socialite who controls no real money of her own.

The most unsettling vignettes involve what Ms George calls information asymmetry within families. A wife spending freely at the country club while her husband quietly amassed $250,000 in credit card debt. A daughter told at 35 of a $25 million trust — she had chosen a modest university, turned down the chance to move to New York, and become a public school teacher, choices she might have made differently had she known:

“She felt immediately unmoored and isolated from her middle class peers. This experience changed my perspective on ‘protecting’ kids from wealth and keeping family money secret.”

The observation that resonates most, though, is the simplest. Across thousands of clients and two decades, Ms George concluded that:

“Money doesn’t really change people. It magnifies what’s already there. Anxious people become more anxious. Generous people become philanthropists. Spenders ramp up spending on a never-ending hedonic treadmill of delights. Sibling disputes become expensive multi-year legal battles.”

Much of this will feel familiar to anyone who has observed Indian wealth up close. The stealth-wealth couple at the Hilton Garden Inn has a well-known Indian equivalent in the old Marwari or Gujarati family that has compounded quietly for generations, unbothered by display. The ‘all hat, no cattle’ archetype — Ms George’s phrase for those who look wealthy but aren’t — is equally visible in Indian metros, where leased cars, co-working office space in premium towers, and curated social media feeds routinely flatter to deceive. And the taboo around discussing money within Indian families – with children, spouses, relatives – is a daily reality for most of us regardless of which part of India we come from.

As India’s wealth management industry explodes, the lessons from Ms George’s two decades behind the financial curtain are worth keeping in mind: the wealthy are more ordinary than we assume, money amplifies character rather than improving it, and the greatest risks often lurk not in the portfolio but within the family.

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Note: The above material is neither investment research, nor financial advice. Marcellus does not seek payment for or business from this publication in any shape or form. The information provided is intended for educational purposes only. Marcellus Investment Managers is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is also an FME (Non-Retail) with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) as a provider of Portfolio Management Services. Additionally, Marcellus is also registered with US Securities and Exchange Commission (“US SEC”) as an Investment Advisor.