Chase Private Client

[calmloki]

Trying to figure out why this is or isn't a good idea. It was suggested that we would have the opportunity to invest in the same investment vehicles as institutional clients with 15 million or more. Management fees were dependent on the vehicle, but 1.3% was mentioned?

While I like the idea of free wire transfers and US based phone support I have a hard time believing JP Morgan investments > Vanguard.

Anybody here a Chase Private Client and pleased or not and can explain why?

 

[LOL!]

What's wrong with being a private client of Vanguard? They also give US based phone support.

 

[calmloki]

What's wrong with being a private client of Vanguard? They also give US based phone support.

True, and our tiny stock account is with Vanguard, but hey - free wire transfers. Those cost about $30 and we do maybe 5 or so a year if we are lending like mad. I'm just not getting the big advantage. They pay 0.01% on savings vs. 0.9% with Barclays, so that's not it.

 

[Ready]

What's wrong with being a private client of Vanguard? They also give US based phone support.

As opposed to being a "public" client?

This is nothing more than marketing to get you to spend money by making you feel like you are part of an elite club. It reminds me of the American Express Black card, where you get to pay $5,000 in annual fees for the privilege of getting a 1% rebate in merchant gift cards and products, and some worthless concierge services. My Fidelity card has no annual fee and gives me 2% back.

But the mystique around the black card has attracted just about every high net worth individual I've ever met. Apparently there is something about whipping out the card that makes people feel special. So Chase is trying to emulate this model with their private client services group.

Don't fall for it. Five wires a year is $150. How much will you pay in fees to buy funds that won't perform as well as Vanguard's index funds?

 

[brewer12345]

Schwab offers free wire transfers if you like that idea.

 

[nwsteve]

Fido also free wire transfers to its "private clients" and no service fees.

 

[Animorph]

Plenty of institutional mutual funds listed by Morningstar. Some have minimum investments in the millions. But none of them have stood out to me for their performance versus more accessible funds. Even hedge funds aren't doing particularly well these days. No need to pay 1.3% to get the same performance.

 

[Dimsumkid]

I utilize free wire transfers from Fidelity, TD Ameritrade Apex and PNC (Performance Select Checking). Cheapest minimum is with PNC, only $5k avg. monthly balance, next is TD Ameritrade, 100k in assets, Fidelity is $1 mil. I use TD the most, this is where most of the dividends are at, but sometimes use PNC when I need to visit a branch. PNC will do online wires, but the max is really low (it's either $500 or $1500 daily) unless you setup a written arrangement. When I need to move a big amount of money quickly, it's easiest to use a bank vs. a brokerage if you don't have liquid assets conveniently available in the account already.

 

[H2ODude]

Just used FIDO private client to do free wire to DS; his Bank of America account charged him I think $30 to receive it!

 

[LoneAspen]

But the mystique around the black card has attracted just about every high net worth individual I've ever met. Apparently there is something about whipping out the card that makes people feel special.

Don't discount the power of mystique and ego. American Express issued me my first green card when I was a college student back in 1988. Once I got into the working world, and started spending more money, they bumped me to gold card.

After many years of holding the gold card, I started to wonder if I'd ever reach platinum card status with them. It didn't bug me I hadn't, but I did wonder about it. Well, a few months later, a big envelope came in the mail from AMEX inviting me to take the platinum card, which I did.

As stupid as all this must sound, I do remember several times whipping that platinum card out when I first got it and having people comment on it. A few times, I've been around high net worth people who have the black card (aka the Centurion Card) and there's a part of me that goes "Ooooh!" in the same dumb pseudo-jealous way I'd look at somebody's Ferrari or Lamborghini.

Ego, keeping up with the Joneses, whatever you want to call it, is a powerful thing, and of course companies know this. While I'd like to think I'm past all that now, have I given up my platinum card and returned to a lower card level? Nope. Would I jump at the chance to have a black card if I had that level of wealth and they invited me to take it? Yes, I would.

I consider myself a pretty practical person, but there are still a few stupid ego-driven faults I succumb to. I guess refusing to give up my platinum card is one of them, as stupid as I know that sounds.

 

[2B]

I consider myself a pretty practical person, but there are still a few stupid ego-driven faults I succumb to. I guess refusing to give up my platinum card is one of them, as stupid as I know that sounds.

+1 It sounds like a solid ego-driven fault to me.

Doesn't AMEX charge a hefty annual fee for nothing more then that ego massage? I think some places won't accept AMEX.

I have a United Card but the fee is much cheaper than the "free" checked bags I'd otherwise have to pay for.

 

[LoneAspen]

+1 It sounds like a solid ego-driven fault to me.

Doesn't AMEX charge a hefty annual fee for nothing more then that ego massage? I think some places won't accept AMEX.

I have a United Card but the fee is much cheaper than the "free" checked bags I'd otherwise have to pay for.

Yep - I think the annual fee for the platinum card is now up to about $400, and I never use any of the special features like concierge/travel services or anything like that. But that might change when I quit in about a year and I want to start doing more traveling.

But yeah, thinking about all those annual fees I've paid over the years, but yet I still refuse to give the card up, LOL.

 

[calmloki]

We have each had the Chase Sapphire Preferred and it was a pleasure to speak with customer service and fun to feel the heft of the card - but we dumped the cards before the annual fees kicked in. I was happy to have Chase give us each a $500 bonus for the spending we did on the cards - wacky of them, but many people carry balances on their cards and pay 16%+ interest, which is also wacky, so I guess the world marches to a different drummer. The Fidelity cards have solid simple benefits every day that trump pretty much everybody else - and no annual fee.

I was looking for tangible rewards from Private Client - ego boost isn't worth much to me in dollars. It was kind of a free ego boost to have the rep change tone after seeing our balance sheet - all of a sudden it wasn't quite as critical that we have a full $250k in assets in their bank at all times.

 

[Al in Ohio]

You get screwed the most when you choose a bank to help you invest.

 

[FinanceDude]

Nothing special about Chase Private Client. You don't need to pay 1.3% to get "institutional account" access..........Brewer can vouch for that.......

 

[H2ODude]

My Amex card is kinda fugly...Says Retirement Rewards and has a Fidelity logo on it. I'll take it over the other colors cause it's FREE and gives me 2% back on everything so I don't have to carry any other cards but a MC for the occasional merchant that doesn't want to pay the Amex fees. Status never that big a deal to me; I'd rather have the funds than the trinkets to advertise to neighbors...that I COULD have actually more funds (before I bought the trinkets!). Anyway....

 

[calmloki]

I'm still willing to believe there is something I'm missing. The writer of this blog, who asserts his wealth and status, gives his views on different cards and the benefits they confer and on the Chase Private Client relationship. Good of him to do so - I sure don't have thirty million or so to make it out of the lower middle class rich CPC group - I'm such a piker I'm trying to get the bank to make it worth my while to give them my business. Fun blog. Sure are different people in this world.

American Express Centurion Living (Amex Black Card): Chase Private Client , CPC Arts & Culture Card, Middle wealth management

 

[haha]

I'm still willing to believe there is something I'm missing. The writer of this blog, who asserts his wealth and status, gives his views on different cards and the benefits they confer and on the Chase Private Client relationship. Good of him to do so - I sure don't have thirty million or so to make it out of the lower middle class rich CPC group - I'm such a piker I'm trying to get the bank to make it worth my while to give them my business. Fun blog. Sure are different people in this world.

American Express Centurion Living (Amex Black Card): Chase Private Client , CPC Arts & Culture Card, Middle wealth management

I would certainly not presume to give you any advice, since I assume that someone with your experience doesn't need any advice. In fact, he should be giving advice to me.

Therefore, my interest here is in trying to understand why you might be interested in this? Do you need a big credit line to run your business? (Even in this case you might be better and more cheaply served by one of the local banks known for funding local business people.)

Can you explain more?

Ha

 

[calmloki]

Truth be told Ha, I'm engaging in a bit of entertainment, which for me often consists of creating a few extra bucks where there were none before. We have money that sits in Barclays bank earning a massive 0.9% or in TIAA CREF earning 0.5% while we wait for loan opportunities to pop up. In the past couple months we made several sub $100k loans and then had another larger loan that needed funding. Barclays doesn't do wire transfers and only allows 3 ACH contact banks. TIAA will only do <$5k online ACH/day, or more if you get a person on the phone to ok it. TIAA will do wire transfers for $20, but it requires phone calls and shipping paper back and forth.

Since we were funneling the money through Chase and wiring the funds from there (at $30 per) I thought I would see if Chase didn't want to imagine we were worth courting. I had fond hopes they would offer up some worthy freebies and maybe some bonus points. So far it looks like free wires and a Sapphire card with about the same bonus anyone can apply for (and it's a great bonus, but I wanted more). If we just parked cash with them it would cost us about $2250 compared to leaving it with Barclays. That means Chase has to offer something better than $2250 to make Private Client worthwhile to me. So far I haven't heard anything even approaching that. This leaves aside the fact that I don't normally park cash for long. If we scraped up all the stocks and the Gal's IRA holdings and added more to the pile to make a $250k stock portfolio for Chase to sit on and they wanted 1.3% to manage it that means we would need to see $3250 in value in return. Wotinhell am I missing? I feel like there has to be an easter egg or hidden treat I just haven't found yet.

 

[brewer12345]

There is a hidden treat - for Chase. Consider yourself lucky that you aren't far enough into your dotage to get bagged by these vultures.

 

[jerome len]

Question on Chase Private banking. I thought that if you had $250,000 at the bank you were part of private banking. Would a CD for $250,000 give you private banking without any fees? Appreciate anyone that has the answer. thanks

 

[brewer12345]

The private banking thing has always perplexed me. Why? For a fraction of the cost (is none a fraction?), Schwab and Fidelity offer largely the same services (minus the obsequious butt-sucking). I've been a Schwab customer for 15 years and aside from the period under Pottruck when they were trying to force out the hundred thousandaires in favor of the whales, service has been excellent, prices have only come down, and there are rafts of free services I don't use or even really know about.