Strategy
JP Morgan Turns Up The Heat Over Its Raised AuM Minimums For Wealthy Clients In US

Reports say the bank has taken a more aggressive approach in enforcing its drive to raise the size of investable assets among wealthy clients.
Lawyers are the latest group of clients to be affected by JP
Morgan's decision to focus on ultra-wealthy people and hike
investable asset minimums in the US, media reports said.
While lawyers are the latest group affected, the bank's decision
to hike its minimum of investable assets to $10 million has
affected a range of client types, according to a recent report by
the Wall Street Journal. The move by the bank was
reported earlier this year.
The change has been particularly severe on laywers because some
of them previously had been given private-bank status even
without the $5 million in assets required, the WSJ
reported, citing unnamed sources.
The publication said JP Morgan's private bank plans to enforce
its new minimums more aggressively, which affects attorneys at
firms including Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; Latham & Watkins;
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Weil, Gotshal &
Manges; and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. The
WSJ said the exact number of lawyers affected could not
be determined.
"We are committed to utilising the full power of JP Morgan Chase
to provide the best advice and solutions to meet the needs of law
firm partners, their employees and the firms themselves," the
bank said in an emailed statement to this news service.
This publication understands that the change only applies to the
US market and does not apply in Europe, the Middle East and
Africa, or Asia.
The move to hike investable asset minimums refreshes debate on a
long-standing discussion of what sort of client is the most
profitable for a wealth manager or private bank to serve.
Some figures have argued that there is a "sweet spot" between
retail and ultra-wealthy persons that represents the most
profitable type of client, based on the idea that very wealthy
clients are so demanding to serve.