At its fourth annual symposium last week, the UHNW Institute unveiled its new Wealthesaurus online glossary to serve as a new standard for wealth management terminology.
The UHNW Institute, a nonprofit think tank, committed years of research to developing its glossary of terms relevant to family wealth advising. Over 80 terms are defined in the Wealthesaurus, each with a short definition, longer explanation, sample pronunciation, cross-references to related terms, and resource citations.
“Although there are elements that talk about financial terms in general, we discovered there was nothing at the ultra-high-net-worth level that is specific to our business,” said Jim Grubman, a UHNW Institute board member. “Over time, we believe [the Wealthesaurus] will become a very helpful standard in the industry.”
Grubman expects the Wealthesaurus to grow to over 100 terms.
While similar to online financial glossaries such as Investopedia, the Wealthesaurus is geared more toward the ultra-high-net-worth space. Currently, the Wealthesaurus is available online to only registered members of the UHNW Institute. But Grubman said the institute is considering making the online glossary available to the public.
“We want your input,” Grubman said to the audience of family wealth service providers attending the symposium, held at UBS’ office in New York City. “If there’s a term you think should be put differently, or if you have a citation for something, we want that input. And if there’s a solid basis for that, then we’re actually going to incorporate it.”
The glossary is aimed at “creating clarity, cutting through confusion.” To that point, Grubman, a family wealth consultant, made sure that the Wealthesaurus is transparent about including terms that are vaguely used in the industry without having clear definitions.
“We call it out,” Grubman said.
For example, the term “holistic services” is defined in the Wealthesaurus as “an approach to wealth management that takes into consideration financial and nonfinancial services. But upon further reading, the glossary adds that holistic services is “a well-intentioned term that has no clear standards or guidelines that prove whether a firm truly determines or utilizes a comprehensive approach to working with a client.”