Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent

by Brooke Harrington

Overview

“A timely account of how the 1% holds on to their wealth…Ought to keep wealth managers awake at night.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Harrington advises governments seeking to address inequality to focus not only on the rich but also on the professionals who help them game the system.”
—Richard Cooper, Foreign Affairs

“An insight unlike any other into how wealth management works.”
—Felix Martin, New Statesman

“One of those rare books where you just have to stand back in awe and wonder at the author’s achievement…Harrington offers profound insights into the world of the professional people who dedicate their lives to meeting the perceived needs of the world’s ultra-wealthy.”
—Times Higher Education

How do the ultra-rich keep getting richer, despite taxes on income, capital gains, property, and inheritance? Capital without Borders tackles this tantalizing question through a groundbreaking multi-year investigation of the men and women who specialize in protecting the fortunes of the world’s richest people. Brooke Harrington followed the money to the eighteen most popular tax havens in the world, interviewing wealth managers to understand how they help their high-net-worth clients dodge taxes, creditors, and disgruntled heirs—all while staying just within the letter of the law. She even trained to become a wealth manager herself in her quest to penetrate the fascinating, shadowy world of the guardians of the one percent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674244771
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	07/14/2020
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	320,385
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Brooke Harrington is Professor of Sociology at Dartmouth College.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Wealth Management as a Profession 36

3 Client Relations 79

4 Tactics and Techniques of Wealth Management 123

5 Wealth Management and Inequality 193

6 Wealth Management and the State 233

7 Conclusion 271

Notes 305

Acknowledgments 357

Index 359

Editorial Reviews

Brooke Harrington’s study of wealth management is one of those rare books where you just have to stand back in awe and wonder at the author’s achievement. In this intensely readable study, she offers a first-ever scholarly insight into a profession that was almost unknown a little over two decades ago… Harrington offers profound insights into the world of the professional people who dedicate their lives to meeting the perceived needs of the world’s ultra-wealthy. And, as she makes clear, the most apparently compelling of those needs is to avoid the rule of law… Don’t doubt the importance of this book’s messages: this is a significant and valuable case study at the current frontier of political economy.

Times Higher Education - Richard J. Murphy

Offers a timely account of how the 1% holds on to their wealth…[It] ought to keep wealth managers awake at night…Harrington’s book ought to make professionals involved in wealth management aware that they are operating in an ‘ethical gray area’ and engage in the national discourse on inequality that has been gathering momentum since Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

Wall Street Journal - Aifric Campbell

Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent is an innovative approach to addressing a problem that is even more pressing than income inequality—wealth inequality…The book is rich in fascinating detail, from the historical roots of wealth management to a description of a state system that might be called the ‘parasitic twin’ of the Westphalian model. Capital without Borders is a book that everyone who cares about fairness, the rule of law, and equal opportunity should read. Even if, or perhaps especially if, you’re in the ‘one percent.’

ValueWalk - Brenda Jubin

[Harrington’s] account of the social, cultural, and financial intricacies of this profession—about two-thirds of the book—is no small feat…Harrington helps dispel two of the most pernicious myths underlying America’s overly tolerant attitude toward the extremely rich: first, that they deserve to be so, and second, that the rest of us might one day be extremely rich too.

Sam Adler-Bell

Brooke Harrington’s overhaul of the One Percent, Capital without Borders, couldn’t arrive at a better time… Capital without Borders is an unparalleled exploration of an especially darkened corner of world finance… Harrington’s commentary is a magnifying glass held towards those who are gaining opportunities at the expense of those losing them… Capital without Borders gives a clear picture as to how the world’s wealthiest people live in a parallel reality to the rest of the world: one out of reach of laws and regulation on a global scale… Capital without Borders is a vital text for the modern age and a must-read for anyone looking towards a more egalitarian economic future.

PopMatters - Matthew Fay

In this remarkable work, Harrington relays in-depth interviews with wealth managers for the ultra-rich, building on her previous publications on financial markets and fraud…This work adds unique insights into the extraordinary trust between wealth managers and their rich clients, as well as other nuggets of insight.

Choice - M. Larudee

Fascinating.

Chronicle of Higher Education - Diane Coyle

[Harrington] lifts the veil of the wealth management profession…A useful volume for tax policymakers and tax inspectors, the book is also timely: the leak of documents from Panama-based law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca—known as the Panama papers—led the G20 to improve transparency and exchange of information to stop tax evasion and avoidance by offshore financial centers.

Finance & Development - Kiyoshi Nakayama

An edifying snapshot of a brave new world of capitalist impunity.

In These Times - Chris Lehmann

Beautifully written, this book opens a window into the fascinating world of wealth managers for the world’s super-rich. I know of no other book even remotely like it.

John L. Campbell

Capital without Borders offers an in-depth look into the wealth management profession… This is an important work for our increasingly unequal world. Instead of uncritically blaming the wealthy and the super-rich or national and state governments, it is high time to focus our attention on the brokers, intermediaries and agents who constitute the ‘middleman economy’ of global inequality.

Sin Yee Koh

Harrington advises governments seeking to address inequality to focus not only on the rich but also on the professionals who help them game the system.

Foreign Affairs - Richard Cooper

[A] valuable new book… What makes Harrington’s book unusual is that she chose instead to investigate the wealth management industry itself. There were no short cuts to doing so. Harrington went undercover as a trainee wealth manager for two years, living and breathing the profession. The result is an insight unlike any other into how wealth management works… One of the many merits of Brooke Harrington’s study, therefore, is how it shows that the wealth management industry is a far larger and more integral component of the modern financial system than a focus on the celebrity-saturated case of the Panama Papers might suggest.

New Statesman - Felix Martin

Brook Harrington has written a book that few sociologists could manage. She has gained access to the world of the super-rich…It is an ethnography of elites and elites at a level that have rarely been studied through participant observation and interview. The access achieved by Harrington is quite exceptional.

Symbolic Interaction - Scott Grills

Brooke Harrington shines a light into the shadowy and little-understood subject of wealth management. Using in-depth interviews and participant observations, she reviews the tools of the trade of financial advisors and shows the implications for economic inequality, political power, and societal organization. This is an important book on a pivotal profession for those concerned about how the top one percent make and keep their money.

Darrell West

Offers a timely account of how the 1% holds on to their wealth…[It] ought to keep wealth managers awake at night…Harrington’s book ought to make professionals involved in wealth management aware that they are operating in an ‘ethical gray area’ and engage in the national discourse on inequality that has been gathering momentum since Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
— Aifric Campbell Wall Street Journal

Harrington advises governments seeking to address inequality to focus not only on the rich but also on the professionals who help them game the system.
— Richard Cooper Foreign Affairs

[A] valuable new book… What makes Harrington’s book unusual is that she chose instead to investigate the wealth management industry itself. There were no short cuts to doing so. Harrington went undercover as a trainee wealth manager for two years, living and breathing the profession. The result is an insight unlike any other into how wealth management works… One of the many merits of Brooke Harrington’s study, therefore, is how it shows that the wealth management industry is a far larger and more integral component of the modern financial system than a focus on the celebrity-saturated case of the Panama Papers might suggest.
— Felix Martin New Statesman

[Harrington’s] account of the social, cultural, and financial intricacies of this profession—about two-thirds of the book—is no small feat…Harrington helps dispel two of the most pernicious myths underlying America’s overly tolerant attitude toward the extremely rich: first, that they deserve to be so, and second, that the rest of us might one day be extremely rich too.
— Sam Adler-Bell Commonweal

Capital without Borders offers an in-depth look into the wealth management profession… This is an important work for our increasingly unequal world. Instead of uncritically blaming the wealthy and the super-rich or national and state governments, it is high time to focus our attention on the brokers, intermediaries and agents who constitute the ‘middleman economy’ of global inequality.
— Sin Yee Koh LSE Review of Books

Brooke Harrington’s overhaul of the One Percent, Capital without Borders, couldn’t arrive at a better time… Capital without Borders is an unparalleled exploration of an especially darkened corner of world finance… Harrington’s commentary is a magnifying glass held towards those who are gaining opportunities at the expense of those losing them… Capital without Borders gives a clear picture as to how the world’s wealthiest people live in a parallel reality to the rest of the world: one out of reach of laws and regulation on a global scale… Capital without Borders is a vital text for the modern age and a must-read for anyone looking towards a more egalitarian economic future.
— Matthew Fay PopMatters

Brooke Harrington’s study of wealth management is one of those rare books where you just have to stand back in awe and wonder at the author’s achievement. In this intensely readable study, she offers a first-ever scholarly insight into a profession that was almost unknown a little over two decades ago… Harrington offers profound insights into the world of the professional people who dedicate their lives to meeting the perceived needs of the world’s ultra-wealthy. And, as she makes clear, the most apparently compelling of those needs is to avoid the rule of law… Don’t doubt the importance of this book’s messages: this is a significant and valuable case study at the current frontier of political economy.
— Richard J. Murphy Times Higher Education

Fascinating.
— Diane Coyle Chronicle of Higher Education

[Harrington] lifts the veil of the wealth management profession…A useful volume for tax policymakers and tax inspectors, the book is also timely: the leak of documents from Panama-based law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca—known as the Panama papers—led the G20 to improve transparency and exchange of information to stop tax evasion and avoidance by offshore financial centers.
— Kiyoshi Nakayama Finance & Development

An edifying snapshot of a brave new world of capitalist impunity.
— Chris Lehmann In These Times

Brook Harrington has written a book that few sociologists could manage. She has gained access to the world of the super-rich…It is an ethnography of elites and elites at a level that have rarely been studied through participant observation and interview. The access achieved by Harrington is quite exceptional.
— Scott Grills Symbolic Interaction

Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent is an innovative approach to addressing a problem that is even more pressing than income inequality—wealth inequality…The book is rich in fascinating detail, from the historical roots of wealth management to a description of a state system that might be called the ‘parasitic twin’ of the Westphalian model. Capital without Borders is a book that everyone who cares about fairness, the rule of law, and equal opportunity should read. Even if, or perhaps especially if, you’re in the ‘one percent.’
— Brenda Jubin ValueWalk

In this remarkable work, Harrington relays in-depth interviews with wealth managers for the ultra-rich, building on her previous publications on financial markets and fraud…This work adds unique insights into the extraordinary trust between wealth managers and their rich clients, as well as other nuggets of insight.
— M. Larudee Choice

Beautifully written, this book opens a window into the fascinating world of wealth managers for the world’s super-rich. I know of no other book even remotely like it.
— John L. Campbell, Dartmouth College

Brooke Harrington shines a light into the shadowy and little-understood subject of wealth management. Using in-depth interviews and participant observations, she reviews the tools of the trade of financial advisors and shows the implications for economic inequality, political power, and societal organization. This is an important book on a pivotal profession for those concerned about how the top one percent make and keep their money.
— Darrell West, The Brookings Institution

From the Publisher