Summit Notebook

The business of managing money for the rich has become “insanely competitive” and lost its rationality, a Philadelphia-based wealth manager warned. Some very large companies who have been hiring aggressively will find that they either don’t make money or they make less than they could if they invested in other areas, said Al Piscopo, chairman of Glenmede Trust Co. Speaking at this week’s Reuters Wealth Management Summit in Boston, he said that talk about the industry consolidating “is a myth” and that a takeover is often followed a while later by further fragmentation as wealth managers set up their own new businesses. Piscopo also questioned whether some of the big banks were getting too “gimmicky” and becoming more like “life-stage or lifestyle advisers” than wealth advisers.