On Thursday, March 18, I’m speaking in Amsterdam at a conference hosted by NRC Focus. The topic is “trust,” and here’s what the magazine writes:

Trust is essential for markets to function properly. In a ‘high trust society’ like the Netherlands, where people have confidence in both fellow human beings and institutions, this fact is easily overlooked. Financial institutions traditionally have been bastions of trust, both for consumers and businesses. People entrust them their savings and confidence in them. But the recent credit crisis, megafrauds by Bernard Madoff and Allen Stanford and the bankruptcy of banks like Icesave and DSB have put a serious dent in this confidence.

I plan to examine three questions. How can we regain confidence when:

• Havoc is more profitable than fixing problems?
• Employees don’t trust the companies they represent?
• Nobody has the global power to regulate financial institutions?

Send me your thoughts. I’d love to hear what you think is necessary to rebuild trust in the world of private wealth management. Are there any “wealth tools” you’d like to see? Sometime during April, I’ll post my thoughts to these three questions.

Norb Vonnegut

About the author

Norb Vonnegut wrote 178 articles on this blog.

Do you ever feel the financial news makes no sense? Do stories leave you with more questions than answers? I created Acrimoney to discuss Wall Street’s behavior behind the headlines. As a veteran of a wealth management business that exceeded $1 billion in assets, I offer insight into the people and the “doings” that affect your money. I’ll start the discussion. But I hope you’ll jump in and say what you think.

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