The typical affluent American comes from a working-class background, worked his or her way through college, and has been working for twenty-nine years an average of fifty-six hours per week. The primary source of their wealth isn’t a glamorous profession or a lavish inheritance.

Many of us have misguided perceptions when it comes to the values, lifestyles, and financial affairs of the wealthy. But in reality, the concerns and aspirations of the rich are no different than those of the average American. U.S. Trust’s recently retired Chairman and CEO Jeff Maurer proves this point in the revealing and informative Rich in America: Secrets to Creating and Preserving Wealth.

U.S. Trust has been serving the affluent since 1853 and numbers among its clients many of the nation’s wealthiest families. Drawing on the company’s heritage and his more than thirty years of personal experience advising the affluent, Maurer will show you who the wealthy really are in a way that no one else has done before. Rich in America takes you behind the elegant and impenetrable facade of affluent America to reveal the backgrounds, concerns, belief systems, and savings and investment behavior of this elite group. Based on ten years of surveying the top 1% wealthiest Americans, this book provides a comprehensive and surprising portrait of the affluent today and will serve as an invaluable guide to improving your financial life.

Maurer provides something that sophisticated wealth managers have never offered to the public–the confidential advice they provide to their clients. He details how these people stay wealthy by maintaining a balanced financial philosophy in good times and bad, and examines the importance of sound investment management, financial planning, tax strategies, estate planning, and trusts in the world of the wealthy.

Rich in America offers an illuminating picture of what it means to be wealthy and provides advice on how to get there–and how to stay there. Despite what F. Scott Fitzgerald said in The Rich Boy, the rich are not "different from you and me." Rich in America proves this point by revealing the principles and practices of the wealthy and sharing the secrets of those who have been the most successful in amassing and retaining wealth.

'\"nuggets of wisdom for any reader\" (USA Today, August 25, 2003)'

Advance Praise for Rich In America

"I highly recommend Rich in America to investors of all economic levels. While certainly no company understands the wealthy better than U.S. Trust, Jeff Maurer has done a wonderful job of turning the wisdom he gathered during his distinguished career at this venerable institution into advice that will benefit anyone interested in making smarter financial decisions."

–Charles Schwab

Chairman, The Charles Schwab Corporation

"Jeff Maurer is uniquely qualified to advise the affluent and those who would be. Rich in America is packed with insight and wisdom gleaned from his long and tremendously successful career at the very pinnacle of wealth management."

–Timothy C. Forbes

Chief Operating Officer, Forbes Inc.

"For thirty-three years, Jeff Maurer helped build U.S. Trust Corporation into one of the nation’s most prominent and respected wealth managers. In this book, Jeff combines his own experience with the knowledge gleaned from a decade of U.S. Trust research into who the affluent are, how they earned their money, and how they keep it. The U.S. Trust approach to building and maintaining wealth makes relevant reading for anyone eager to provide for their own and their family’s financial well-being."

–Alan J. Weber

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Trust Corporation

"Jeff Maurer has distilled more than three decades of investment advice to affluent clients into a concise, informative, and extraordinarily readable work. Readers who are trying to preserve accumulated assets, as well as those who are setting out to build substantial wealth, will profit from this wide-ranging book."

–James Poterba

Mitsui Professor of Economics, MIT

In "Rich in America," Maurer, CEO of US Trust reveals the result of their 10 year survey of the affluent, providing an otherwise unattainable view into the backgrounds, lifestyles, spending habits, and investment behavior of the wealthy.

'Acknowledgents.

Preface.

Introduction.

Chapter 1. Financial Planning.

Chapter 2. Investments.

Chapter 3.Taxes.

Chapter 4. Insurance.

Chapter 5. Retirement.

Chapter 6. Estate Planning.

Chapter 7. How to Choose a Financial Advisor.

Conclusion.

Appendix: Examples of Financial Planning Schedules.

Index. \n

'