6 Lessons for Ultra-High Net Worth Investors – the WeWork Fallout

Silicon Valley Failures! WeWork Fallout Reveals the Human Reality about ‘Investment Experts’ and Silicon Valley!

Silicon Valley tech companies have managed to attract outsized attention from investors, money managers, and venture capitalists for over twenty years.

And while there have been some notable success stories, it’s the greater number of failures, such as WeWork, that we should be paying more attention to – for anyone with ultra high net worth exceeding $10 million liquid investable assets who wants a lifetime of worry-free financial security. We highly recommend requesting your free copy of this in-depth wealth management, Estate, Tax and Financial Planning book.

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Here’s our summation of WeWork and much of the venture capital that pours into Silicon Valley: No one likes to hear “I told you so,” probably because we don’t like having our mistakes pointed out by someone else. But – we told you so. And we will keep telling you so.

Ultra-high net worth investors who continue to put their trust (and their portfolios) in the hands of people perceived as experts and gurus in the investment world will continue to crash back down to reality when those experts disappoint them. And Silicon Valley will continue to produce disappointments such as WeWork.

For a better approach to wealth management, learn how to identify a financial advisor who will best deliver what you really want – worry-free, lifetime financial security that you don’t have to think about.

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Some Background on WeWork and Silicon Valley

We Work was a darling of Silicon Valley, and was preparing to launch an IPO in 2019 with a valuation at around $47 billion.

Their business centered on renting office space on an as-needed basis. So they would buy up commercial real estate, and then lease it out, down to the room, to everyone from corporations that need extra flexibility to freelancers who want to get out of the house and have an office. Not a terrible concept, and not the first time it’s been done.

The problem came from the illusion of this being a ‘tech company.’ As with other Silicon Valley startups, fueled by venture capital firms such as Softbank in this case, everyone flocked to WeWork as it being the next big thing. That, plus an ego-maniac for a CEO, led to a massively inflated valuation.

It crashed when the valuation was called into question prior to the IPO launch. Today, WeWork is managing to limp along, and may yet turn into a respectable company. But its valuation will be a tiny fraction of that $47 billion fantasy, probably forever.More on the latest about WeWork.

What Smart High Net Worth Investors Can Learn from WeWork

The WeWork fallout demonstrates the persistent reality thathuman judgment – when that is your primary basis for making investment decisions – eventually fails you.

Therefore any investment approach that relies first on human judgment, no matter how many big wins that person might have in their quiver, will eventually let you down. Silicon Valley is rife with such examples.

The CEOs of JP Morgan Chase and Softbank – Jamie Dimon and Masayoshi Son – wereforced to admit their mistakes from WeWork’sIPO failure, which wasdue to shaky revenue projections and too much debt.

First, you have Son, saying that “my investment judgment was poor in many ways and I am reflecting deeply on that.” He said this as he redoubled his investment and continued to sink billions more into the sinking WeWork ship.

Then, you have Dimon, who appears to have realized the gravity of JP Morgan’s bad investment in WeWork, and refused to fund the former WeWork CEO’s huge exit package.

But, they also tried to salvage the deal, trying to pull together a $5 billion debt package from more than 100 investors.

From WeWork and Silicon Valley-style investment frenzies like it, we have identified six crisply specific investment planning lessons for high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals and families.

1.Understand Why Your Financial Advisor Recommends Specific Investment Strategies

JP Morgan’s motivation for pursuing its investment in WeWork is startlingly clear. As the article referenced above puts it, “the bank is losing out on big-time fees that would have come from the IPO.” So was JP Morgan pursuing this investment because of the interests of their own banking and investment customers, or because of the big fees they would collect?

Many financial advisors are compromised by deals they have made with various mutual funds, annuities, Silicon Valley mania, and other entities. These non-fiduciary advisors make investment recommendations to their clients in part because they get a bigger paycheck from it.

This is called a conflict of interest, and it clashes with the fiduciary standard to which Pillar Wealth Management strictly adheres.See how a non-fiduciary can derail your portfolio.

You do not want a financial advisor making investment decisions based on how it benefits them. If it doesn’t benefit you, and only you, then it’s a questionable decision. For a better plan for improving portfolio performance, use this free guide.

2.Question Perceived Expertise

With the We Work freefall, it’s baffling that anyone would still want to risk their own capital to salvage the Silicon Valley company. Yet, JP Morgan attempted to corral $5 billion in new funding for a debt package. They talked to over 100 investors, according to the article.

Which investors? Are they venture capitalists? Private investors? Other banks? Mutual fund money managers? Other Silicon Valley firms?

Do you see the implications for investors like you? Over 100 unnamed ‘investors’ were approached with the proposition of investing hundreds of millions in a debt rescue package for a flailing Silicon Valley business that spent beyond its means, lost its IPO, lost its CEO, and had its valuation decimated by over 75%.

Sounds like a great deal! Again – who are these 100 investors, and why would they possibly want to touch this deal? No doubt they are big players and luminaries in the financial industry.

The fact JP Morgan even approached them reveals the lesson for ultra-high net worth investors like you. JP Morgan still thought this was a good enough opportunity to offer to potential investors. And they believed these investors might agree.

This is how too many ‘expert’ financial advisors and money managers think – especially those at big banks like Chase. They swoon over anything tech-related. That’s why there’s a hit TV show called Silicon Valley.

These people make decisions with your money that they think are smart, because it’s not their money at stake.

This is also why people who take the venture capital and angel investor route often end up making little more – and often much, much less – than those who just use smart and effective investment planning strategies like the 100% customized approach used at Pillar Wealth Management. We take our human frailty as far out of the process as possible.

See why venture capital is not a good strategy for ultra high net worth investors.

3.Pursue a Proven Strategy, Not a Risky Bet

The Softbank article reveals some highly disturbing investment performance data. According to them, the Vision Fund (Softbank’s fund devoted to startups, begun in 2016) invested $70.7 billion in 88 companies, many of which are in Silicon Valley. Four years later, that portfolio was worth $77.6 billion.

Did you catch those numbers? Think about the incredible amount of time it would take to forge 88 separate investment funding deals. All the meetings, the lawyers, the contracts, the planning, the monitoring, and of course, the hand-wringing.

And for 88 deals using over $70 billion in capital spread out over nearly four years, what they have to show for it so far is… 10% growth. Over four years!

Is that supposed to impress anyone? That’s about 3% per year. You would do better with a portfolio made 100% of bonds. All the fanfare and headlines, and these guys are earning less growth that the most conservative of investment portfolios.

Do you want optimized investment performance? You won’t get it using venture capital and risky bets.Schedule a free call with us to learn how we deliver what really matters.

4.Balance Risk with Investment Performance

Ultimately, performance is all about risk – how much are you willing to put up with to get the investment growth you need to fund your lifestyle and your long term plans and dreams?Get 5 secrets about risk tolerance your financial advisor won’t talk about.

The Vision Fund lost at least $8.9 billion from the WeWork saga. As the article puts it, this “shows the risks of Son’s strategy.” That’s the understatement of the year. Picture this conversation at a Silicon Valley venture capital cocktail party:

“How’s your portfolio doing?”

“Not too bad. We lost $8.9 billion this year.”

“Bummer.”

“Yeah, we’re pretty confident going forward.”

Consider this deeper dive into the numbers:

From July to September in 2018, the Vision Fund gained 706 billion yen. In the same period in 2019, it lost 704 billion yen. So, it gained nothing in that quarter over two years – and this is during a worldwide period of economic prosperity. There was not even a hint of recession at that time.Why you can ignore recessions.

If your financial advisor pursues an investment strategy overladen with high risk, you too could earn zero growth while other high net worth investors are happily earning 7%, 9%, 11%, and 15% growth because they’re using strategies that minimize undue risk.

High risk carries with it the chance of high return, but with it the chance of getting nothing, or losing big. $8.9 billion? Most people would call that a big loss. From an investment standpoint, it represents the epitome of overly high risk for a lousy return. It’s a Silicon Valley classic.

And if you believe your high risk bets will somehow avoid this fate, you’re in denial of the fact that you’re basically just gambling. The headlines even call Softbank and JP Morgan’s actions ‘bets.’ Because that’s exactly what they are.

If your high risk strategy earns you 20% growth for five straight years, but then loses 100% of that in year six, you’ve made nothing over six years. What was the point? Many high net worth investors overly trusting in Silicon Valley companies found themselves in this situation after the 2000 dotcom crash and in the 2008 Great Recession.

Don’t let it happen to you. Avoid undue risk.

5.Don’t Trust in An Advisor’s Judgment

To his credit, Son admitted his mistake. Very admirable and something we need to see more often – especially in the financial industry. In his own words, he said, “My investment judgment was poor in many ways and I am reflecting deeply on that.”

This is a man who founded a $100 billion venture capital fund, the Vision Fund. And he used poor investment judgment. What’s the lesson?

Any financial advisor, self-declared expert, or guru, who puts himself or herself in a position where they are making the judgment calls with your money is not someone a smart ultra-high net worth investor would work with.

Your financial plan and portfolio performance should not be placed in the hands of people who base their investment strategies on Wall Street’s methods,Silicon Valley swooning, or industry norms. Industry norms fail every time there’s a crisis.

And as Son has experienced, they fail in good times as well. Humans make bad judgments. Even the very best of us. You need an investment planning approach that doesn’t rely primarily on human judgment. Pillar Wealth Management’s process is data-driven, not judgment-driven. See how we deliver investment performance in this free guide.

We don’t sit in our back room staring at stock market data with bloodshot eyes at two in the morning, looking for that imminent sign of a great buy that no one else sees that will make our clients filthy rich.

We don’t do that because… it doesn’t work. To find out what does work, schedule a quick chat with one of our experts. We have spent over 30 years watching and learning and developing a process that does work. And we have data that backs it up.

To learn more, click the link above. You’ll discover a process vastly different from what almost any other wealth manager uses. Is that worth a short phone call?

6.Don’t Repeat Your Mistakes

Remember that 10% growth figure? Over nearly four years? Well guess what? They’re going to do it again! Vision Fund founder Masayoshi Son has already planned a second Vision Fund.

Details are still forthcoming, but he is actively raising the capital to launch a second round of funding for unproven startup gambles, and again mostly in the tech sphere of Silicon Valley.

Now, if Son is drawn to the idea of helping new companies launch, and is more interested in that than just raw performance, that’s fine. If that’s his motivation, he’s free to pursue it.

But is that what you want from your financial advisor or wealth manager? Do you want a manager who lost 50% of his clients’ money in the Great Recession, but is still using the same strategies today as he was then? Sure, the clients who had the time to wait eventually made it back.

But wouldn’t it have been better not to lose so much in the first place? How much farther ahead would they be? And to be clear, not everyone has the time to wait. If you’re close to retirement, or have just started retirement, you might not have time to weather another huge financial crisis at this point in your life.

So, be careful about using a financial advisor who says things like “everyone lost money in the Great Recession; nothing we could do about it.” Actually, there is something you can do about it.

You can use a groundbreaking, vastly different investment planning approach that optimizes performance, manages risk, and doesn’t rely on human judgment, Silicon Valley fantasy valuations, or perceived cleverness where little actually exists.

Nothing in this business is guaranteed. But a lot more financial serenity is possible than you might realize. Schedule a quick chat with one of our experts to learn about how Pillar Wealth Management is different

Authors

Hutch Ashoo

Chris Snyder

To be 100% transparent, we published this page to help filter through the mass influx of prospects, who come to us through our website and referrals, to gain only a handful of the right types of new clients who wish to engage us.

We enjoy working with high net worth and ultra-high net worth investors and families who want what we call financial serenity – the feeling that comes when you know your finances and the lifestyle you desire have been secured for life, and that you don’t have to do any of the work to manage and maintain it because you hired a trusted advisor to take care of everything.