Realizing that many of its wealthy clients lack the time or patience to deal with their personal finances, Amsterdam-based private bank Insinger de Beaufort launched a new service that takes finances back to the basics: a shoebox.
After sitting down with their private banker to discuss financial planning, Insinger's clients are sent a big shoebox by courier every month. They drop anything admin-related into the box: bills to be paid, bank statements, receipts, tax returns, speeding tickets, insurance documents, etc. At the end of the month, Insinger sends a courier to pick up the box, and then processes its contents. Clients are sent a complete overview of actions and transactions within three business days, after which the bank takes care of the entire follow-up process, including paying bills, filing tax returns and processing business expenses.
Every quarter, clients are sent a financial report, detailing spending categories, asset growth, etc, and once a year, they meet with their private banker to evaluate new developments and adjust their financial planning as needed. Sensing a gap in the market, Insinger de Beaufort offers its shoebox service to clients at other banks, too. The concept is of course entirely focused on convenience, saving (valuable) clients the time and hassle of dealing with the minutiae of their personal finances. While other banks provide their high-end clients with similar add-on services, the shoebox approach is undeniably elegant in its no-tech simplicity.
Website: www.insinger.com/shoebox
Contact: shoebox@insinger.com
Spotted by: Roderick Cremers
"launched a new service"? This service was introduced a year ago!!
Nevertheless, it's a quite inspiring business idea, considering the fact that the shoebox service costs € 415 per month ;-)
I wonder if this service could be extended to ordinary folks, too, through the judicious use of OCR.
That's an excellent service, shame about the 415 though. On a side note, i also like the office workers in the box, very nice visual on their website.
That 415 EUR is for the light version, the 'normal' version is 850 EUR/month... That's a pity!
@Dropje: True. The extended version includes financial planning.
how cool - don't we all collect our bills for the tax advisor in shoe boxes? Tax advisors - why don't you offer this as well?????
And those who complain about the price... you might not be the target group ;-)
Great idea. Anything that keeps things simple has got my vote. We do a similar thing with new franchisees in the Jim's Franchise System by getting them to send our bookkeepers all their paid bills, bank statements and invoice receipts. We then enter all information into our accounting software and send them back monthly financial reports and their documents all filed. Our costto them is $A220 a month (or the equivalent of 130 Euro a month)