Calculators and ledgers, regardless of its brand, have become the most sought after things that most millionaires in the United States have been keeping wherever they go.

Alarmed over the extent of the global economic meltdown, even millionaires (who used to spend fearsome figures on a day-to-day basis) have been putting up a system that would keep them on top of their spending. Wealth advisors have also been very busy lately putting a budget cap on their millionaire clients' expenditures.

A must says wealth adviser

Bruce Bickel, a wealth adviser, said that the recent turn of events related to the economic crisis has put most of the United States-based millionaires on fear response.

Bickel, managing director of private foundation management services at PNC wealth management, said that he even had a client who directly called him to ask a favor of putting her on a budget. The client, he added, had so much assets and yet reacted with fear on recession and its effect to people like them.

He explained that the client's business behavior is a result of the losses she incurred since US was hit by the economic turmoil in December last year. She was just being cautious, says Bickel.

"Cautious" is an understatement

However, not everyone believes that "cautious" would be the best word to describe such move. Cautious should be for those who have not been hurt and directly hit by the economic meltdown.

The word cautious is defined in the Merriam Dictionary as synonyms prudently watchful and discreet in the face of danger or risk. It is synonymous to circumspect, wary, chary.

Calling for a wealth adviser or a financial advisor at a time when every business angle appears on a slide, is a mindset resulting from panic and failure to stop the financial skid.

The return of worldwide wealth from its pre-crisis level may not happen soon, says the Boston Consulting Group, which made a shocking revelation regarding the American Millionaires Club. BCG said that of the ten millionaires, two have sunk deep. The number of millionaires in the US has gone down significantly, so as their wealth.

Fragile job

Running a wealth or asset management entity or simply being a financial advisor or a wealth adviser is not an easy business to run or a job to do. One gets to be blamed for economic setbacks --- even those beyond anybody's control.

In fact, the recession has resulted in the clientele's shattered confidence on the wealth management businesses. Getting a client to agree to a wealth manager is tough nowadays. Not even a remarkable track record seemed enough to impress the millionaires, who have gone wary as to whether or not they could still keep their wealth. And even if they do, the lingering question is "how long?"

Keeping posted as to where one's money goes or how it is spent is not an ordinary thing that people with lots of money does. It's not a common thing for them, which brings fourth the idea of wealth management businesses.

But in view of the economic meltdown, many of those millionaires deem it as a "must". However getting one effective wealth manager is another story. Keeping them is another. GP