Investing for middle America : John Elliott Tappan and the origins of American Express Financial Advisors / Kenneth Lipartito and Carol Heher Peters.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lipartito, Kenneth, 1957-

Contributor:

Peters, Carol Heher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tappan, John Elliott, 1870-1957.

Tappan, John Elliott.

American Express Financial Advisors.

Financial planners--United States.

Financial planners.

United States.

Investment advisors--United States.

Investment advisors.

Financial services industry--United States.

Financial services industry.

Physical Description:

x, 268 pages, 10 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave, 2001.

Summary:

In 1894, in the teeth of the country's second worst depression, Americans struggled to feed their families on one dollar a day. Only the very rich were able to own stock, and frequent "panics" and bank failures wiped out people's savings. Most Americans lacked minimal financial security.

John Elliott Tappan, a Minneapolis lawyer, decided to act: he founded Investors Syndicate, later known as IDS, the financial pioneer that later became American Express Financial Advisors. Tappan's revolutionary idea was based on the notion that everyone could save a little money each month to build the security that would protect against devastating loss. In the first full biography of Tappan, Kenneth Lipartito and Carol Heher Peters tell the story of an extraordinary man and the role he played in altering the American financial system.

A reserved Republican, Tappan built his business carefully: he sold his certificates only to those who could demonstrate the virtues of manliness, self-reliance, and integrity, and he reproached those who did not uphold these ideals. In an era of corrupt get-rich-quick schemes, Tappan used his personal reputation to gain the trust of customers. In the beginning, the business was local, based on relationships between Tappan and associates and friends. By 1984 when IDS was acquired by American Express it had over five thousand sales representatives serving clients in every state. Its managed assets were $19.5 billion.

John Elliott Tappan was a product of the nineteenth century frontier West, and his company enabled the West to gain a measure of corporate and financial independence from the the East. Although sympathetic to the Populist critiques of "money hoarders" and monopolistic corporations, Tappan was a businessman first: his firm was a capitalist venture meant to reform capitalism from within. The firm grew at exponential rates, yet retained its stability. Indeed, even during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Tappan's company kept its commitment to certificate holders and paid out over $100 million to clients in an era marked by financial despair.

Drawing on Tappan's letters, diaries, and family history, Lipartito and Peters have written a fascinating chronicle of the transformation of American finance and an intimate portrait of the genius whose innovations and rock-solid faith in "democratic capitalism" made it all possible.

Contents:

Chapter 1 From Frontier to Finance 7

Chapter 2 The Money Question 45

Chapter 3 A Foundation of Trust 75

Chapter 4 A Turning Point 117

Chapter 5 Adversity and Survival 147

Chapter 6 The Agency System 165

Chapter 7 War and Betrayal 193

Chapter 8 Into the Sunset 221.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [245]-264) and index.

ISBN:

0312233981

OCLC:

45845517