Wealth therapists to help super rich

Being in the top 1% can be lonely, plus there’s the guilt. But now help is at hand

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a member of the super-rich, one of the fabled one per cent, that exclusive club that has more money than the rest of us put together: The 99% languish beneath you in perpetual soft-focused toil and struggle, and life is good, right? Wrong. In 2015, you, hypothetical moneybags, have been bestowed with a conscience, and your bank balance is starting to feel like a burden. Your condition even has its own name now: wealth fatigue syndrome. And there are an increasing number of specialist therapists on hand to help, and from whom you will receive what you likely won’t from the rest of society: a sympathetic ear. “The media’s idea of the one per cent is people go out all the time and party, and keep spending,” says Jamie Traeger-Muney, founder of the Wealth Legacy Group which aims to help the wealthy “lead a rich life”. “But my clients have more sense of conflict over their wealth. They feel lucky, yes, but they also have unique problems to deal with, and my work is to make them feel more comfortable with their status, to help them see what positive changes they can make in their lives.”

But as Jamie Traeger-Muney says, the rich are people, too. “Therapy is just a way to provide a place for them to have a talk to help them figure things out. And at the end of the day, we all deserve that, right?”