There’s an interesting phenomenon that Mike and I were talking about just last week. I didn’t think it had any relevance to wealth management until I came across this post in the Wall Street & Technology Blog:

Saxo Bank Sets Up Shop In Second Life

The Copenhagen-based online investment bank Saxo announced yesterday that it has set up an office in Second Life, the web-based virtual world developed by Linden Lab, San Francisco, in which users (called residents) live out their fantasy lives online and interact with each other through avatars — animated graphics that users design to represent themselves. Saxo plans to offer residents the ability to manage real-life portfolios from within the virtual world, and the bank may eventually create a market to trade virtual Linden dollars against real world currencies. So far, Saxo’s virtual office has a meeting space with links to the bank’s website, a live trading game for visitors and an auditorium that will be used for symposia and training modules.

I’m what most people would consider a power-geek. I’m an overweight white guy who plays video games and programs computers for fun. I used to play D&D, Axis & Allies, and Magic the Gathering. I have an active World of Warcraft account and even *I* think Second Life is completely dorky.

My geek friends all look at Second Life and feel a little bit cooler because they’re not members. It’s like an online MMORPG game without the game.

Saxo Bank’s stated intention is to explore the future of online trading (the company did not return phone calls or emails).

Yeah, I’ll bet they didn’t return your calls. This was probably set up by the two dorks who maintain their Exchange server. When the PR department started getting phone calls about it, I’ll bet they had no idea what Second Life was, or what it had to do with Saxo Bank.

But I kid. Second Life is a big deal and wealth managers should keep an eye on it–out of curiosity if nothing else. They have four million users and lots of real companies are setting up storefronts there. The companies include names like BMW, Rebok, Dell and Disney. What the list doesn’t have yet is any wealth managers.

That’s right… I don’t see any investment advisors on Second Life, this could be a great business opportunity for somebody. Say what you want about geeks, they tend to have steady jobs with a high income. This is a captive audience of 4 million people who obviously have too much time and money on their hands. And their current investment in Linden Dollars indicates they shouldn’t be doing their own financial planning.

This is a serious opportunity for the right advisor.