Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog
If your family works in a high stress profession is a good idea to make sure you and your family keep their estate plans up to date.
The unexpected deaths of finance workers in the past few months by suicide around the world have raised concerns about mental health and stress levels of the banking profession.
JP Morgan executive director Julian Knott, 45, killed himself after shooting his wife Alita Knott, 49, to death with a shotgun. Julian worked for JP Morgan until July 2010, before he and his wife moved to the United States. Before the move, Alita had opened a nursery in Southwick, West Sussex and remained the nursery’s care provider until 2013.
Police officials in London are currently investigating two suicides of finance workers. William Broeksmit, 58, was a retired risk executive at Deutsche Bank. Broeksmit died on Jan 26, 2014 at his home in west London, where Police found him hanging. Gabriel Magee was a 39-year-old vice president at JP Morgan who died after falling from his firm’s 33-story building. A few weeks later, Li Junjie, a 33-year-old banker at JP Morgan in Hong Kong, jumped from his firm’s local headquarters as well.
The banking world’s aggressive, hard-working culture may be too much for some to handle. Peter Rogers says banks are beginning to realize the scale of the problem. Rodgers believes the banking sector needs to see a number of initiatives to improve staff well being and hopefully a cultural shift will occur within the firms.
Emma Mamo, who leads a workplace initiative in the U.K. said finance does have a long-hours culture. “People can’t keep doing long hours; you need perspective and downtime,” she warned.
America has also seen a recent trend of banking suicides. Mike Dueker, a 50-year-old chief economist of a US investment bank was found dead recently near the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State. Richard Talley, 57, was the founder of American Title Services in Colorado. He was found dead earlier this month after allegedly shooting himself with a nail gun.
On January 10, Bank of America issued a statement to employees telling them they should take some weekends off. Christian Meissner, head of global corporate and investment banking at Bank of America said analysts and associates should “take a minimum of four weekend days off per month.”
JP Morgan is not a member of the City Mental Health Alliance and has announced any measures to deal with the alarming increase of employee suicides.
Carolyn Wolf, executive partner and director of mental health law practice at Abrams, Fensterman, suggests the trend may be tied to substance abuse. She thinks many young people get hooked on drugs such as Adderall to cope with the long hours. Many take the drug, prescribed for ADHD, to stay focused during a long workday. However, she says the substance abuse can exacerbate underlying mental health issues.
Suicide statistics show that financial professionals have a 39 percent higher likelihood of suicide than professions within the general public. In 2010, more than 38,000 Americans died by suicide, according to the Center for Disease Control.