I remember the days when banks would woo new clients with the promise of a free toaster. Obviously times have changed a little when I wasn't looking! According to an article by Ann Carrns in the Saturday Wall Street Journal, Wells Fargo is apparently wooing new clients with free family histories.

In February 2003, Dr. Anderson gave a presentation on the company's history to 200 wealthy bank clients at a ski competition in Colorado. Afterward, audience members asked the historian how to research their own families. Dr. Anderson concluded that rich families were hungry for details of their history -- often not so they could brag, but to impress upon their descendants that family wealth often came with sacrifice: "They want to hear about how hard it was."

In response to this need, the bank identifies current and prospective clients, most with net worths of $100 million or more, and presents them with some basic information about their family dug up by the bank's chief historian, Andy Anderson, PhD. If the family is interested in learning more, he prepares a detailed family history that may include upwards of 100 documents and records. All at no charge to the client - in the hopes of turning them into new private-banking customers. Quite a bit more interesting than a new toaster, don't you think?