Investing for middle America : John Elliott Tappan and the origins of American Express Financial Advisors

would have access to all the letters, research, interviews, and other materials Peters had collected. Taking the original manuscript, he would fashion a broader history, placing Tappan and his achievements in the context of American finance and business history. The task was to complete a work that would bring the very human, personal story of Tappan and his achievements to the public, while also meeting the stringent requirements of high quality professional history. Whether or not he and Peters have succeeded is for readers to judge. The book could not have been written, though, without generous help from many people. First and foremost the authors express their gratitude to the family of John Elliott Tappan, who provided intellectual, financial, and emotional support to see this project to completion. Marion Tappan Ryan (Mrs. Vincent J. Ryan) has been devoted to it from the beginning, and her words, and those of her late sister, Ruth Tappan Dowling (Mrs. Joseph L. Dowling), make possible the vivid portrayal of Tappan and his wife, children, friends, and business associates. Other family members were also vital to getting the manuscript out of its box in the attic and into the hands of a publisher. We list their names, In 1892, John Elliott Tappan, a twenty-four year old Minneapolis lawyer, was worried how people saved their money. Out of these concerns, Investors Syndicate was born, one of the first of a new type of financial institution designed to meet the savings needs of the average person. Here is the story of this financial pioneer, whose innovation has today grown into one of the nation's largest financial services companies, American Express Financial Advisors. The book draws on Tappan's diaries, business correspondence, and various family oral histories. Tappan's life, work and ideas chronicle the changes in spending and savings, work and leisure, the culture of politics and money, that have given rise to our modern notions of consumer finance. Front Matter....Pages i-x Prologue....Pages 1-5 From Frontier to Finance....Pages 7-43 The Money Question....Pages 45-73 A Foundation of Trust....Pages 75-116 A Turning Point....Pages 117-145 Adversity and Survival....Pages 147-164 The Agency System....Pages 165-191 War and Betrayal....Pages 193-220 Into the Sunset....Pages 221-237 Epilogue....Pages 239-243 Back Matter....Pages 245-268 "Investing for Middle America succeeds admirably in conveying the economic, business and cultural world Tappan inhabited ... "--Trenton Times