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☆ I'm a widow who sold everything to move from Texas to Lake Como. I decided long ago that I wouldn't let fear dictate my life.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

AdvertisementThis as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Judy Walling, a 68-year-old retired real-estate agent living in Italy. I'm a retired widow with no children, but I decided long ago that I wouldn't miss out on anything just because I don't have a partner. I booked another group trip to Italy and then bought a Eurail passWalling. I took a group trip to Italy in August 2019 with 10 people and took side trips to get my feet wet. After the group trip, I took my pass and traveled all over Italy.

Persons: Judy Walling, —, Bill Walling, I'm, Walling, it's, Julia Roberts, Ugh, I've Organizations: Service, Kansas City, Lake Locations: Italy, Como, Iowa, Kansas, Florida, Santa Fe , New Mexico, Europe, France, Austin, Munich, Svinná, Czech Republic, Bellagio, Lake Como, Texas, Costa Rica, Missouri

☆ An estate manager for the wealthy shares some of the outlandish and intimate requests she's received from clients
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-10 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

She and her team coordinate service providers, from gardeners to party planners, for her clients. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementEmily Webb-Doskow, an estate manager, receives strange requests from wealthy clients. These shifts expanded the prospective client base of families who could benefit from an estate manager. She said a starting salary for a full-time estate or house manager could be about $150,000.

Persons: Emily Webb, Doskow, Baker, —, Webb, Rich, I've, She's, bender, Barths, Holger Leue, they'd, they're Organizations: Webb, Service, Craigslist, Business, Baker, Estate Management, YouTube Locations: Los Angeles, New York City, St, America

☆ A millennial who moved from London to Bahrain says she loves her cheaper, sunnier, and safer new home
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Kate Phillipson moved from the UK to Bahrain in 2020 with her navy-sailor boyfriend at the time. She says Bahrain is safe and sunny and she has a better work-life balance than she did in London. Phillipson describes life in Bahrain as idyll — as it is for many educated, mostly Western professionals who have arrived in Bahrain like her. There's also a much-stronger work-life balance, she said, with less expectation to be on call outside office hours compared with her London life. "I'd not even heard of it before I moved here, but I don't have any plans on leaving anytime soon."

Persons: Kate Phillipson, —, Phillipson, Briton, expats who've, idyll, Bahrain —, There's, Kate Phillipson Phillipson, I've, I'd, It's, she's Organizations: Service, Human Rights Watch, Bahraini, Las Locations: Bahrain, London, Saudi Arabia, South Asia, Solymar, St, Tropez, France, Italy, England, Europe, Saudi, Las Vegas, Ethiopian

☆ 3 travel agents for the world's wealthiest people share exactly where the 1% are traveling this summer, from Botswana to the Côte d'Azur
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Summer travel can be done on a budget, but for the world's wealthiest people, no expense is spared. Top travel agents shared the hottest spots they're seeing this year, from Paros to the Côte d'Azur. Instead, look to the elite group of agents who help wrangle those jaunts and cater to the wealthiest, most demanding vacationers. Courtesy of John CliffordJohn Clifford in San Diego runs International Travel Management and has expertise with LGBTQ+ travel. Insider asked these travel professionals to share the secrets of where and how the richest 1% are vacationing in summer 2023.

Persons: they've, Jules Maury, Jules Maury Jules Maury, Scott Dunn, John Clifford, John Clifford John Clifford, Edward Granville ., Edward Granville Edward Granville, Granville, Maury, I've, Clifford, he's, Côte, they're, We've, Rod, it's, Paros, It's, Cosme, Parilio, Avant, she's, she'd, Milos Organizations: Côte, Service, San Diego, Travel Management, d'Azur, Porto Heli, Italy, Avant Mar, HBO, Domenico Palace Locations: Paros, Wall, Silicon, San, Red Savannah, London, COVID, Europe, Cannes, France, Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Botswana's Okavango Delta, Kenya, Porto, Greece, Italy, Spain, Athens, Amalfi Coast, Rome, Sicily, Domenico

☆ Entrepreneurs are charging up to $50,000 to preserve people's memories in books, films, and even holograms before they die as the personal-memoir business ramps up
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Companies like The Family Film and Storyworth are capitalizing on this trend. One ghostwriting company is venturing into VR storytelling for luxury customers, charging $5,000. Andrew Gemmell, the founder of The Family Film. The Family Film charges $50,000 for an in-depth movie of a family's history. Social media, podcasts, and self-publishing platforms have also created ways for people to share their stories with a wide audience.

☆ A former personal assistant to an Oscar-winning actress says the job comes with plenty of perks — but you have to set boundaries
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Bonnie Low-Kramen was the personal assistant to the actor Olympia Dukakis for 25 years. She shared with Insider how she made the leap into PA work, what it's like to work for a celebrity day-to-day, and how she pivoted into entrepreneurship. Good timing got her a role working alongside a starLow-Kramen with Olympia Dukakis and Dukakis' husband, the actor Louis Zorich. Prescription and dry-cleaning pickups are a constant request, Low-Kramen said, and it can cause unexpected issues. Today, Low-Kramen said, a starting salary for a celebrity PA on call 24/7 can typically hit the low six figures.

☆ More women are traveling alone. The hospitality industry is meeting demand with offerings like 'Alonemoons' — no partner required.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

When she started traveling alone, she said, the trend was less common and locals were often surprised to see her without a companion. The Solo Female Travelers Club, a 190,000-member social network and tour operator, surveys 5,000 women annually on their habits and opinions. A Gili Lankanfushi representative told Insider six women traveling alone had booked the package in the past 18 months. "I think it's a wonderful, life-affirming experience to be a woman traveling solo and experience the nurturing care you can get from strangers. Meg Jerrard, a cofounder of the Solo Female Travelers Club, recently started a consulting division of her company to help guide other businesses as they reevaluate their offerings and staff in light of growing demand from solo female travelers.

☆ People are paying $12 to go on VR tours of turtle nesting in Costa Rica or India's Holi festival from their couches. Meet a tour guide who's cashing in on this travel niche.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Ligia Morera, based in Costa Rica, leads virtual tours on the Japanese platform Dokodemo Door Trip. A VR tour guide needs AI software to reach a worldwide audienceMorera filming a VR tour. In other words, these VR tours are as much a marketing program for its core business as a standalone revenue stream. Another source of referrals is other VR tour guides. "In Costa Rica, sometimes we get little problems with that," she said.

☆ The divorce lawyer who's represented Johnny Depp, Kim K, and Angelina Jolie charges $1,000 an hour and says tough love is how she gets things done
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Laura Wasser is a divorce lawyer whose clients have included Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. "You'd go to someone's bar mitzvah and say, 'You're Dennis Wasser's daughter,' and they'd say, 'You're at that table,' according to whether my dad had represented the mom or the dad," she said. She'd majored in rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and realized quickly that what she'd loved most about those studies was vital in divorce cases, as was her age and gender. She's a spokesperson for Divorce.com, the do-it-yourself split site, as its chief of divorce evolution and has hosted several podcasts, including "All's Fair with Laura Wasser" and "Divorce Sucks! With Laura Wasser," where one guest was the Kardashian momager and matriarch Kris Jenner.

☆ A former bodyguard for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt shares what his job was like and the biggest misconceptions about protecting celebrities
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Mark "Billy" Billingham was a bodyguard for years for stars like Angelina Jolie and Russell Crowe. Billingham's biggest job, he said, was an 18-month position working full time for Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and their family. "I was literally working 18 hours a day, every day, and I stayed with them," he said. Decoys and detours are great ways to test new security detailsIn his role as the head of security, Billingham had to coordinate the entire security team, including what's often a huge army of drivers. The ruse for new chauffeurs began with telling them about the next day's route for Pitt and Jolie in advance.

☆ A supercar broker for celebrities like Elton John and Nicolas Cage shares what his job is like: 'I've bought cars in saunas, in swimming pools, and on airplanes'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tom Hartley buys and sells classic cars at his private estate and showroom in northern England. "I've bought cars in saunas, in swimming pools, on airplanes — you can't name where I haven't bought a car," he said. Courtesy of Tom HartleyHartley said he gets about five customers a day and takes visitors by appointment only. Courtesy of Tom HartleyDespite being around expensive cars 24/7, he's never owned one himself. "I always say when you walk on the Hartley estate, everything has a price, except my wife."

☆ Meet an island salesman who started as a tour guide and now helps the super-rich buy and sell private islands all over the world
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Founder Chris Krolow runs a marketplace for buying, selling, and renting private islands. More than 20 years later, Krolow is now an island expert and the owner and operator of Private Islands Inc., a marketplace for renting and selling islands around the world. From tour guide to island salesmanSapodilla Private Island, one of the properties Krolow owns with his business partner, David Keener. He'd stumbled on a smart formula: Marketing a private island individually is expensive, as the audience for rentals or sales is small and dispersed. People aren't just crazy about renting islands, but they'll pay a premium to own one," he said.

☆ Rich millennials are buying $152 poop-bag holders and $1,100 Hermès dog bowls as luxury brands bank on them spoiling their pets over having kids
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Luxury brands like Prada and Versace have launched pet collections in the past couple of years. Thirty percent of pet owners said they spent more on their pets and pet supplies in 2020 than in 2019. Courtesy of Anya HindmarchHindmarch's short-lived project is just the latest sign of the opportunities available in the upscale pet market, especially for dog owners. In summer 2021, Versace expanded its homeware collection to cater to pets, no doubt inspired by Donatella's own Jack Russell, Audrey. Heather GildroyPagerie, a luxury pet brand that just launched a collection aimed as much at humans as at dogs, hopes this will be the case.

☆ A travel planner for the ultrawealthy shares what goes into organizing $800,000 trips to exclusive locations
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Jules Maury is the head of Scott Dunn Private, an ultraexclusive division of a luxury travel firm. She was raised in a wealthy family and learned how to plan luxury trips by taking them herself. Jules Maury was 12 when she made her first hotel booking. She handles trips for the world's wealthiest people along with a team of four travel advisors and six booking specialists. But even an expert travel planner lacks some knowledgeMaury still relishes the chance to travel, and she spends much of the year on the road, often attending luxury travel shows like ILTM in Cannes or Pure in Marrakech.

☆ A 29-year-old videographer gets paid to travel the world with the wealthy elite, documenting their wild adventures so they don't have to. Here's what it's like.
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-26 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Ian Agrimis is the founder of photography and video company Capture Unlimited. He has to remain unnoticed and does activities like cliff jumping before clients do to get the shot. He was there for two years, he told Insider, before he and his entire team were laid off. He keeps a tight team on-site, he said, often pairing up with a photographer while he focuses on video. When someone does occasionally ask for a still or a shorter video, he added, it will only be posted on a private Instagram account.

☆ I help foreigners get settled in Dubai. There's been a surge in interest from Russians to move to the city — here's what they're looking for.
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-21 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

We offer all the services that come with starting up in Dubai: visas, taxes, accounting, relocation, real estate. Dubai has been working on its image for many years, and now it's up there with London or Monaco, in my opinion. Russian clients usually speak English, but they'll prefer to deal with Russian speakers. There's a feeling about Dubai that shady people can come here, set up, and get away with itIt's a real process here. In general, Russians prefer villas to apartmentsSince COVID-19, there's been a boom in villas — everyone wants them.

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