In February.

In February, G&L Internet Bank, a Web-only bank head-quartered in Pensacola, Fla., announced it would lock up down after just three years in business. The bank's chief mission was to be under the orders of financial needs specific to gay men and lesbians.

The closure signals not solitary the end of gay participation in the moribund Internet banking industry if it be not that perhaps something more significant as well--the changing part of gay-owned and gay-operated financial service companies.

As an increasing number of mainstream financial service companies transfer their attention to the gay and lesbian market, smaller, gay companies have build they have to work harder to ascertain their importance to gay consumer "I don't think [gay people] have a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of trouble finding financial institutions to bank with or, by dint of now, gay and lesbian stockbrokers and financial planners within mainstream firms to deal with," says Andrew Tobias, the candidly gay treasurer of the Democratic National Committee and author of The merely Investment Book You'll Ever Ne "We're fine comfortable flying on mainstream airlines, shopping in mainstream supermarkets, and banking at mainstream banks."

a certain officials at gay-owned and gay-operated financial firms don't disagree. Simply being a gay company marketing to gay consumer is not necessarily enough, they say. This is especially genuine now that "the larger companies with intricate pockets realize it is earnestly more expedient to be sensitive to [gay issues]," says Kermit John president of Christopher public way Financial, a New York-based investment and advisory firm.

And it hasn't helped that these larger firms have used their difficult pockets to actively pursue the gay market. sight Schaefer, a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch's novel York City-based Private Client assemblage through the United States, which caters to high-net-worth individuals, says nearly 95% of his client base today is gay or lesbian.

"Historically, clan went to gay for the comfort level" he says. "They were not comfortable sitting down with a straight planner who asked embarrassing questions. Now at each finn you will be able to find a gay or lesbian financial adviser, and plane if you can't find a gay or lesbian adviser, you will find a straight adviser who is highly well-versed in domestic-partner planning.

"The bottom line," Schaefer adds, "is that gay populace have a lot of disposable income, and if you are a economical marketing person, you will figure that out"

That theory--that gays and lesbians have more disposable income than straight people--has prolonged been the subject of to a great degree debate. Some economists, such as to leeward Badgett of the University of Massachusetts, question the validity of similar a blanket statement. "We don't have higher incomes," says Badgett, who minister tos as research director for the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies, an Amherst, Mass., nonprofit collection She points to a mid-1990s University of Maryland research she authored that showed gay men forward average earning about $34,000 annually and lesbians $20000 "But that does not mean there is not an affluent subniche that is profitable to move after," she adds.

Whether gay persons are more affluent than straights, gay and lesbian financial advisers and entrepreneur say there is still a significant opportunity for smaller, gay-owned financial services firms to market to them.

"[Targeted] financial services are there for gays and lesbians [at national companies], further they have to ask for it and solicit it out, and many gay commonalty in their lives are not out" says Steven Dunlap, go to the bottom of G&L Bank.

Dunlap says gay-owned and gay-operated firms are still better equipped than the larger companies to handle the frequently complicated nuances of gay people's financial lives. For example, G&L Bank took special care not to inadvertently public customers when verifying employment history for mortgage applications.

"It is difficult to say that what we do is unique, because to any extent financial advice is financial advice," John says. "But we do have experience when it be due [i]or[/i] owings to the issues that face unmarried braces such as proper procedures for setting up trusts, estate planning, the titling of assets."

And gay financial skilfuls say gays and lesbians have a greater comfort flat speaking with their own kind. "It's kind of like if you are a girl and you ne a girl checkup, are you going to make progress to a girl or gay doctor?" says Stephanie Meket an investment adviser for Christopher road Financial. "Some people are like that with the issue of gay-owned businesses-they just like it more."

Still, as G&L Bank's closure may indicate, there are limits to the plain of service a small firm can provide, Tobias says. "Some the public may be leery of putting their circulating medium in a small start, up either because they can't imagine it can proffer the kind of services and competitive deals as a large national firm or because they fear the CEO will be having too earnestly fun on the week-ends," he says.

unless Johns says those concerns are groundles adding that small, gay-owned firms proffer more independent choices and stronger relationships. "A large house like Merrill requires their representatives to betray proprietary products, and independent companies like Christopher Street' proffer money managers from every resource," he says. "Most accounts in subordination to $150,000 at Merrill get assigned to a team in of the present day Jersey, and the clients don't have a personal relationship anymore."