Heed this firm's advice and you may wind up with your toes in the sand and money to burn. Sanford C. Bernstein, a unit of AllianceBernstein (formerly Alliance Capital Management), was founded by the late Sanford Bernstein in 1967 to manage the discretionary accounts of the wealthy; it has some $70 billion of assets under management for affluent families, as well as pension funds and corporate investors. Sanford Bernstein's hallmark, however, is the fundamental company and industry research and securities valuation it performs for institutional clients. The company is active mainly in the US, where it maintains some 20 offices.