They were referring to liquid assets, and the bank policy of catering to affluent customers with at least $250k in liquid assets.
This is a family making at least 200k a year cash.. with a house in PA and a house in the hot VA market... I am sorry but unless the family has drug or gambling addiction problems I'm not buying that they only have 140k in liquid assets. His wife and his 401k/IRAs/etc alone probably have more than that in them.
The problem with folks "estimating" other folks net worth, is that most times the estimators don't have a real clue of what a person holds.