You’re a wealth manager at an investment firm or trust company. You’re about to be interviewed by a retired couple who describe themselves as well-off and comfortable but not rich. They have no debt. They’ve always handled their financial affairs, but now believe it’s time to engage professional assistance. So, they’re interviewing wealth managers and have told you that the’ve prepared for the interviews by reading articles on that topic, including “A Boomer Couple Interviews Investment Advisors,” “A Boomer Couple Goes Virtual Window Shopping for Advisors,” “Alleviating the Anxiety of the Merely Well-to-Do Boomer,” “When Boomers Might Need a Designated Planner” and “Financial Advisors: Do You Have a Client Retention Plan?”
Their Objectives and Concerns
The couple’s tax advisor highly recommends you and your firm, so they had no problem giving you a “detailed overview” of their situation, including the amounts and sources of their income and expenses, what they own and how they own it, a summary and diagram of their estate plan, a summary of their life insurance policies and some key tax information.
They’ve also shared with you their objectives, what they’re concerned about and, importantly, what they’re not worried about, which many in your business call “legacy planning.” Simply put, their objectives and concerns are to: (1) maintain their comfortable standard of living for the rest of their joint lives at a time of uncertainty about politics, the markets, inflation generally and the cost and availability of health and long-term care particularly and the increasing complexity of just about everything; and (2) consolidate and simplify their affairs as necessary to keep things as financially, legally and administratively simple and secure as possible for the rest of their lives, which could include a transition from living independently to, you know.
Your Mission
So, they said, “You have our information. You know what we’re concerned about and what kind of guidance we’re looking for. After conducting an initial review, we’d like you to skip the usual presentation and just share your high level observations as a professional about how we’re doing vis a vis both of our stated objectives and concerns, where we’re falling short, what we should consider doing first and foremost to get on track and, with as much specificity as possible, how you and your team with its resources would help us to get there from here. That’s it. The clarity, insightfulness and, most of all, the breadth of your observations across our two objectives will tell us whether you’re well-suited to serve as our wealth manager. If we like what we hear, we’ll keep talking.”
The New Frontier of Advice
I pose this situation and setting because I believe that I just described the type and quality of multi-disciplinary, “wide lens” advice and structuring that prospects like these need and want the most today. I believe that the couple’s first objective should be comfortably within the wheelhouse of most knowledgeable and well-resourced wealth managers. In fact, artificial intelligence may be making it a commodity. The second one is, however, decidedly not within their wheelhouse, as it’s well beyond their skill sets, resources and even their business models. Even developing and presenting the high-level observations could be challenging for them.
One Holistic Delivery
The requested packaging of the two needs into one holistic delivery by the wealth manager represents the new frontier in advice. The good news is that wealth managers who want to widen their lens and begin working with more fee-amenable clients have plenty of educational and practice management guidance resources. What’s more, they can tell those who sponsor both national and local conferences and seminars to begin to include these wider lens topics in their programs. In short, there’s an opportunity here for wealth managers, not just to get more business but also to get more referrals from clients’ other advisors.
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