Your wealth and future deserve quality service
What does the Ritz Carlton of wealth management mean to you?
- If you value your time and wealth you'll need the coordination
of
your professionals' efforts.
- Your wealth manager must know everything about you; otherwise
you will not receive the Ritz Carlton of wealth management.
- What you need is a financial concierge.
Why do we choose to pay two to three times more
for a room or eggs Benedict at the Ritz than at most other places?
The simple answer is because the Ritz truly makes us feel special.
It's the little touches like a beautiful robe to wear around the
room, the reception you receive from the doorman before you even
set foot into the hotel, the turning down of the bed and, let's
not forget, the chocolates on the pillows. Notice that these aren't
very expensive things, but they are, when combined, truly world-class
customer service.
So how can you get the same, or more, pleasure and
satisfaction from the wealth management services you receive?
After all, chances are you are paying a lot more money for wealth
management than to the Ritz.
To illustrate we'll use a real life example of a
$10 million net worth client who recently retained us because
of high taxes, uncertainty about his estate plan and high turnover
and lousy returns on his portfolio.
Our first step in the process was to get to know
this client and develop his "family vision." Without
the thorough understanding of the client's deepest desires and
fears, we don't see how anyone could help him to achieve everything
that is important to him. This means asking deep, drilling questions
such as:
- Who are your loved ones and how do you wish to have them taken
care of?
- Do any of your loved ones have special needs?
- What causes or charities are nearest and dearest to your heart?
- How much involvement do you like to have in dealing with your
professional advisers and in the planning we do for you?
- How would you like us to report our progress? Do you prefer
e-mail, phone or written communications?
- How important is privacy to you?
- What are the challenges we need to help you overcome?
Once we develop the family vision it is time for
us to go to work. For this particular client we contacted a highly
renowned estate planning attorney and shared the family vision
with him. Then we asked for a review of the current estate plan,
including whether the three trusts that the client's attorneys
had set up was the right strategy. Furthermore, we wanted to know
if a family limited partnership, wealth replacement trust, gifting
strategies, defective trusts or any other advanced strategies
would be appropriate.
We will soon be engaging a CPA on this client's
behalf to cull through all the tax matters at hand. It is worth
noting that we will only involve the client in the discussions
with the CPAs and attorneys to the extent they wish to be involved
– some want no involvement.
Another project we just completed for this client
is an investment tax ramification report. Now, we are ready to
reposition the investments into a low-turnover, low-tax, cost-efficient
and properly allocated portfolio. The client will in turn start
receiving simple-to-understand, dashboard-type quarterly reports
with an update of how the plan is moving along. Here again, depending
on the client's personality, we may offer a 50-page report versus
a 10-page report – the point is, it's all customizable to
the client.
This client travels a lot, and through our aggregation
tool he will be able to view his plan, portfolio, bank balances,
frequent-flyer miles, credit card balances, mortgages and any
other Web-accessible information thorough one location on the
Web, from anywhere in the world. Furthermore, we have set up direct
deposits with tax withholdings so this client won't have to worry
about having money in the bank when he is far from home and needs
access to cash.
Finally, on a Saturday this August, at their home,
we will be meeting this client's children to educate them and
help them understand the lay of the land.
In conclusion, wealth managers are like hotel rooms.
You can stay at the Marriott or you can choose to stay at the
Ritz – the choice is yours. What you wish to do with your
time and how your wealth and family visions are managed is what
is at stake.
Christopher G. Snyder and Haitham "Hutch"
E. Ashoo are principals of Pillar Financial Services in Walnut
Creek. Contact them at 925-356-6780.
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