Financial Advisor Chicago: The Smart Choice – PillarWM

Wealth protection should be a top priority for anyone that falls in the category of high net worth or ultra-high net worth. You can set up and implement different wealth protection strategies using the help of a financial advisor. Chicago investors with $5 million to $500 million in liquid investment assets may benefit from seeking financial advice from Pillar Wealth Management. Our wealth managers are highly qualified and offer services to help you meet your financial goals. Check out our special guide on asset management for investors with $10 million or more.

Table of Contents
What Is a Wealth Manager? How Much Do Financial Advisors Charge? What Should I Know Before Meeting a Financial Advisor?

What Is a Wealth Manager?

Wealth managers are a unique type of financial advisor. Ordinary financial advisors typically offer one specialized service to their clients. Wealth managers stand out because they provide a wide range of services, many of which overlap with other advisors’ services. These include:

Cash flow planning
Asset Allocation Analysis
Retirement planning
Wealth transfer planning
Insurance planning

Get in touch with our wealth managers to learn more about our list of services.

Cash flow planning

Managing your wealth is essential at all stages of your life. From the day you start earning and until you are well into your retirement. Your individual needs will vary during each stage of your career, so it is vital to ensure that you are financially secure throughout.

Cash flow planning is a crucial part of the financial planning process. It involves estimating your financial needs and expenses in the future and setting up a strategy to ensure your needs are met.

A professional cash flow planner or a wealth manager can analyze your current income and expenses and forecast how your needs will change over time. This may be especially important if you have specific goals, such as expanding your business or retiring early. We discuss the importance of wealth protection in our book The Art of Protecting Ultra-High Net Worth Portfolios and Estates – Strategies For Families Worth $25 Million To $500 Million.

Asset Allocation Analysis

As a wealthy investor, your portfolio may consist of many different assets. With any investment, you are open to certain risks. These risks should be identified early and accounted for before they cause harm. A financial advisor, such as a wealth manager, can help you with this task.

At Pillar Wealth Management, our wealth managers can study your portfolio in detail and point out any assets that may jeopardize your wealth. They can then help you choose alternative investments that are less risky but also provide good returns.

Additionally, a professional can help you make investment choices that provide greater profits and align with your investment goals. Many of the strategies we use are discussed in our guide to improving portfolio performance.

Retirement Planning

Retirement planning is a task that every wealthy investor needs to perform at some point. Retiring without a concrete plan may force you to live off your savings. Individuals with a high net worth or an ultra-high net worth may not have to worry about ever going bankrupt in retirement. However, they may not be able to live the high-expense lifestyles they are accustomed to.

A proper retirement plan should acknowledge that you will not have active income sources in retirement. Therefore, it will focus on setting up passive income sources that enable you to maintain your current lifestyle without dipping into your savings.

It would help if you started on your retirement plan early to begin implementing the steps towards a comfortable and stress-free retirement. Contact our wealth managers and learn more about our retirement plans.

Wealth Transfer Planning

Many wealthy investors intend to leave their business and or assets in the possession of their children or other beneficiaries following their retirement. This helps ensure that your legacy continues for future generations. However, there are many challenges involved in wealth transfer.

The most commonly encountered problem is unforeseen taxes. Your assets may be subject to taxes during the transfer, which may leave your children and beneficiaries with less wealth than you intended. A proper wealth transfer plan can help you set up your assets in a more tax-efficient manner.

Choosing a successor is also a vital component of any wealth transfer plan. You may intend to leave your business in the hands of a particular individual. However, they may not be best suited to take control of operations.

Our wealth managers can help you assess your choice of beneficiary so that your business is left in the control of the best possible candidate.

Insurance Planning

People who have worked hard to build up their wealth will need to protect it using a variety of resources. This is where insurance comes in. If you own expensive vehicles or priceless paintings, it may be smart to get these items insured.

How Much Do Financial Advisors Charge?

Before using the services of a financial advisor, you should familiarize yourself with their charges. So how much does it cost to use a financial advisor? Some financial advisors charge their clients on an hourly basis. You may need to pay $150/hour or more for such services.

Additionally, your financial advisor chicago may charge you a fee for each financial plan you have requested. These plans can range anywhere from a thousand dollars to multiple times that amount, depending on the firm they are employed by.

If you use the services of a wealth manager, you can avoid these variable fees. At Pillar Wealth Management, our clients are charged a fixed annual fee. This frees you from worrying about any additional charges for using our services.

We have chosen this fee structure as it looks out for our clients’ best interests. You can reach out to our wealth managers for assistance as often as you need to and without incurring hourly charges.

What Should I Know Before Meeting a Financial Advisor?

Once you have chosen to use a financial advisor’s services, you should meet with them in person. However, before doing this, you should familiarize yourself with what to know before meeting with a financial advisor. This includes:

Your Own Financial Goals

It may be helpful to define what your financial goals are before seeking the services of a financial advisor. This can help you stay on the right track when you request a financial plan.

Fees

It would help if you also familiarize yourself with the financial advisor’s fees before using their services. Some financial advisors charge clients their hourly rate for the initial consultation meeting. If you choose the services of Pillar Wealth Management, your initial consultation can be free.

Authors

Hutch Ashoo

Chris Snyder

To be 100% transparent, we published this page to help filter through the mass influx of prospects, who come to us through our website and referrals, to gain only a handful of the right types of new clients who wish to engage us.

We enjoy working with high net worth and ultra-high net worth investors and families who want what we call financial serenity – the feeling that comes when you know your finances and the lifestyle you desire have been secured for life, and that you don’t have to do any of the work to manage and maintain it because you hired a trusted advisor to take care of everything.