Certified Financial Planner Fiduciary: A Guide – PillarWM

As a successful high-earner, you may find yourself in a position where your wealth keeps growing, and your assets continue to diversify. If you have millions of dollars in liquid assets, it can become tricky to manage your finances effectively. Hiring a certified financial planner fiduciary can ease your financial worries by trusting the management of your wealth to a licensed professional. However, you should not take this decision lightly. After all, your life-earnings and future financial status are at risk. We have prepared an exclusive guide for wealthy families with a net worth of more than 10 million dollars on how they can choose the best financial advisor.

Financial planners offer an array of services to help their clients meet their financial goals and safely increase their wealth. If you own $5 million to $500 million worth of liquid investable assets, meeting your targets becomes more practical with the right guidance. Our extensively experienced financial planners at Pillar Wealth Management have helped high and ultra-high net worth clients achieve financial security for decades. Contact us for a meeting with one of our advisors.

What is a Certified Financial Planner Fiduciary?

Financial planners are advisors who discuss with their clients to identify their financial objectives. They use this insight to formulate strategies and narrow down the ideal investments for their client that will secure their assets and increase their wealth to meet their needs.

A Certified Financial Planner (CFP) is an official certification mark granted by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards to individuals who have met the designation’s education, examination, experience, and ethical requirement. The educational requirements are very extensive, requiring students to clear a curriculum of almost a hundred topics on financial planning, from insurance planning and federal income tax planning to financial consultancy.

In addition to passing the respective examination, a CFP must have relevant experience or apprenticeship in the financial planning field to certify. They must show their skills in establishing a relationship with the client, collecting their data, analyzing their economic status, and developing the necessary financial plan. Another skill that they must master is implementing and monitoring the developed recommendations in the financial plan.

The CFP Board also carries out background checks to ensure that the applicant is ethically sound, has good moral character, and no criminal record. CFP’s abide by a fiduciary standard, which holds them liable to legal consequences if they don’t act in your best interest. Additionally, their license must be renewed every two years.

The stringent requirements and in-depth education make CFP’s well-equipped with the knowledge that you need to achieve financial success. If you’re still in doubt about choosing a certified financial planner fiduciary for your financial management, read our guide to learn more.

What Is Meant by Financial Planning?

Financial planning is a holistic approach to money management, where you organize your assets and monetary resources to meet a set of short-term and long-term goals. Financial plans help you outline your expectations for your financial future, whether it be early retirement or starting a multi-million-dollar company.

It assesses your current financial position, savings, active income, how many assets you have, and your financial expenses. Professionals can help you plan out realistic goals, improve your portfolio performance, and pick a sustainable strategy for your financial security.

Customized financial plans are essential for high-earners as their financial needs differ from that of regular people. They tend to have more ambitious financial aspirations and numerous assets to manage. Expert advice is crucial in this regard, as certified financial planners are well-versed in most financial aspects.

What Do Certified Financial Planners Do?

1. Portfolio Management
2. Optimizing Your Balance Sheet
3. Retirement Planning
4. Transferring Wealth
5. Risk Management
6. Managing Cash Flow
7. Tax Management

Now that you know that a certified financial planner fiduciary is qualified for the job, you may want to know what exactly their job title entails. Financial planning involves an array of services, some of which we will talk about here. Free Financial Consultations with Pillar Wealth Management.

1. Portfolio Management

Creating an investment portfolio requires a great deal of knowledge and practice. Choosing the correct investments to accomplish a client’s, institution’s, or a company’s goals is necessary for financial security. As a high net worth or ultra-high net worth investor, you need to make sure you have a strong portfolio that is well-organized and structured to withstand market fluctuations.

Financial planners are aware of the strategies that can help improve your portfolio’s performance. We talk about these strategies in our Performance Guide. Achieving optimal portfolio performance requires your financial planner to analyze your assets, financial targets, risk tolerance, and time horizon. They combine this data to present you with the most profitable investments to include in your investment portfolio.

2. Optimizing Your Balance Sheet

High liquidity does not always ensure financial security. Financial circumstances can change and result in you having to reduce your assets or cut back on your expenditure. Financial planners can help you overcome this by doing an in-depth analysis of your balance sheet. They use diversification to create an optimal balance sheet that will minimize risk and offer you more financial freedom.

3. Retirement Planning

Highly specialized in this service, financial planners help you organize your finances so that your monetary needs can be after retirement. A comprehensive retirement plan outlines the financial goals you have post-retirement and uses strategies to ensure that you continue to receive a steady income to maintain your standard of living.

4. Transferring Wealth

Legacy planning or inheritance planning is one of the services offered by financial planners. Wealthy individuals want to be sure that their hard-earned money is distributed appropriately and carefully to their inheritors. Financial planning strategies such as estate planning, trusts, wills, and life insurance can be included in transference plans in a way that reduces taxes. Our financial experts at Pillar Wealth Management are skilled in helping you transfer your wealth to your beneficiaries. You can schedule a free meeting to learn more.

5. Risk Management

The risk that comes with massive wealth is a crucial aspect to consider in financial planning. If you’re a high net-worth investor, you may be aware of the risk level that comes with each investment, but you may not know the strategies to minimize that risk. Financial planners analyze investment-related risks to mitigate financial losses in the case of any market shift. We discuss how your wealth can be at risk in our book, The Art of Protecting Ultra-High Net Worth Portfolios and Estates – Strategies for Families Worth $25 Million To $500 Million, and how you can prepare for it.

6. Managing Cash Flow

You may have goals such as starting a new business, purchasing a holiday home, or going on a vacation, all of which require financial management and planning. Your financial planner will help make sure that you have adequate funds in your savings as well as for unanticipated expenses. They will analyze your income sources and financial costs to provide scrupulous cashflow planning. Keeping track of your assets and liabilities will help you sustain your wealth and high financial status.

7. Tax Management

Affluent individuals have millions of dollars in liquid assets, which are liable to taxes. Financial planners can help lower your tax obligation to allow you to keep as much of your money as possible. Legally sound techniques and strategies are used to develop tax deduction plans. For example, increasing your charitable spending can help you cut back on your taxes.

Is it Time for You to Hire a Certified Financial Planner Fiduciary?

With a clearer understanding of what is a certified financial planner fiduciary, you may be leaning towards hiring one. If you have a high or ultra-high net worth of more than $10 million in liquid assets, you know that this choice can be difficult. Our guide is designed specifically to assist you in making the best decision possible.

A financial expert’s services can be beneficial at any point in time for things as simple as money management. However, there are some instances when you need to consider professional financial advice, for example, when you have a massive influx of cash. You may be conflicted about spending it, saving it, or investing it. A financial planner can help you with this decision after presenting you with various options that meet your objectives.

Major life events such as unemployment, marriage, divorce, starting a family can take an emotional and financial toll. A financial planner can provide you with objective, unbiased advice on re-allocating your funds in these situations. Similarly, if you want to retire or plan a secure financial future for yourself, a professional can help you make well-informed decisions.

Anyone who needs a certified financial planner fiduciary has their own reasons for hiring one. As an affluent investor, a fiduciary financial planner is best suited for you as you can trust them to protect your wealth due to their legal responsibility.

Financial Planning for High Net-Worth Investors

Many wealthy people are skeptical about trusting their fortune in the hands of others. However, certified financial planners follow a fiduciary duty which ensures the security of your wealth. The question remains, “Why high net worth investors should hire a certified financial planner fiduciary?”

Financial planners’ educational background gives them a deep knowledge of financial matters, which they apply to help you achieve your goals. Taking a professional’s second opinion on your financial plan can help you identify areas of risk. This can potentially save you from financial ruin. They also present you with alternative strategies that you can implement to boost your wealth. Portfolio management requires skills and experience that you may not possess. We discuss five critical shifts that you can implement in your portfolio for maximum growth.

Financial complications can become overwhelming, especially when it’s your hard-earned money that is involved. Certified financial planners use their judgment to work through these complications for your best interests. They can advise you against potentially risky investments and prepare contingency plans for various liabilities. Free Financial Consultations with Pillar Wealth Management.

How to Find the Best Certified Financial Planner Fiduciary Services?

Finding the right financial advisor for you is crucial in achieving financial serenity. Our Ultimate Guide can assist you in making this decision. There are a few steps you can take to make sure you find the best certified financial planner fiduciary services for yourself.

Online reviews can often testify to the quality of services a certified financial planner provides. You can shortlist and consult with your desired advisors to gain a clearer picture of whether they understand your goals and values. You can ask questions to test their knowledge or learn more about their strategies, methods, and fee structure. Some skills only come through practically implementing your knowledge. Therefore, you should consider their experience, especially whether they have the knowledge to manage the multiple assets of high net-worth clients. Book a meeting with one of our wealth managers to gain insight from their vast knowledge on various financial topics.

Whether they practice active or passive investment management determines their services and fee, with active investment management having a higher management fee than passive investment management. The difference between the two is that active investment management allows your financial planner to make transactions on your behalf for short-term gains. Passive management involves more research for the long-term growth of your wealth.

Asking for a recommendation from friends or acquaintances can make this process faster and easier for you, especially if they themselves have high-value assets. Reputation and reliability are the key factors in selecting any financial advisor.

Take the Step

Protecting your wealth requires more than investing in multiple assets. It requires a financial plan to help you monitor your finances and allocate your resources appropriately to secure a future that you envision for yourself. With a certified financial planner fiduciary, you would not need to worry about your money being misused or taken advantage of. Their high ethical and moral standard ensures that your fortune will remain secure and continue to grow.

Pillar Wealth Management provides wealth management for affluent investors with liquid assets worth $5 million to $500 million. We can create holistic strategies to boost and secure your wealth using our skills, expertise, and experience in multiple financial matters. Reach out to one of our experts for a free consultation on your financial life.

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