High Net Worth Investing Strategies

Having a robust investment strategy is what makes high net worth individuals highly successful. A well thought-out and implemented investment plan forms the critical link between developing tangible life-cycle goals and actually accomplishing them. With the world of investing getting increasingly complex, however, making the right decisions is never easy. If you’re only getting started with more than $10 million in liquid assets, go through our guide titled 7 Secrets to High Net Worth Investment Management, Estate, Tax, and Financial Planning. When you’re ready to invest but aren’t sure where to begin, reach out to Pillar Wealth Management, a wealth management firm that specializes in serving investors with $5 million to $500 million in liquid assets.

STRATEGIES FOR FAMILIES WORTH $5 MILLION TO $500 MILLION

7 Secrets To High Net Worth Investment Management, Estate, Tax and Financial Planning

The insights you’ll discover from our published book will help you integrate a variety of wealth management tools with financial planning, providing guidance for your future security alongside complex financial strategies, so your human and financial capital will both flourish.

Clients frequently share with us how the knowledge gained from this book helped provide them tremendous clarity, shattering industry-pitched ideologies, while offering insight and direction in making such important financial decisions.

CLICK HERE to qualify for your FREE COPY of this Book

In this guide, we’ll walk you through some of the most effective investing strategies for high net worth individuals as well as the top mistakes they should avoid while investing.

Table of Contents

Top Investment Strategies for High Net Worth Individuals
Top Mistakes High Net Worth Individuals Must Avoid
Conclusion

Top Investment Strategies for High Net Worth Individuals

Define Your Investment Objective

Before anything else, determine whether you’re after aggressive long-term compounding or looking to preserve capital. Perhaps it’s consistent income that you’re trying to generate from your capital to support your lifestyle. It’s important to determine your investment objective before developing an asset allocation strategy. Once you have a purpose in mind, you can choose from the variety of options that can be tailored to fit your objectives. There are strategies that meet both aggressive and conservative investment objectives. To learn more about them, conduct a video consultation meeting with our wealth managers at your convenience.

When defining your investment objective, however, be sure to take into account your investment horizon. If you’re a younger investor with a longer horizon to work with, you should be able to achieve a significant compounding objective with aggressive but low volatility strategies. But if you’re older and are interested in generating a stable cash flow from your portfolio, it might be more rational to choose conservative strategies.

Liquidity is the key factor in determining the investment horizon you’re dealing with. Think about how quickly you need access to your money. If you require speedy access to your invested funds, for instance, illiquid assets like real estate may not be ideal for you. Potential returns are certainly an enticing factor when building your portfolio, but it’s just as important to account for other factors such as liquidity and volatility before making investment decisions. If you own more than $25 million in liquid assets, be sure to check out our hardcover book titled The Art of Protecting Ultra-High Net Worth Portfolios and Estates – Strategies For Families Worth $25 Million To $500 Million.

Acquire and Hold on to Growth Stocks

One of the best high net worth investing strategies is to buy and hold on to growth stocks. These are business stocks that have not only displayed above-average returns but also demonstrate further potential to grow dynamically. However, making research-backed picks for your portfolio demands a lot of research and careful analysis of the company and industry. This makes this space a little tricky. To understand your options, acquire our free book titled 5 Critical Shifts For Maximizing Portfolio Growth Strategies – For Families Worth $5 Million To $500 Million.

Once you’ve acquired such stocks, all you need to do is hold on to them in the long run. While this strategy is more suited to equity as an asset class, it can be applied to any investment. In the long run, the market tends to go upward. Compare the state of Wall Street from its beginning in 1792 with where it’s now. The prices of commodities and goods such as oil, gold, or even real estate all have a steep upward curve. In terms of wealth appreciation, a long time horizon is a tremendous strategy for high net worth clients.To understand how to acquire growth stocks, conduct a video meeting with our wealth managers.

Look for Tax-Free Investments

High net worth investors typically fall into higher tax brackets, which is why their investment strategies should be focused on minimizing tax exposure. Most traditional tax-reducing strategies like IRA contributions don’t prove as effective for high net worth investors as for an ordinary individual. For example, regardless of your income, IRA contributions are limited to $7,000per year if you’re aged 50 or more.

For high net worth investors, tax-free municipals are an effective investment type. Suppose you need to choose between a tax-free municipal bond paying 3% interest and a taxable bind paying 5%. In the case you’re in the top tax bracket, the tax-free municipal bond should be a better choice. This is because with the taxable bond, your federal income tax payments and net investment income tax can reduce your yield to lower then 3%.

Keep Your Portfolio Diversified

Diversification is the most common investment strategy, especially for high net worth investors. But there’s more to understand here. Even if you invest in multiple asset classes, it won’t matter if you fail to diversify within an asset class. Even if you invest in alternatives, try your best to diversify within the asset class. As you build your portfolio, be sure to assess its performance from time to time. Our Performance guide can help you improve your portfolio performance.

Target Assets with a Low Correlation to the Public Markets

General guidance on diversification recommends allocating money to multiple asset classes in the public market such as bonds, large cap equities, international equities, and REITs. The reason why this strategy is flawed is that it’d be strongly correlated to any correction in the public markets.

You may choose to invest in REITs, regarded as “alternative” assets, but their high correlation with other public market indices differentiates them from Private Real Estate.

Thus, it’s best to enhance the diversification of your portfolio even further by investing in private real estate that have a low market correlation. Even when the public markets are in a downturn, the potential to generate positive returns will persist.

Try to Target Low Volatility, Consistent Returns with Long-Term Compounding

To build a strong asset portfolio, consider targeting assets that have historically demonstrated consistent returns and low volatility. Again, these attributes are commonly found in assets like private real estate.

Consider Hedge Fund Investing

Among the most effective high net worth investing strategies is to invest in hedge funds. While hedge funds come with a broad range of tactics, they carry unique risks, have higher management fees, and are often limited to accredited investors. As a high net worth individual, obtaining the status of an accredited investor shouldn’t be a problem.

Top investment firms like Pillar Wealth Management will keep you informed about the risks associated with hedge fund investing. For instance, they’ll advise you that you don’t get much information about the contents of the hedge fund. But this very fact gives you and your wealth manager an edge in the market, making it a benefit for you.

Besides, in an attempt to boost your returns, you may use leverage, which can be borrowed money. As long as you don’t need to draw capital in the short term and possess substantial assets, this strategy can work for you. Otherwise, it will do more harm than good.

Top Mistakes High Net Worth Individuals Must Avoid

Here are some of the mistakes you should avoid as a high net worth individual:

Going with the Crowd

One of biggest mistakes you can make is to follow what other ultra-high net worth individuals are doing. While it’s helpful to seek inspiration from the richest, you must always base your decisions on your individual circumstances.

Even if someone has exactly the same net worth as you, their situation will be different from yours. Your goals, tolerance level, fund requirements, and so on will all vary from those of another high net worth investor. Therefore, it’s okay to research and analyze the decision made by other high-profile investors, but not a good idea to copy what they’re doing. For valuable decision-making advice, schedule a video meeting with our wealth managers today!

Not Taking Market Volatility into Account

It’s true that financial markets can be resilient, but this doesn’t mean that they’ll always act rationally. Failing to account for the highly volatile nature of the markets can lead you into financial doom that can end in disaster. Always anticipate market volatility and its ability to cause unavoidable losses.

Concentrating Your Wealth in Only One Asset

This is the biggest blunder an individual can make when building their investment portfolio.Suppose you generated impressive returns from one investment instrument during a time period. Following this, you decide to invest all your savings and funds in it. In the worst-case scenario, all your savings can be wiped out with this strategy. As a high net worth individual, you may also be tempted to invest only in bonds and stocks. With the possibility of a market swing in the other direction, this concentration is similar to a suicide. Hence, always try to stick to the asset allocation principle of diversification.

Investing in the US Market Only

When it comes to making investments, the American and European markets are highly preferred. As developed economies, they feature advanced tech-based systems and practices. As a high net worth investor, you may choose to invest in these markets only. This isn’t advisable because you’ll lose on a lot of opportunities by not considering emerging markets. Singaporean, Indonesian, and Indian markets, for instance, have demonstrated unprecedented growth and tremendous resilience in the past few years. You may not know it, but even ultra-high net worth individuals are now turning to these markets.

An experienced wealth manager or financial advisor can help you find the right foreign markets to invest in. Since you may not possess sufficient knowledge about foreign markets, it’s best to rely on expert advice.

Doing Everything Yourself

As a high net worth individual, you must be smart, accomplished, and probably possess the intelligence to invest money and build wealth. But problems result when you begin to think that no one can do the job better than you. Remember, the more money you have, the higher will be the risk. Many high net worth individuals are glad that they hired a seasoned professional to boost their wealth.

With extensive experience serving high net worth individuals, expert wealth managers understand the ins and outs of the financial market and are more informed about the changing market dynamics. To find a financial advisor, take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best Financial Advisor for Families Worth $5 Million to $500 Million.

Conclusion

If you’re a high net worth individual looking to build a profitable portfolio, follow the investing strategies and avoid the mistakes mentioned above. As you move forward, however, you’ll realize that nothing beats the value of professional advice. A team of wealth management professionals can offer valuable insight and advice into building a profitable portfolio that meets your investment objectives and works best with your tax situation. Hire Pillar Wealth Management, which serves investors with $5 million to $500 million in liquid assets. To obtain an idea of our wealth management services, schedule a video meeting with our wealth managers today!

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.