Wealth Management Advisors: Do You Need One?

Firstly, let’s get one thing straight— it’s almost impossible for you to efficiently and effectively manage your wealth on your own if you are an ultra-high net worth individual with over $10 million in liquid assets. You’ll need a trusted wealth manager to help you meet your financial goals and protect your wealth. Unfortunately, there are many wealth management advisors in the market who put your money at undue risk and don’t give you the care you deserve. If you’re worried about finding the right wealth manager to manage your ultra-high net worth assets, you need to check out this free and reliable guide for high net worth investors with more than $10 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

Table of Contents
What Does a Wealth Management Advisor Do? How Do Wealth Management Advisors Get Paid? What Do You Look for in a Wealth Manager? Final Words

If you’re a high net worth or ultra-high net worth individual, there’s a very high chance that you’ve had some sort of experience in dealing with wealth management advisors – or at least with people who claim to be as such. Yes, we’re talking about the major “financial institutions” (big banks, well-known Wall Street brokers, etc.), who’ve “McDonald-ized” their wealth management process for the high net worth individuals.

Unlike mega banks and brokers, Pillar Wealth Management offers wide-ranging wealth advisory services that are personalized to your specific situation and needs. Our wealth managers use their combined 60+ years of experience in wealth management to make sure you can have financial serenity. If you are an individual with a net worth between $5 million to $500 million in liquid assets, we can help you protect and grow your wealth at the same time. Head over to our website and schedule a free chat with us.

Are wealth management advisors worth it?

It’s worthwhile hiring a wealth management advisor if you have difficulty managing your money. You may be spending too much and not saving enough. An advisor can get you on track.

Do rich people use wealth management advisors?

Rich people may need financial advice because they need help making good investments, ensuring they have enough money to retire, and preserving their assets for their beneficiaries.

How long should you stay with a wealth management advisor?

A good advisor is someone who will be with you all along your financial life trajectory. Your advisor manages your assets successfully over time and is someone you trust.

Who are the top 5 wealth management advisors?

According to NerdWallet, the top five wealth advisors of 2023 are Vanguard Personal Advisor Services, Facet Wealth, Zoe Financial, Harness Wealth, and Betterment Premium.

At what point do you need a wealth management advisor?

Once you accumulate wealth and start to spend it, you may need help to ensure that when you retire, you’ll have enough money to live comfortably and have assets to pass on to the people you love.

Is a 1% wealth management fee worth it?

With a well-diversified portfolio, with low risk, your investments should earn at least 5% annually, and more in the long run, so 1% is a reasonable price to pay for long-term financial security.

Are financial advisor fees tax deductible?

Financial advisor fees have not been tax deductible since 2017. Then, they were only deductible to the extent that they amounted to more than 2% of your adjusted gross income.

What is the best wealth management advice you've ever received?

As a wealthy individual, you should always think twice before borrowing money, which is gambling on the outcome. Needing to borrow money as a wealthy individual should raise a red flag.

Where do most people get financial advice?

You can get free financial advice from your bank or credit union and from your employer’s HR department. Most investment firms provide educational materials online.

Should I use a financial advisor from my bank?

Before using your bank’s financial advisor, check out their credentials. Find out how they are compensated. They may be incentivized to sell the bank’s products, which may not be the best for you.

What is a Wealth Management Advisor?

A wealth management advisor is a financial advisor who caters to high-net-worth individuals and families, providing personalized advice in all areas of financial planning. Through an open and trusting relationship with a client, the wealth manager is able to understand the client’s personal and financial circumstances.

A wealth management advisor works with the client to develop a financial plan that aims to achieve the client’s financial goals, both short- and long-term, covering advice and recommendations for investing, retirement planning, philanthropy, insurance, and tax and estate planning.

The advisor recommends an investment portfolio aligned with the client’s goals, values, and risk tolerance. The advisor monitors the portfolio and rebalances it as needed. Through regular contact with the client, the advisor can re-evaluate the portfolio to account for any significant changes in the life of the client.

Wealth Manager vs Financial Advisor

A wealth manager is a financial advisor who offers financial services to individuals with investable assets valued at over $1 million. These services include financial planning, retirement planning, and investment management.

Most financial advisors offer a similar basket of products and services, although some may have a specialty, such as retirement or estate planning.

It’s typical for an advisor to require a minimum amount for the client to open an investment account, and charge a percentage of the account’s value as a fee.

Tips for Choosing a Wealth Management Advisor

Once you establish the account minimum required to work with an advisor, you can focus on whether the advisor can provide the services you need.

You should ask the advisor about their background and certifications, which you can verify online with FINRA or the SEC. Find out about their typical client. Ask about their investment approach.

Most importantly, ask the advisor how they are compensated. What are their fees and charges? Ask them if they are a fiduciary and if they act in the best interests of the client at all times.

After your initial conversation, you will know if this advisor is someone you are comfortable with.

What Does a Wealth Management Advisor Do?

Knowing what we know, answering this question is both simple and complicated at the same time. While we know exactly what a wealth management advisor should do, we often don’t see many of them follow through with those best practices. There’s often a big difference between what some of the big and famous wealth managers should do and what they actually do – we’ll tell you exactly what you need to know to spot this.

But firstly, let’s just answer the question, “what does a wealth management advisor do?” simply by using the example of successful wealth managers.

At Pillar Wealth Management, we consider wealth management to be a personalized collection of financial advisory services exclusively designed to help protect and grow the wealth of high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals with $5 million to $500 million in liquid investment assets. We go in-depth into exploring your life goals and help you meet them financially without worrying about ever losing your money.

Though we offer a massive range of services, let’s take a look at some of the most important things you need to know about what we do at Pillar Wealth Management and why the difference in what we do is important.

We understand that you’re really busy. If you can’t read through all the services we offer, you can sign up for a free consultation on our website for a quick chat with us.

How Wealth Managers Are Different From Other Services

There are a lot of investment management services available in the market. As a smart investor, you need to understand the difference between the jobs of wealth management advisors and other services.

Robo-advisors, for example, manage your investments via computer algorithms with minimal or no human interactions. These investment services only have a generic formula that they apply to every investor that comes their way.

Doesn’t sound like a very reliable idea, does it? As high net worth or ultra-high net worth investor, you should get the attention your wealth deserves. No robot could ever understand you and your life goals like a human wealth manager.

Other than that, you can go to financial advisors. These individuals help you make plans regarding your investments, retirement, current finances, and taxes. Though financial advisors should be able to do all that, most financial advisors at large banks or Wall Street organizations end up giving you just an investment plan without execution – and even then, it’s just a copy-paste of what they give others! You then have to take the plan elsewhere to buy securities. If you’re tired of meeting with financial advisors that can’t help you with your specific needs, check out our Ultimate Guide to Choosing The Best Financial Advisor.

Finally, you also have investment brokers. These individuals or groups purchase bonds, stocks, and other securities on behalf of their clients from exchanges. They charge a commission for every transaction incurred. However, they do not offer anything more than that.

So, what does a wealth management advisor do? Wealth managers are Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) who provide a complete range of financial advisory AND investment services. At Pillar Wealth Management, we help you grow, maintain, or manage your wealth according to your goals. If you want complete management of your portfolio, a wealth manager will do that too.

Fiduciary Duty

This where you see a significant difference between RIA wealth managers and other types of investment services. Big Wall Street investment brokers and major banks merely purchase securities on your behalf or provide you with one of their “tried and tested” investment plans.

Why do they do this? It’s because they do not have a fiduciary duty to act in your best interests. RIA wealth managers, on the other hand, do have a fiduciary duty to only make decisions that are best for you.

This is because they have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and agree to the Advisors Act of 1940 in order to become an RIA.

The Advisors Act of 1940 compels them to always act in your best interest when advising you to make investments or when managing your portfolio on your behalf. They must also make full disclosure regarding any material conflicts of interest.

If you want to know what it’s like to work with real RIA wealth advisors who care about protecting and growing your wealth, head over to our website and schedule a free chat with us.

Services Offered by Wealth Management Advisors

Wealth management advisors focus on helping you achieve financial security and financial serenity to allow you to live your life as you deserve. As a high net worth or ultra-high net worth individual, you’ve worked hard all your life to be able to enjoy yourself now.

Wealth managers help you achieve your life goals while making sure you don’t have to worry about losing your liquid assets. If you’re an ultra-high net worth individual with $25 million to $500 million in liquid assets, our hardcover book on “The Art of Protecting Ultra-High Net Worth Portfolios and Estates – Strategies For Families Worth $25 Million To $500 Million” can help you understand how to best protect your wealth.

At Pillar Wealth Management, our wealth advisors use their combined 60+ years of experience to help you with:

Investment management
Retirement planning
Asset allocation analysis
Tax planning
Estate planning
Insurance planning
Cash Flow Planning
Risk Management

This is not at all a full list of what we offer. The main point is that our wealth management services revolve around catering to your personal life goals rather than earning commissions off investments.

How Do Wealth Management Advisors Get Paid?

Investors deserve to know about how wealth advisors are paid and the fees and costs red flags you should watch out for.

At reliable wealth management firms, like Pillar Wealth Management, we make all the costs and fees you will incur clear to you from the very first meeting. You will have no doubts about where your money is going, and there will be no hidden costs.

There is usually a difference between the costs of active wealth managers and passive wealth managers. Active wealth management is usually costlier since they’re actively buying and selling investments. They may have more transaction costs and service fees.

Passive wealth managers will typically charge a percentage of your total assets being managed every year. The market average for this fee is 1%. However, an ultra-high net worth individual with over $10 million in liquid investments can negotiate lower fees. If you want to learn more about this, check out our guide here.

Now, let’s also take a look at the major red flags you need to identify when dealing with wealth management fees and costs. Some companies are not aware about the costs and fees they charge. These little costs can pile up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for high net worth investors!

Red Flag: The Advisor Says Costs and Fees are the Same Things

Recognize how we’ve consistently been referring to costs and fees as different charges. Almost every advisor will charge a fee for their services, as we mentioned earlier. However, a wealth manager that has your best interests at heart is also responsible for informing you of the costs you incur and how to manage them.

Some of the most common costs associated with wealth management include taxes, commissions paid to money managers, bond sale spreads, internal expenses, etc. Most of these costs can be reduced through smart wealth management.

At Pillar Wealth Management, we try to save avoidable costs. By saving on these costs, we’re able to maximize your portfolio growth strategies and your investment performance. To learn more about how we optimize your portfolio, check out our easy-to-follow guide for families worth $5 million to $500 million.

Your wealth manager needs to inform you about all hidden and avoidable costs like taxes from capital gains, active vs. passive costs, bond sale spread, commissions, and so on. If they don’t, make a run for it!

Do I Need a Wealth Management Advisor?

If you have a significant amount of money to invest, you might consider getting some advice. You may not feel comfortable with trading, or you may have specific financial needs. An advisor can create a financial plan that covers your income needs for retirement and create an investment portfolio that integrates your goals and risk tolerance.

What Do You Look for in a Wealth Manager?

The answer to this question is an important one. As a high net worth or ultra-high net worth individual, you need to make sure you choose the right wealth advisor as the wrong one could result in huge losses. A wealth manager should:

1. Have a proven record of successfully dealing with individuals of your financial calibre

You’ve worked all your life to be a winner and get to where you are. You’ve made money, and success for you isn’t about beating an index and earning 10% per annum. Your success now revolves around achieving your life goals.

You don’t need someone who’s going to just make one aggressive investment after another. You need someone who will help you achieve your goals.

2. Focus on consistent asset allocation

Improving and maximizing portfolio performance is all about having the right asset allocation with consistency. If you want to learn more about enhancing portfolio performance, check out our guide here.

3. Focus on reducing your costs

This is extremely important. Your wealth advisor should focus on reducing your expenses wherever possible. It can make a world of difference.

4. Invest in your goals

Your wealth management advisor should only work towards reaching your goals, without any of their own emotions or conflicts of interest.

Final Words

Now that you know a whole lot about wealth management advisors, you might be asking yourself: “are wealth advisors worth it?”. After all, you could get a lot of the services offered by wealth advisors from big banks and financial institutions.

The choice is yours in the end. However, remember that a lot of the bigger banks and Wall Street tycoons won’t give you the special attention and care you deserve.

At Pillar Wealth Management, you’ll find wealth advisors who study everything about your life and give you recommendations based on them. We aren’t just focused on aggressively making investments; we also want to help clients with $5 million to $500 million in liquid assets live their best lives with financial serenity.

Visit the Pillar Wealth Management website to book a free consultation today,and we will create customized strategies to help you protect and grow your wealth so that you can live life as you want.

Authors

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.