With my career serving as a family financial planner in Boston and the greater New England region, I don’t always get to share my behind-the-curtain perspectives on what my day-to-day looks like. People who don’t me or who have little understanding of the different umbrellas of financial planning/advising may think of the stereotypical caricature of the money-chasing broker. I tell you, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
My day is not filled with monitors showcasing emerging meme stocks, nor am I cold calling people to sign them up for my mutual fund. No, most of what I do daily is communicate with and help generations of families work towards their goals and deal with bumps in the road as they arise; family financial planning for generations means I’m in touch with the entire family tree, ensuring members from different generations know what’s going on with the family as a whole, and also how their plans fit into the bigger picture.
Family Wealth Management Services – What Is Needed Most
To sum up the role in a nutshell, family financial planners like myself work closely with family members to understand their unique financial goals, such as planning for retirement, funding children’s education, and managing daily expenses. We provide guidance and advice when things get cloudy and unclear, which often happens with investments, savings, and budgeting.
The ongoing goal for any family financial planner worthy of consideration is crafting strategies and providing real-time guidance so that all generations are secure and confident about their financial future.
Where I Find Most Fulfillment in My Career
If you’re a frequent reader of my blog articles, you’ll know my life revolves around my family and spending as much time with them as possible. I’m not the advisor who will tell you to skip the bi-weekly cup of coffee with your friends or forgo the annual family trip to Disney World because I know that time is the most precious asset. While there are ways to extend, grow, invest, and ultimately make your money work for your needs, there’s no buying back time, and I always advise my clients, don’t skip the memories because you can only make them so often.
Whether it’s helping grandparents set up trust funds for their grandchildren or advising parents on how to teach their kids about money management and avoid pitfalls, I love helping my clients enhance their lives through their finances because we all know money can do the polar opposite and pull families apart if it’s not well-managed; value vs. cost is hard for some to grasp, and I act as the guardrail when strategy and perspective need alignment.
Family Wealth Management Services – A Day in the Life
Without disclosing names or details, I wanted to share some examples of where I’ve found my role to be most valuable to my clients and most meaningful to me:
Dealing with Loss
I recently had a client pass away; they were elderly, but it was somewhat unexpected. Anyone who has experienced the passing of a parent like this knows how much needs to be taken care of; tons of communication happens between lawyers, estate planners, financial planners, family members, funeral homes, and much more; this is not easy for the recently bereaved; it’s very hard, actually. In many cases, if the parents and children are not on the same page, it can be incredibly difficult to understand who is in charge of what and what needs to be done. As the planner for this family, I was able to take care of all the communications that needed to be done and have everything pre-coordinated so that each member could spend with their loved ones and process their loss as needed. No one should have to go through multiple agencies and put together a puzzle when processing the loss of a loved one.
Optimizing for Better Outcomes
A client referred me to his father, who needed to receive current, proper, and relevant financial guidance. He had set things up years prior and thought that was all he needed to do. But, as life changed, his legacy planning was not in order, and the leave-on inheritance strategy he had put into place for his grandchildren was not going to be effective in the way he intended. In fact, he had an account with substantial funds that was, in his mind, supposed to go to his grandchildren, but in reality, they were not going to see any of that money – his wishes needed to be articulated properly in a will, trust or by simply adding a TOD (transfer on death) to the account.
Here’s the happy ending to this story. Because I caught this poor arrangement, we saw an opportunity to take this a step further and use this inheritance to teach the grandkids about money now rather than after he passes away. It opened the door for each of them to meet with me and discuss investing and expectations for this generous gift; three of the five have already set up monthly contributions to these new accounts and are forming great financial habits.
Family Wealth Management Services – More Than a Faceless Interaction
When I meet a client and learn their story and financial goals, I make it my mission to bring them as close to those goals as possible and even show them optimal paths they weren’t aware of. I love learning about families, maybe because I’m such a family man myself. If I can help families avoid mistakes and process through the rough patches of life, I know I’ve done my job. I do this by becoming more than a phone number or customer service email address – I like to think I have become a trusted and helpful personality who knows their ins, outs, and needs, connecting all the dots across the family tree.
If you’d like to discuss your situation and how my family wealth management services may best suit you and yours, please don’t hesitate to book an appointment.
