How to Assemble Your Family Wealth Management Team
Over the years, I've had the privilege of working with hundreds of wealthy individuals who took different paths to financial success. Nearly all of them eventually came to the same realization: Managing significant wealth is too complex for any one person to handle alone.
Indeed, those with large amounts of assets face a bevy of financial, legal, and personal decisions that can have wide-ranging implications for themselves, their families, and their legacies.
That's why it's not just beneficial but essential to have a dedicated, trusted team of experts on your side.
Here's how to build your roster.
Identify key positions
- Financial consultant—your point person, whose job is to become deeply familiar with your complete financial picture and have a firm grasp on your challenges, goals, and needs. With this knowledge, they can help you recruit the right supporting players.
- Investment advisor—critical to helping navigate complex investment considerations, from managing equity compensation to evaluating alternative investments. They can offer specific knowledge and expertise in financial markets, provide tailored guidance, and will work with the rest of your team to help ensure your investments conform with your estate plan, tax strategy, and other goals.
- Tax advisor—your guide to the ever-evolving tax code. They can work with you to develop smart strategies to manage your income, potentially maximize your investment gains while minimizing taxes, and help capture available deductions.
- Estate planner—works with your tax advisor to help transfer your wealth tax-efficiently. Without a well-structured estate plan, even the most substantial fortunes can be diminished by taxes, family disputes, and legal fees.
- Legacy consultant—can help resolve potential conflicts by providing a holistic approach to wealth transfer, addressing not just the financial aspects but also the emotional, relational, and ethical dimensions of managing and preserving a family's legacy.
- Charitable specialist—a philanthropic advisor who can help devise a giving strategy that reflects your values and maximizes the impact of your donations through the most tax-efficient means possible, be it setting up a private foundation, establishing a donor-advised fund, or simply helping choose the right organizations to support.
- Risk management specialist—focuses on preserving your wealth by identifying potential risks and creating a plan to help mitigate them. This often includes using complex insurance and legal strategies, as well as continuously monitoring your situation and managing unexpected occurrences.
- Lending specialist—specializes in sophisticated banking and borrowing options. They can help you determine the best way to leverage your assets to meet your cash flow needs.
Working with the team
Experience is the single most important consideration when selecting your wealth team. You want licensed professionals with compatible approaches who come highly recommended.
Suppose you're the head of a household and want to ensure your spouse and two kids, one of whom has special needs, are well protected after you're gone. Dedicated to preserving your assets, your legacy consultant can connect you with tax and trust specialists to design a comprehensive estate plan that can help minimize exposure to federal estate taxes through the use of trusts and strategic gifting. Likewise, your investment advisor can assist in the management of trust assets, while a risk specialist can review your insurance coverage for available options to meet your needs.
In addition to their cumulative professional experience, a key advantage of this team is the ability to confer with one another and your consultant so all parts of this panoramic approach align to help you achieve your goals.
Schwab clients with at least $1 million in assets enjoy a dedicated financial consultant and access to a team of specialists across a range of disciplines who can collaborate to address your unique needs. Clients with $10 million or more in assets also have access to a wealth consultant and even more wealth management specialists, tailored solutions, and additional pricing advantages. Learn more about Schwab Private Client Services and Schwab Private Wealth Services.
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The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered an individualized recommendation or personalized investment advice. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own particular situation before making any investment decision.
All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market conditions. Data contained herein from third-party providers is obtained from what are considered reliable sources. However, its accuracy, completeness, or reliability cannot be guaranteed.
Examples provided are for illustrative purposes only and not intended to be reflective of results you can expect to achieve.
Schwab clients who have $1M in qualifying household assets, including a retail account, are automatically enrolled in Schwab Private Client Services. Schwab clients who have $10M in qualifying household assets, including a retail account, are automatically enrolled in Schwab Private Wealth Services. For program details, please visit schwab.com/programdetails. Certain services may be provided by fee-based affiliated professionals and third-party firms. As part of this program, Schwab clients have access to specialists that provide advice on more complex issues including legal, tax, and retirement strategies. This access is part of the complimentary program, but payment for their services beyond the initial consultation is not.
Investing involves risk, including loss of principal.
Alternative investments, including hedge funds and funds that invest in alternative investments, often employ leveraging and other speculative practices that increase an investor's risk of loss to include complete loss of investment, often charge high fees, and can be highly illiquid and volatile. Alternative investments may lack diversification, involve complex tax structures and have delays in reporting important tax information. Registered and unregistered alternative investments are not subject to the same regulatory requirements as mutual funds.
The information and content provided herein is general in nature and is for informational purposes only. It is not intended, and should not be construed, as a specific recommendation, individualized tax, legal, or investment advice. Tax laws are subject to change, either prospectively or retroactively. Where specific advice is necessary or appropriate, individuals should contact their own professional tax and investment advisors or other professionals (CPA, Financial Planner, Investment Manager) to help answer questions about specific situations or needs prior to taking any action based upon this information.