Strategy Highlights

Week 26
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Strategy 6: Build Your Professional Network

Why you need a professional network

Your ability to address key financial issues beyond investment management is essential to delivering the complete wealth management process. Affluent clients want more than just a one-time financial plan that rapidly goes out of date. They want a process that helps them make smarter decisions about all of their financial issues as they move forward throughout their lives.

To provide this advanced planning—the AP in the wealth management formula—you need help. Contrary to what some financial planning groups are still teaching, you simply do not need to know everything about how to address advanced planning issues. In fact, no one person can be an expert in the entire range of advanced planning needs and solutions. Instead, you need to build a network of professionals—authorities who have deep knowledge across the range of these specialties.

Key members of the network

We have found that the great majority of wealth managers are able to address most of their affluent clients’ advanced planning needs with four core network members:

1. You: the wealth manager

As the wealth manager, your job is to be the general manager of your network of franchised professionals. The goal of your network is straightforward: to help your clients address their most pressing needs in the four areas of advanced planning.

As the general manager of your network, you have three primary roles:
2. The private client lawyer

The private client lawyer is the key member of the professional network. He or she addresses tax, estate planning and legal needs—all critical areas of concern for solving the challenges of affluent clients. Private client lawyers are not the trusts and estates lawyers employed by private banks or life insurance companies. Instead, more often than not, they are partners at high-end boutique firms.

3. The accountant

While the private client lawyer will provide a big-picture perspective on tax planning, the accountant typically has much more detailed, day-to-day knowledge of income taxes. He or she should be able to make specific recommendations to mitigate these taxes.

4. The life insurance specialist

The insurance specialist works closely with the private client lawyer to identify and structure solutions that leverage the entire range of insurance products. You want a true independent—not someone who receives any kind of incentive from a company.