While you save for your financial future and accumulate wealth, you may have asked yourself this question more than once: is it worth hiring a wealth manager?
The short answer is yes, it is definitely worth it if you can find a reputable, experienced wealth manager with the resources and skills you need to help you reach your financial goals.
Why hire a wealth manager?
There are many reasons for hiring a wealth manager. Aside from helping you put your hard-earned savings to work, a full-service wealth management firm can help in many areas beyond just investment advice. Some of these areas include tax planning, risk management, and estate planning. A wealth manager can also help you coordinate some of your other professional services, such as legal, accounting, and insurance, to make sure you have a fully integrated wealth management strategy that covers all of your bases.
A wealth manager is also a good idea for you if you want to be more intentional about creating personal wealth as opposed to just managing what you already have. By aligning yourself with a financial board of advisers, you can put yourself in control of your financial future, and in a much better position to achieve your financial dreams. No one advisor can be an expert in all phases of wealth management. Your stage in life plays a role as well. For example, a couple nearing retirement will have different goals than one that is still in their prime earning years. By finding a firm that is team-based your financial board of advisors will grow with you and subject matter experts should be drawn upon as your financial life-cycle change. Finally, by hiring a wealth manager, you may be able to plan for other goals, such as legacy, tax-free income, or charitable giving.
What do they do?
Wealth managers have a ton of experience working with people just like you. For most people, financial planning can be overwhelming – especially when you start to unpack all of the elements that comprise a holistic wealth management plan.
When you start to work with a firm, your wealth manager will likely have a detailed onboarding process that will help them understand where you are in your financial life. This may include a series of questionnaires, all designed to give them a complete picture of where you are and where you would like to be at retirement.
Your financial manager will also try to understand your appetite for risk in order to get an understanding of your tolerance for loss and your expectations for growth.
From there, your financial manager may start to implement investment strategies in the short term, while planning to help you with long-term wealth management strategies such as tax planning, estate planning, and risk management.
The best wealth managers will give custom services to you and your family. They will take time to understand you, give you valuable advice, and provide you with ongoing feedback and communication so that you can get the best possible results from the relationship.
What are the consequences of not using a wealth manager?
Many people go through life without getting proper advice. This is especially true in the United States where many Americans do not save enough for retirement. Without a wealth manager to guide you along the way, you may have a tougher chance at reaching financial independence at retirement. But for most successful people like you, earning and saving may not be your biggest financial threat. A wealth manager can help you avoid the opportunity cost of leaving you with stagnant savings instead of achieving the upside of putting your money to work for you. And most importantly, your wealth management team can help you keep more of your wealth by shielding it from risk and optimizing your tax strategy.
Hiring the best wealth management firm for you
Once you decide to hire a wealth management firm, how do you get started?
First, do your research. A good place to source wealth managers is through people you trust. In today’s environment, is easy to do your own due diligence online.
Second, be sure to look under the hood. Many wealth management firms say they have a team of in-house financial specialists. But in reality, few do.
The best way for you to achieve your financial goals is to work with a firm that has the in-house team you need to be your financial board of directors.
Ask to meet the entire team and find out the players and how they will be contributing to your plan. At Prevail, we encourage all of our prospective clients to contact us to meet our team.
