It’s been said “More money, more problems.” Yes, the wealthy have concerns. There are a lot of aspects of their lives they don’t worry about. Why? Because they have “people.” As an excellent financial advisor this often includes you. Lets look at the problems you take off the table.
1. Day-to-day portfolio management. They aren’t worried about daily market movement because they aren’t driving the bus. You aren’t driving it either. You have suggested they own a portfolio of separately managed accounts. The managers at these well known firms buy and sell on the client’s behalf. They get confirms.
2. Getting the “insufficient funds” message at an ATM machine. They don’t use credit cards all the time. They either have a borrowing capability setup on their cash management type account or you check periodically they have an adequate cash reserve in the account where they pay bills and get cash advances.
3. Getting cash or using their debit card overseas. You have your client trained to tell you when they are traveling, where they are going and how to reach them in an emergency. You put their debit cards into international travel status for the period of time they will be away.
4. Portfolio performance. Why don’t they worry? Because you meet or talk with them for scheduled portfolio reviews. They sit across from you, knowing how they have done relative to their goals and appropriate indices.
5. Getting cash to wayward relatives and family members. If cousin Harriet is stuck in Arizona with no money, they know they can get in touch with you and you will solve the problem by having them show up at one of your bank’s local branches. Your client will authorize a certain amount of money. You will contact the bank internally and somehow make it happen. If not, there’s always the wire transfer option.
6. Getting year-end tax statements to their accountant. They are actually pretty good at getting this stuff organized. Even if they weren’t, they connected you with their accountant years ago. The two of you have become friends. You can get tax documentation to the accountant if necessary, with your client’s permission. That nice accountant is sending you referrals too.
7. Their children won’t understand the value of money. They have enlisted you to teach their offspring about handling money and the responsibilities of wealth. This was made easier when they opened accounts with you. Their wealthy parents are sending $15,000 per parent in their direction annually as gifts.
8. Managing their philanthropy. They want to support worthy causes, but aren’t sure how much they can give away. You’ve come up with all sorts of answers. One charity got an insurance policy that’s fully paid up. You got them to set up a foundation, topping it up annually. They process requests for donations through their foundation.
9. Understanding what they own. They don’t buy on the “trust me” philosophy, although they trust you completely. You have explained the inner workings of every product they own. They know why they own a stock and what needs to happen for it to go up.
10. Are they being overcharged? All this service comes at a price. Competitors approach them, trying to win part of their business. They lead with price. You have explained how your firm makes money on the different products they own. You have aggregated the total amount and shown it as a percentage across all the assets where you directly or indirectly offer advice. They think that’s very fair. From time to time you find a way to save them money. They insist you don’t need to do that, yet brag to their friends that you do.
The wealthy worry about lots of stuff. Well, maybe not these 10 items.
Bryce Sanders is president of Perceptive Business Solutions Inc. He provides HNW client acquisition training for the financial services industry. His book, Captivating the Wealthy Investor can be found on Amazon.