“Financial planning” is a broad umbrella term and can be somewhat ambiguous, covering everything from saving for retirement, Social Security optimization, paying for college, buying a house and much more. And most holistic focused advisors are able to address these issues.
But when it comes to more sophisticated areas, such as estate and tax planning, clients in many cases often seek out an advisor that offers advanced planning in-house.
Advanced planning remains one of the most under planned realms of finance, and it makes sense why. Areas like estate and tax planning require careful attention and can be difficult to scale as a result.
For that reason, smaller firms often find that their bigger clients will eventually “outgrow” them as their wealth increases and their situation becomes more complex (a sad phenomenon, considering that the firm left behind played a major role in building that wealth).
Yet even the bigger firms that can afford to employ advanced planning teams struggle to do it efficiently. The services are largely reserved for UHNW clients and even then, it’s still not ideal, often taking weeks or more to turn anything around.
But a solution may not be too far off.
The Problem With Advanced Planning
Let’s say I’m an advisor at a national firm who is well-versed in investments, and I even offer retirement analysis, too. I do great with the average client, but when it comes to more complex areas like tax and estate planning, I turn to my advanced planning team.
Here’s where things get tricky. Advanced planning can be time-consuming work, which means a long turnaround time. Increasingly, we’re seeing lawyers with six-figure salaries overwhelmed with this system, spending too many of their days making PowerPoints when their skills could be put to better use.
And because it can be such an intensive process, these advanced planning teams are usually reserved for only the wealthiest of clients, despite the fact that even the smallest client needs help in those areas.
Think of how many accounts people have with large investment companies where they’re getting investment advice and maybe a little cash flow planning, but no one is touching their critical advanced planning areas.
For smaller firms, offering advanced planning services seems like an out-of-reach fantasy. They simply don’t have the resources to employ an in-house advanced planning team.
So how can we level the playing field for all advisors and clients?
The answer is in your tech.