The Importance of Finding & Collaborating With a Team of Financial Professionals

June 20, 2019

We often speak with our clients about the need for high quality advice in all aspects of their financial life—not just investing.  As a firm, our approach to working with clients on their financial independence is comprehensive and involves a multi-disciplinary team of advisors. And while many in the wealth management world pay lip service to providing comprehensive planning, in practice the non-investment details of a family’s financial plan are often ignored.  This misses an important insight for high net worth families: receiving excellent advice pertaining to taxes, estate planning, and insurance is critical to achieving successful long-term outcomes. A Comprehensive Approach A comprehensive wealth plan is much more than an investment proposal.  Tax minimization, asset protection, education planning, charitable giving and estate planning are some of the major tenants of a holistic financial plan. To accomplish our goal of putting together all of the pieces of the puzzle for high net worth families, we welcome the partnership of specialized CPA firms, estate planning law firms, insurance advisors and others.  Working together and synergistically on behalf of our clients, the coordination of experts will often lead to better advice and a better plan by allowing us to take all of the complexity involved and simplify it into one cohesive plan. The Advisor Filter™ To this end, we created a process many years ago for reviewing and vetting the other key advisors in a client’s financial life.  We call it the Advisor Filter™.  Our purpose for creating this filter was both aspirational and practical.  Our goal is to incorporate excellent tax, legal and insurance advice that would complement – and deepen – the financial planning process. The Advisor Filter™ considers many criteria when evaluating other trusted advisors.  An example of some of the considerations include:

  • How much experience do they have?
  • What is their reputation in the community?
  • Are their values and approach aligned with the client?
  • Do they have the capacity and bandwidth to add new clients?
  • Does their specific expertise match the client needs?
  • Are they team oriented and collaborative?
Above and beyond a minimum screening for high competence, fit is an important consideration in our filter.  There are many excellent CPA firms and estate planning law firms in Colorado and across the US.  Understanding the goals and personalities of our clients allows us to recommend an advisor who we believe has the best opportunity to form a strong relationship. Affluent families require coordinated and thoughtful advice across all aspects of their financial lives.  We welcome the opportunity to work with other professionals who improve and complement our advice.  As part of our strategic process in working with new families, we discuss and assess the existing tax, estate planning and insurance advice that has been given.  If you are in need of a review for any of these areas, please contact us directly to begin a conversation.