Wealth planning as an investment-advisory discipline incorporates financial planning, investment portfolio management and a number of aggregated financial services. High-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), small-business owners and families who desire the assistance of a credentialed wealth advisor specialist call upon wealth managers to coordinate retail banking, estate planning, legal resources, tax professionals and investment management. Wealth managers can have backgrounds as independent Certified Financial Planners, MBAs, Canadian Chartered Strategic Wealth Professionals, CFA Charterholders or any credentialed professional money managers who work to enhance the income, growth and tax-favored treatment of long-term investors. Wealth management is often referred to as a high-level form of private banking for the especially affluent. One must already have accumulated a significant amount of wealth for wealth management strategies to be effective
6-Step Wealth Management Planning Process
During your initial meeting with us we will present our terms of business and explain how we work. If we agree to work with each other and prepare a Wealth Management Plan we will commit to a rigorous six step financial planning process.
01. Data Gathering
This involves establishing details about your assets and liabilities, income and expenditure. Understanding arrangements already in place and attitude to investment risk.
02. Goal Setting
This involves establishing your goals and aspirations for the short and long term. Understanding your commitment to meeting your objectives.
03. Identification of Needs
We will analyses your current position and assess any gaps in your situation. Next we will identify what needs to be done to meet your objectives.
04. Report Preparation
Our analysis and recommendations are presented in a written report. This forms the basis of a formal review at which we agree on an action plan.
05. Implementation
Affecting the plan will invariably involve new and changed arrangements. We liaise with providers and other professionals to implement the agreed plan.
06. Review and Revision
Wealth management is a long term plan that requires regular annual review. Changes in your circumstances are considered as well as fund performance.
In short wealth planning process begins with a core planning review that helps enable you and your family to:
- Identify and prioritize your most important wealth management goals and concerns
- Review a net worth statement to gauge your progress toward reaching those goals
- Articulate how you oversee your investments and view your personal tolerance for investment risk
- Review a checklist of important estate documents, including wills, powers of attorney, living trusts and beneficiary designations
Wealth management involves highly customized and sophisticated investment-management and financial-planning services delivered to high-net-worth investors. Generally this includes advice on the use of trusts and other estate planning vehicles, business-succession or stock-option planning, and the use of hedging derivatives for large blocks of stock.
Traditionally, the wealthiest retail clients of investment firms demanded a greater level of service, product offering and sales personnel than that received by average clients. With an increase in the number of affluent investors in recent years, there has been an increasing demand for sophisticated financial solutions and expertise throughout the world.
The CFA Institute curriculum on private-wealth management indicates that two primary factors distinguish the issues facing individual investors from those facing institutions:
- Time horizons differ. Individuals face a finite life as compared to the theoretically/potentially infinite life of institutions. This fact requires strategies for transferring assets at the end of an individual's life. These transfers are subject to laws and regulations that vary from locality to locality and therefore the strategies available to address this situation vary.
- Individuals are more likely to face a variety of taxes on investment returns that vary from locality to locality. Portfolio-management techniques that provide individuals with after tax returns that meet their objectives must address such tax structures.
For clients with comprehensive or complex wealth planning needs, various components of your wealth plan, including:
- Retirement and cash flow planning
- Company benefits and equity compensation analysis
- Risk analysis and insurance planning
- Investment planning and asset allocation
- Education funding analysis
- Estate services and gift planning
- Charitable planning
- Corporate executive planning services
- Business advisory services
The wealth planning process often identifies several options for you to consider. Your relationship manager and planning specialist can help you decide which of the solutions and strategies are most appropriate for you. Then, your relationship manager will mobilize The Private Bank’s full resources to put your plan into action.
