As the trend of consumers seeking the aid of all-inclusive wealth managers to design a financial plan grows, ensuring the chosen firm aligns well with your and your family’s needs becomes crucial.
While quantitative data like assets under management, employee count, client base, average account size and so forth can be readily accessed via the firm’s ADV filings, it’s often the “less tangible” aspects that play a decisive role in the success (or otherwise) of the partnership. Consider these four pivotal elements when choosing a wealth management firm….Story continues…
By: Editorial & Advertiser disclosure
Source: 4 Tips for Choosing a Wealth Management Firm: Expert Advice
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As awareness of wealth management has become more common, some companies have shifted towards a model which asks clients about life goals, working environments, and spending patterns as a way to increase communication.The industry-recognized wealth management was more than an investment advisory discipline.
In 2015, United Capital rebranded their wealth management services using the term “financial life management”, which, according to the company, was intended to more clearly define the difference between wealth management companies and more affordable brokerage firms.The same year Merrill Lynch began a program, Merrill Lynch Clear, which asks investors to describe life goals, and includes an educational program for clients’ children.
For clients looking to leverage their wealth for the sake of achieving philanthropical and charitable goals, social finance investments may be included. The term “wealth management” occurs at least as early as 1933. It came into more general use in the elite retail (or “Private Client”) divisions of firms such as Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley (before the Dean Witter Reynolds merger of 1997), to distinguish those divisions’ services from mass-market offerings, but has since spread throughout the financial-services industry.
Family offices that had formerly served just one family opened their doors to other families, and the term Multi-family office was coined. Accounting firms and investment advisory boutiques created multi-family offices as well. Certain larger firms (UBS, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch) have “tiered” their platforms.
With separate branch systems and advisor-training programs, distinguishing “Private Wealth Management” from “Wealth Management”, with the latter term denoting the same type of services but with a lower degree of customization and delivered to mass affluent clients. At Morgan Stanley, the “Private Wealth Management” retail division focuses on serving clients with greater than $20 million in investment assets while “Global Wealth Management” focuses on accounts smaller than $10 million.
In the late 1980s, private banks and brokerage firms began to offer seminars and client events designed to showcase the expertise and capabilities of the sponsoring firm. Within a few years a new business model emerged – Family Office Exchange in 1990, the Institute for Private Investors in 1991, and CCC Alliance in 1995. These companies aimed to offer an online community as well as a network of peers for ultra high-net-worth individuals and their families.
These entities have grown since the 1990s, with total IT spending (for example) by the global wealth management industry predicted to reach $35bn by 2016, including heavy investment in digital channels. Wealth management can be provided by large corporate entities, independent financial advisers or multi-licensed portfolio managers who design services to focus on high-net-worth clients.
Large banks and large brokerage houses create segmentation marketing-strategies to sell both proprietary and non-proprietary products and services to investors designated as potential high-net-worth clients. Independent wealth-managers use their experience in estate planning, risk management, and their affiliations with tax and legal specialists, to manage the diverse holdings of high-net-worth clients.
Banks and brokerage firms use advisory talent-pools to aggregate these same services. The Great Recession of the late 2000s caused investors to address concerns within their portfolios. For this reason wealth managers have been advised that clients have a greater need to understand, access, and communicate with advisers about their situation.
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