What is Wealth Management?

As we begin another year, we thought we’d take the opportunity to introduce ourselves. Often, when people hear “Wealth Management” they are not exactly sure what that means. The reality is it can mean a lot of different things. Google the term and Wikipedia will tell you it is “providing services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals and families. It is a discipline which incorporates structuring and planning wealth to assist in growing, preserving, and protecting wealth, whilst passing it onto the family in a tax-efficient manner and in accordance with their wishes. Wealth management brings together tax planning, wealth protection, estate planning, succession planning, and family governance.” Hey, that’s actually pretty good. Put into our words, wealth management is all the ways we help our clients plan, grow and protect their legacies across generations.

Plan

We believe planning is critical to success. Whether we are discussing estate planning, retirement planning or investment planning, we encourage our clients to have a plan they understand and follow. We work with them to adapt to changes while also helping them avoid missteps often caused by waffling on a strategy based upon behaviors biases. Behavior biases are instincts we all share that, left unchecked, can derail the best plans. A recent study by Charles Schwab found a surge in behavior biases amount investors likely contributable to the pandemic. One of the most common, recency bias, is an easy trap to fall into for all investors. If you have success in the markets, it can be easy to believe you will continue to have success. But, it’s important to remember past results aren’t indicative of future success. We find helping clients recognize and overcome natural instincts that derail plans, as our strong suit. We take the emotions out of situations to help clients make rational, objective decisions.

Grow

We work with our clients not only to grow their assets through strong performance but also to consider all factors that contribute to success over the long term. This can be tax efficiency, on-going contributions, minimizing under-lying investment expenses, and structuring of asset ownership. Our Wealth Advisors are well-versed in looking at the big picture for the client to coordinate with our Investment Team to grow wealth over time.

Protect

Our Trust Officers are often tasked with carrying out family protection over generations. This is done by carrying out our clients wishes through estate and trust administration. We can ensure a child with creditor issues or poor spending habits, is financially secure. We can ensure a disabled child is protected financially. We also work to manage affairs, so a family legacy (like farmland) stays in the family for generations.

The best part about all these areas of Wealth Management is that we work collaboratively with our clients, our internal teams and outside experts. We invite you to let us be your trusted team, a team you can TRUST.