Working With a Wealth Management Advisor

Working with a Wealth Management Advisor

Wealth management can be summarized as the problem of more. Affluent individuals have more assets to manage, but this also means they have more assets to lose, more assets to protect, more decisions to make, and more advisors soliciting them with what often ends up being simplistic, or even lousy, advice. Working with a wealth management advisor is crucial to managing your wealth and addressing your specific needs across the whole spectrum of your financial situation.

Table of Contents | Wealth Management Advisor

Who Needs a Wealth Management Advisor?

Most people don’t need high net-worth wealth management. Many will need one – perhaps even several – of the services a true wealth manager provides, but only high-net-worth individuals need wealth management. The key services you need as a high-net-worth individual include:

Each of these service areas can be further broken down into several subsidiary services, but hopefully, just looking at these key services, you are struck by the breadth of true wealth management. Each area is key to preserving and growing your wealth and passing it on to your heirs and favored causes. As a high net-worth individual, you have achieved a level that requires this all-encompassing approach. You need wealth management, and you shouldn’t settle for less. 

The Wealth Management Approach

The correct approach for successful wealth management is comprehensive. It’s a holistic approach. Effective wealth management advisors integrate all key areas of your financial situation to ensure that all areas function correctly and allow you to achieve your goals. 

Some people are tempted to do this alone, but this is a recipe for disaster. Effective wealth management is complicated enough to demand the services of a trained, experienced, and objective wealth management advisor. Of course, using your newfound free time to research one of these areas and develop some skills there is possible. But the odds of you developing the necessary expertise across all the areas required by comprehensive wealth management without making a major blunder are slim. Just take a look at the complexity of these tax strategies to get an idea.   

A professional wealth manager, like First Financial Consulting, will start by asking questions. We don’t jump to investment recommendations or start with discussions of performance. Those are back-end issues that flow out of a comprehensive wealth management plan. To develop a customized wealth management plan, we start with foundation questions which include:

When do you want to retire?

This question tells us how many years are available to improve accumulation strategies or change diversification techniques before the transition.

What are your living expenses now, and what will they be in retirement?

It’s important to understand what expenses will continue, which will be dropped, and what expenses you’d like to add. Do you want to travel, give more to charity, help the kids/grandkids, etc.?

What legacy do you want to leave, and to whom?

Understanding where you might want to make gifts is critical to managing wealth. Not only do you want to enjoy your assets, but most high-net-worth individuals want their heirs and/or favored causes to be blessed as well.

What protections do you want to provide your heirs from taxes, financial malfeasance, or lawsuits?

Structuring your estate plan to protect your heirs from the tax man, lawsuits, and their potential mistakes is possible. Read more about the top nine most common estate planning mistakes to avoid. 

What are your key assets and liabilities? What do they earn, and what cash flow do they generate?

These questions uncover how your current assets are helping or hindering you from achieving your goals.

How are they going to change?

If there is a planned or contemplated lifestyle change or liquidity event, you must understand how it might change your situation and your ability to achieve all your goals.

What are the risks to your current situation, and are they being mitigated?

As we wrote above, having more assets means having more to potentially lose. Life is uncertain, and the economy and markets are too. You need to understand what events could negatively impact your wealth and your goals and then take appropriate actions to mitigate or insure against them.

What specific goals are appropriate for your investment assets?

Most high-net-worth individuals do not know what rate of return their assets should earn, nor what level of volatility and downside they are exposed to. This is a critical lapse. You need to know exactly what the targeted rate of return is and what downside is possible with that target return. You need to be able to hold any wealth management advisor accountable for achieving that goal without incurring more risk than you’ve agreed to accept.

How often do you want to review your situation going forward?

After a detailed wealth management plan has been developed and implemented, all the key components and assumptions should be revisited frequently. That frequency should reflect your desires and calendar schedule, but it needs to be regular and consistent. You cannot afford to lose track of your progress.

What other questions need to be asked in your specific situation?

The questions above are just the starting point. Based on your unique situation and goals, additional detailed questions will be important. Your wealth management advisor needs to take the time to ask and address all of these.

That wealth management plan should be thorough, detailed, and presented in a format that gives you confidence that your goals will be achieved and that your risks are being effectively mitigated. A truly professional wealth management advisor will cover all of these and then develop specific solutions around the answers to these questions.

Unfortunately, many “advisors” rely on software programs that generate lots of pages and charts, diagrams, etc., to convince you the plan is right. Too often, these miss the mark, are confusing, and leave you wondering whether you’re going to achieve your goals. Never mistake quantity for quality. If you don’t have confidence in the plan, you will not effectively implement it, and you certainly won’t stick with it.

Wealth Management Is A Relationship

One of the most important parts of the wealth management approach is the wealth manager’s relationship with the client. The process described above takes time. A professional wealth manager should be willing to take the time to go through the process with you to thoroughly understand every part of your current situation and your goals – both your financial and personal goals. 

But time alone is not enough. The best wealth managers build a relationship with their clients. You don’t want the experience to feel like a police interview in a small cubicle behind a one-way mirror. You don’t want the experience to degenerate into a list of questions with the answers simply fed into a computer for a pre-loaded plan to be prepared. 

At First Financial Consulting, we take time to get to know our clients and certainly ask questions (just see the list above). But each question can lead to a different follow-up question, to a nuanced understanding of the client’s situation, goals, and risks, to a critical subjective need that must be met, or to a better understanding of a deep-seated fear which must be relieved. We care enough to delve deep and build relationships that allow this to happen naturally and comfortably. 

You should also feel comfortable enough to ask your financial advisor questions about how they operate. 

We realize that you care what we know; we have to be good at our jobs. But you also need to know that we care. Suppose an advisor doesn’t really care about the client as a person or doesn’t understand the profound impact advice can have on an individual’s and their family’s life. In that case, the client isn’t going to share, isn’t going to trust, and ultimately isn’t going to be as successful. At First Financial Consulting, we care deeply about the people who come to us, about their future, and about the future of their heirs, who will be impacted in profound ways by the work we do with clients.

What Types of Wealth Management Firms Are There

Wealth management firms run the gamut from large multinational firms to small one-person self-employed advisors. The size and structure of a wealth management firm often impact the ability of the wealth manager to meet your needs and master all the key areas necessary for the client.

Too small a firm usually means there will not be sufficient resources for the wealth management advisor to truly become a professional wealth manager. They won’t have experience in all the key areas and won’t be able to keep up to date on the inevitable changes that occur. Just keeping up with changes in the tax code can be overwhelming, let alone trying to also monitor changes in investment options, risk management, retirement tools, estate planning, and estate planning techniques. 

There is a critical mass that is important, but being too big causes its own problems. Almost without exception, the wealth management advisors I’ve met who work in a major multinational institution have more clients than they can possibly handle, and they are economically motivated to move up the career ladder. They earn more by being promoted to the next level. When they do, someone else must step in and take over their client relationship. This scenario is not conducive to personal, tailored wealth management or long-term success since clients inevitably lose confidence in the plan.

Some wealth management advisors aren’t advisors at all; they’re just the spokesperson for some computer software robot in the background which is making all the recommendations – and making the same recommendation for every client in every situation.

In the middle are the boutique, elite private wealth management firms. Like First Financial Consulting, these firms have enough critical mass to keep up to date with changes in the financial and legal landscape. They also hire dedicated wealth management advisors who remain focused throughout their careers on building relationships with their clients to help them achieve their goals. Many of our wealth management advisors have worked with the same clients for years – guiding them through all phases and stages of life and then working with their kids and grandkids. It’s an admirable profession for those who want to serve and can do it well. 

What Credentials Should A Wealth Management Advisor Have

There is no official designation of “wealth management advisor.” Unfortunately, it is a title that any advisor can put on their business card or website. That doesn’t mean there aren’t credentials that a true wealth manager should achieve. There are several certifications that provide evidence that the advisor has studied and mastered a body of knowledge that gives them the expertise to become a true, professional wealth manager.

At First Financial Consulting, we have found that the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP), certified public accountant (CPA), chartered financial analyst (CFA), and master of business administration (MBA) offer the best training, well-rounded focus, and ongoing continuing education requirements to keep wealth managers sharp and up to speed. 

There are others to be considered, and FINRA provides a detailed list, but we consider the CFP, CPA, CFA, and MBA to represent the crème of the crop. In all cases, though, you should work with an accredited individual employed by a firm that supports and values the effort required to attain and maintain those designations.

Do I Need a Wealth Management Advisor?

Not everyone needs wealth management, but for those who do, it is critical that you understand what true wealth management represents. Find a professional wealth management advisor who cares and will take the time to build the necessary trust and relationship so they can help you with all the aspects of building, enjoying, preserving, protecting, and passing on wealth.

Furthermore, you should do your homework to confirm a wealth manager’s ability to live up to the high standards needed in this profession and make sure they work for a firm that invests in those individuals so they can invest in you.

We at First Financial Consulting are proud of our 45+ year history of successful, individually tailored wealth management. We judge our success by our clients’ success. We have been working with many of our clients and their families for 30+ years, and we never take the responsibility inherent in this work for granted. We remain committed to supporting our great team of wealth managers and support staff so they can help you in all phases and stages of life. If you’d like to begin a conversation about how we can help you, please use the link below to schedule a complimentary introductory appointment.

Family Limited Partnership
Family Limited Partnership
Family Limited Partnership
Family Limited Partnership
Family Limited Partnership
Family Limited Partnership
Family Limited Partnership
Family Limited Partnership
Family Limited Partnership

What is a Family Limited Partnership

A Family Limited Partnership is simply a formal partnership where the partners are family members. Like other partnerships, a Family Limited Partnership (FLP) is a real business selling products, services, or renting property to real customers. The difference here is that family members are involved, and the partnership is structured to provide a number of significant tax and legal benefits for the family. The three most powerful benefits are:

  • Reduction in estate taxes
  • Preventing future growth in asset values from being estate taxed
  • Protection from lawsuits or divorce actions.

If constructed and managed correctly, the Family Limited Partnership can be a powerful tool for high-net-worth families. Interested in learning more? Schedule a meeting with one of our advisors to see if FLPs are right for your situation.

When we say there is a “real” business involved, we don’t mean that you have to start a new business. In fact, most FLPs are created to take ownership of an existing business or investment real estate. Whether you already own a manufacturing, distribution, or services company or own several real estate investments, you can transfer ownership into the FLP to take advantage of its key benefits.  

Understanding the Family Limited Partnership

Here’s how it typically works. On day one, you have an attorney create a Family Limited Partnership agreement. There needs to be at least one general partner and one limited partner, but typically, there are several limited partners. To activate the partnership, you would transfer your ownership of your business or investment real estate into the partnership in exchange for all the general and limited partnership shares. On day two, you would own 100% of the partnership, which now owns 100% of your business or investment real estate.

Here’s where the fun begins. To take advantage of the key benefits we’ve mentioned, you need to gift some or all of the limited partnership shares to other family members. This isn’t just a series of random gifts; you’re gifting shares to each family member whom you eventually want to own your assets after you’ve passed away.

You’re fast-tracking your estate plan. Instead of waiting until you’ve passed away when your heirs would receive your assets, you’re giving them away now in a manner that reduces gift and estate taxes while providing some creditor protection. To understand why you need to understand more about the difference between general and limited partners.

General vs. Limited Partnership Interests

General Partners

General partners in a Family Limited Partnership are responsible for the management of the partnerships and its assets. They control management of the partnership very similarly to how a business owner controls his or her company. The general partners have unlimited liability for debts incurred by the partnership agreement, but there are ways for general partners to protect themselves against liability. The general partners can be paid a salary just as a business owner is paid a salary.

Limited Partners

Limited partners in a Family Limited Partnership are only responsible for management duties that the general manager assigns them. They also can be paid a salary. The limited partner is not responsible for the partnership’s liabilities, and the limited partners do not have any control over the partnership. All that control stays with the general partners. These limited partners are generally the youngest family members – typically children or grandchildren.

Percentage Ownership

The responsibility and control described above is NOT affected by the percentage each partner owns. In other words, if the general partner(s) own 2% of the partnership, they still control 100% of the partnership and, therefore, 100% of the business or investment real estate in the partnership.

The limited partners could own 98% of the partnership, but they still would NOT control the partnership, nor any of the business or investment real estate in the partnership.

Sharing Profits and Cashflow

The profits of the Family Limited Partnership (after salaries and other expenses) must be shared with all the partners in the same percentage as their ownership. In our example above, the general partner(s) would control 100% but would own 2% and therefore only be entitled to 2% of the profits; the limited partners would not control anything but would own 98% and therefore be entitled to 98% of the profits.

Remember, the general partner controls who fills different management roles and which family member is paid a salary. The general partner can take a substantial salary in keeping with his/her management role.

Cashflow distributions are discretionary. The general manager determines whether a distribution will be made. This is important – and goes to the heart of the benefits we mentioned – because the limited partners are entitled to a share of profits (and have to pay income taxes on them), but the limited partners are not entitled to cash if the general partner decides he or she isn’t going to make a distribution that year.

The partnership agreement allows the general partner to keep management control over the business or real estate and to keep control over cash flow.

Advantages of Family Limited Partnership

The unique ownership structure of Family Limited Partnerships is what allows this estate planning tool to provide such powerful benefits.

In this video, Greg Welborn gives a review of some of the complexities and benefits to Family Limited Partnerships.

Tax Reduction

The FLP reduces estate and gift taxes because partnership shares are not worth the same amount. In a general corporation, one share of stock has the same fair market value as another share of stock. In a Family Limited Partnership, the general partner shares are uniquely different than the limited partner shares. The general partner shares (even just 2% ownership) are more valuable than the limited partner shares.

Think about this logically. If I told you I own a company worth $1,000,000 and want to sell 98% of it to you, you’d be willing to pay me $980,000 (98% of one million dollars). But if I told you that those 98% shares do NOT let you vote for the board of directors, do not let you fire/hire the managers of the company, and do not entitle you to any dividends or distributions, you would not pay me $980,000. You might still want to own part of this company, but you’d pay me a lot less for those shares.

A good general rule of thumb is that you’d pay roughly 60%. In other words, there would be a 40% discount in value for those shares which do not give you any control. That discount can vary, but it is a good rule of thumb.

The IRS acknowledges this economic fact. That means if you gift your kids/grandkids 98% of the Family Limited Partnership in limited partner shares, the IRS will acknowledge that you’ve made a monetary gift of roughly $588,000 (a 40% discount on $980K).

Tax laws only allow you to give away a certain amount of your net worth before estate taxes are due. If you use a FLP, you can give away almost all of a $1 million business or investment property but only use up a small amount of your lifetime estate tax exemption.

This is known as valuation discounting, and it is very powerful. If used on larger businesses or real estate, the tax savings are huge.

Preventing Future Growth From Being Taxed

This is a pretty simple concept. Once you’ve gifted the limited partner shares, they are out of your estate. No matter how large the underlying business or real estate grows, it won’t be subject to estate tax or gift tax as long as it stays within the Family Limited Partnership. This benefit can be continued for future generations if the limited partner shares are gifted to trusts for your kids instead of to the kids directly, but that’s a topic for a different article.

To understand the power of this technique, let’s assume the business or real estate grows by 6% per year. In 24 years, the $1 million value will have grown to $4 million, but there will not be any estate or gift tax on that $3 million in growth.

Creditor and Divorce Protection

The sad reality is that many civil lawsuits and divorces are not settled on their merits but instead are settled on whose lawyer is the best poker player. It’s mostly a negotiating game. If your kids are seen as “deep-pockets” with lots of cash flow coming their way, the attorney suing them is going to go for the jugular and not be motivated to settle.

On the other hand, if your child’s attorney points out that a substantial portion of your child’s net worth is limited partnership shares offering no control, no rights to liquidate, no cashflow, but potentially a substantial tax liability, well, that other attorney is more motivated to settle quickly and for less money. In fact, if structured properly, FLP shares couldn’t even be included in your child’s or grandchild’s divorce case; they would be off-limits.

The Right Structure and Right Asset Are Critical

Family Limited Partnerships are powerful tools for high-net-worth families, but not all FLPs are created equal. The key is choosing the right asset or investment real estate to be owned by the partnership. You need to balance cash flow, earnings, future growth, potential future asset sales, and a number of other factors before deciding which assets to place into a FLP. You need to carefully consider what restrictions you want to place on the limited partners to maximize the tax and creditor protections.

It all starts with a well-crafted and personally tailored wealth and estate plan. Understanding where you are now, what you want retirement to look like, and how best to achieve that are all precursors to establishing a Family Limited Partnership. We highly recommend you engage the services of a 100% objective wealth advisor – someone who qualifies as a fiduciary and is legally bound to act in your best interests – to design your family’s plan and help you implement it.

Family Limited Partnership

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