Standard of care
Definition: The level and type of care that a reasonably competent and skilled professional, with a similar background and in the same industry, would provide under the same circumstances.
Unlike in medicine or aviation, there is no industry-wide standard of care for investment advice or wealth management. However, over many years and working with hundreds of families,we have developed an experienced professional point of view about many wealth management topics, which is why we have formed into our own standard of care.
By defining our professional point of view on a variety of planning topics and organizing them into checklists, we can help our clients navigate their wealth planning challenges and opportunities, like an airline pilot navigates a cross-country flight, ensuring they receive the highest standard of care available to live their one life the best way they can.
Life is a journey with many twists and turns
Here’s the basic math about modern lives. Let’s assume the average person is now likely to live well into their 80s. This person’s life can be divided into four segments, averaging approximately 8,000 days, or 22 years, each.
Each of these phases of life present their own unique challenges and opportunities. While the challenges and opportunities faced in the first half of life revolve more around becoming educated, finding a life partner, and raising children, in the second half of life, effective financial management becomes an integral part of our success.
The good news? After working with hundreds of clients, these phases create predictable scenarios that our team is adept at handling. By using our checklists, we are able to help tackle this complexity in an organized and systematic approach.
The checklist defines and elevates the quality of care that we provide to clients, which goes beyond other advisors who seem to deliver advice spontaneously. In most cases, wealth advisors help simplify the task of managing each relationship by addressing only a narrow range of issues. Unfortunately, an unintended consequence is that clients often think that they have addressed all the financial issues of their life when, in fact, there are often many important challenges and opportunities that are neglected.
We will create a customized checklist for your family that shows whether you are currently on standard. Being on standard represents a powerful confirmation that nothing is missing from your plan. For families who aren’t on standard, the checklist provides triggers for us to engage a conversation on the new issues to address and resolve. Your personal checklist becomes a shared vocabulary between our team and your family, and a way to understand the necessary next steps.
