Four types of wealth are equally important to our overall well-being. They include financial, social, physical, and time. I want to address the financial portion, as that can affect all of them.

In general, wealth management coordinates all the moving parts of your financial situation into a comprehensive wealth strategy. This can include wrapping together your tax situation, investments, as well as retirement and estate planning.

You may not require such in-depth help, depending upon your age and financial situation. So how can you decide from whom to get help?

Usually in your 40s to 50s, you begin to get the sense that all the financial balls you need to keep going is getting tougher with the ever-increasing complexity of regulations, time constraints on your ability to manage it all yourself, and hopefully, an increasing amount of money to manage appropriately.

Considerations

The most important aspect of working with a wealth manager is fit. How do you feel talking with them? Are they addressing your concerns? Will their offering of services provide what you need?

Effective advisers will review your financial past, present, and future. This information can help determine the mix of investments that can help you meet your goals.

Situational awareness, making decisions only after considering the entire situation, is also an important quality to seek in a wealth manager. It ensures that your adviser considers every aspect of your financial life including your tax situation, government benefits, and estate plan.

Each firm holding itself out to be a wealth manager will have its own investment philosophy and style of investing. Good managers generally provide offerings around four key investment areas. Those include the protection of the assets you acquire.

In addition, to help ensure you have adequate funds throughout your retirement, growth strategies will have a significant place in your plan. A wealth manager can help you understand the differences in performance, risk, and tax liabilities between common stocks, exchange-traded funds, different types of bonds, mutual funds, and whether any or a combination of them are best for portfolios.

Many who have worked hard to save and scrimp ahead of retirement find they have trouble spending it. You need advice on how to use the funds you have created to enjoy retirement. Working to create a steady cash flow that allows your lifestyle is a key benefit of having help to manage your wealth.

Finally, there are charitable considerations for some folks. Being able to support causes of their choice over time and get some tax benefit for doing so can be of great satisfaction.

Investing Experience

Anyone can research the value of different investments and develop an opinion on what works for a given financial situation. But you don’t really know all the details until you’ve been there. That’s why you need a wealth manager with experience.

The past few years have been interesting in the world of investing. We’ve seen record highs in equity markets followed by a huge pandemic-related fall, only to see new highs just a few months later. This brought to light the critical importance of having a seasoned wealth manager by your side.

The fact is, it’s not difficult to make money in the markets when things are going well. But what happens when things start to shift? That’s when experience becomes paramount in the world of wealth management.

Financial Knowledge

With vast experience comes knowledge, which is vital to the wealth management process. There are countless ways to invest your money, with varying rates of return and levels of risk, and most advisers have access to a variety of investment options.

However, good wealth managers invest their time to understand which investments are right for your specific situation. That involves continuing education, of course, but also research and analysis. And in the best-case scenario, that pursuit of knowledge is fueled by passion and a commitment to making each client’s goals a financial reality.

A quality wealth manager also will have a proven strategy for implementing their financial knowledge. This strategy should draw on both past experience as well as new research to identify the investments that give you the best chance at success.

Finding a good wealth manager is important. More important is finding a good wealth manager who is part of, and has access to, an incredible team of professionals. After all, wealth management is a comprehensive service.

With a strong team behind them, your wealth manager can provide you a comprehensive financial strategy to get all aspects of your financial life aligned toward long-term success.

Bottom Line

Using the services of a wealth manager can be a definite advantage in helping to meet your financial goals. Once you’ve found someone to work with, before you commit, you need to know what their minimum investment to be a client is. You don’t have to be a millionaire—in most cases—but the minimums are a fact. You should be aware of their fee structure and what services are included.