Goals-Based Wealth Management: An Integrated and Practical Approach to Changing the Structure of Wealth Advisory Practices

Chapter 7Dealing with the Implications of the Process

At this point, it will not surprise readers to see me postulate that the goals-based process changes things quite a bit. After all, the penultimate section of Chapter 6 was entitled “It changes everything!” As in most things, we need to be sure we have positioned ourselves so that we can start. In part, this means that we know we have looked at the most important issues, that we have made key decisions as to which assets or strategies belong where and why; and that we understand the limitations of our process, which, however good we might make it, will never neatly fit each and every situation imaginable. It has limitations and we are in danger of getting things very wrong unless we fully understand where we are standing on firm ice and where we are exposed to the risk of tumbling through it into very cold water indeed. Finally, we must have anticipated the various objections clients will inevitably throw at their advisors when the process appears to impose constraints with which they are, at least initially, uncomfortable.

Covering a Set Number of Bases

Earlier, I mentioned that our focus was going to be primarily on the asset management dimension of the wealth management problem. Without presuming to take the analogy too far, let me state that we do need to maintain some form of peripheral vision. If it is true—and I think it is—that the asset management problem is only one dimension of a family's or individual's challenge, ...