Handling Someone Else’s Money is a Sacred Trust That is Earned

Financial tools are everywhere, but can’t begin to measure the importance of goals or a desired quality of life. The ability of the adviser to align client assets with values is the foundation of a successful relationship and enduring retirement. Plan specifics should reflect a two-way understanding of time and money priorities. Watch the interview with retirement specialist John Nguyen.

Despite the prevalence of online tools, including calculators and dashboards, trust is perhaps the most coveted attribute of a successful financial and retirement planning relationship. Trust begins with familiarity and a deep understanding of the client’s intentions. While results will always rank high, especially the ability of assets to outlive their owner, there are many advantages to a trust-based plan rooted in a two-way relationship. Among them:

  • Each party knows and understands the other, their origins, experience and mindset.
  • By knowing the client’s priorities, advisers can seek alignment of the proper tactics to achieve the desired return or result.
  • Clients who employ multiple professionals that may include a CPA, attorney and similar, can rely on a single point of contact – a family CFO, for example – to oversee asset accumulation, management and distribution.
  • Having a trusted adviser with a holistic view – which differs from a task-oriented CPA – can help reduce or eliminate confusion and redundancies.
  • Tactics such as IRA’s pensions and annuities can be allocated to reflect the changing importance of time and money. Both are subjective, and often misperceived as equal in importance.
  • Proper attention will be given to taxes, which are often the greatest yet most unanticipated retirement expense.
  • Planning can begin early, often five years prior, and extend through five years of retirement. An unexpected loss in retirement’s early years could accelerate distributions from principal and upset the sequence of returns.

Trust is not given, its earned. Relationships can’t begin or maintained without trust.

Syndicated financial columnist Steve Savant interviews top retirement specialists in their field of expertise. This segment features John Nguyen. Right in the Money is a financial talk show distributed in daily video press releases to over 280 media outlets and social media networks.