For those who have accumulated significant wealth, keeping money in the face of taxes is often the top priority.
Paradoxically, it's the goal which is frequently underestimated by a client's advisors.
The Keeping-Money Advice Gap
Financial planning and wealth management needs almost always comes down to one of three activities:
- Growing money
- Keeping money
- Leaving money for loved ones and philanthropy
For those who have accumulated significant wealth, keeping money in the face of taxes is often the top priority. Paradoxically, it’s the goal which is frequently underestimated by a client’s advisors.
Palmerston Tackles the Keeping-Money Advice Gap by Building Customized "Teams of Experts" to Help Clients Fill the Gap.
But it’s also important to understand why a keeping-money advice gap can happen.
When wealth reaches a certain point, preventing its depletion by heavy taxation is the big issue. And it often gets less attention than it should because it’s harder, more complex work that lies outside the comfort zone of many financial advisors and CPAs.
Financial advisors tend to concentrate heavily on investing, that is, on growing money. They often tend to emphasize their investment focus, something that’s clearly critical. It’s what they know, and it requires time to build and maintain that expertise.
That bias to go deeper and deeper into investing topics comes at the cost of time which might be better allocated to specialized planning focused on keeping money.
The CPA, whose focus is on the tax code, where many planning strategies are possible, often has a different problem: not enough time.
Even top CPAs work exceptionally long hours doing all the necessary tax filings and financial reports for all their clients. Often, they lack the time to perform proactive research and planning which their top clients need.
We believe team-based approach, that includes proactive CPAs, can help to overcome the keeping-money gap.