2021
Five Pain Points That Keep Families Up at Night
What keeps you up at night?
This is one of the questions that often sparks the most insightful responses from our clients.
After having a countless number of deep discussions with families over the years, we’ve narrowed down the most common responses into five pain points.
On the latest episode of the Wealth Wisdom podcast, I chat with my co-founding partner of Sana Family Office, Josh Dyck (Wealth Advisor, CFP®, BA) to discuss the five most common stressors we hear about from clients. We also talk about how we work with families to overcome these conflicts.
Do any of these issues resonate with you? Do you feel like we've helped you through some of these stressors? Is there more we can do to help? We're always here to listen to your feedback.
In the meantime, you can listen to the episode through these avenues.
For spoilers on all five points that we covered on the podcast, keep reading…
In conversations with prospective clients, we’ll ask these questions, and ask respondents to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 6 based on how confident they are in each of the following areas.
1. Ability to make the right choices to achieve a desirable retirement and fulfill an impactful life
One of the most common questions regarding retirement is “how much do I need to retire?”
That’s an important question to answer, but it’s hardly the only thing that matters.
It’s a long process to properly plan for retirement. However, what many fail to realize is that once you retire, you still need to focus on fulfilling an impactful life.
That means something different to everybody, and it’s at the forefront of the discussion when we talk to clients about retirement.
In the clip below, I talk about one of the misconceptions about retirement that many fail to realize.
2. Ability to mitigate the amount of taxes you pay
No one wants to pay tax…but how confident are you in your ability to mitigate your bill to the CRA?
The first step is to look a the most common ways that clients are impacted by taxes and see how these scenarios might affect a family.
Josh breaks down the three main types of tax bills that clients might face in this process here.
3. Ability to take care of your heirs
For all of these points, the specific “stressor” can vary.
That’s no different among clients who have concerns about their heirs being taken care of. Sometimes, this simply relates to point #2 in the sense that couples are worried about burdening their heirs with a hefty tax bill.
Other times, this point reflects concerns about passing down the family business to the next generation. Is the next generation ready to take over? Are there safeguards in place to put an heir of the business in a position to succeed?
Employing Family Enterprise Oversight services can often alleviate that concern. 😊
Our conversation on the podcast focused on how answers to this question vary wildly depending on the situation.
4. Ability to protect your assets from being unjustly taken
To put it bluntly, you want to have an advisor who plays devil’s advocate.
Of all five points, this one might have the most varied response among how assets might be “unjustly taken.”
I provide one example of what this could entail below, along with our job as “stress testers,” helping you avoid any future conflicts.
5. Ability to make a bigger impact with your charitable giving
Many of our clients find ways to give back, whether through volunteering and or occasional donations.
However, the strategies for giving back go far beyond that. Some of these strategies can have extremely favourable tax implications as well.
That being said, you’re probably not making a charitable decision based on taxes alone. Paul Nazareth, VP of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners said it best previously on the Wealth Wisdom Podcast…giving doesn’t come from the head, it comes from the heart.
Next Episode: What is Private Equity?
Private Equity as a whole is garnering more attention among high net worth clients. Still, most don’t know exactly what this means.
Because I like to follow my own advice…I won’t be “geeking out” in the next podcast, as we welcome on Scott White from Adams Street Partners, a firm who primarily handles Private Equity investments.
The next podcast episode will give you a high-level overview of Private Equity, examples of what that is, and what you should know about this increasingly popular investment vehicle.
In the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you or someone you know needs help working through their “pain points.”
After all, we want you to sleep through the night. 😊
Assante Sana,
John Lawson
