In this HNW marketing webinar you will learn:
Why your conversations with the HNW need to change.
What new opportunities will drive your HNW business.
How you can prepare for the changes ahead.
Learn more at www.inknowvision.com
Why your conversations need to change. What new opportunities will drive your HNW business. How you can prepare for the changes ahead.
642 high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals across the United States. Survey respondents all had a minimum of $3 million in investable assets, including: 37 percent ($3M - $5M); 31 percent ($5M - $10M) and 32 percent (more than $10 million). • For the first time since it began surveying wealthy individuals and families, U.S. Trust looked at the differences and similarities among three generations of wealth in America: – The Baby Boom generation (ages 47 - 66) – The older generation that preceded Baby Boomers (age 67+) – The next generation of wealth creators (ages 18 - 46) • The survey explored a variety of topics, including: – Roles, influence and social obligations of the wealth – Putting wealth to work for the family (elder care, estate planning, wealth transfer and next-generation financial empowerment) – Protecting family privacy and security – Approaches to growing and preserving wealth – Use of financial advisors • As of the end of 2011, there are nearly 2 million households in the U.S. with more than $3 million in investable assets, There are distinct generational differences in the way the wealthy are preparing to meet a host of financial challenges in response to new economic realities, uncertain financial security, a looming elder care crisis and dual financial responsibilities for both children and parents.
642 high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals across the United States. Survey respondents all had a minimum of $3 million in investable assets, including: 37 percent ($3M - $5M); 31 percent ($5M - $10M) and 32 percent (more than $10 million). • For the first time since it began surveying wealthy individuals and families, U.S. Trust looked at the differences and similarities among three generations of wealth in America: – The Baby Boom generation (ages 47 - 66) – The older generation that preceded Baby Boomers (age 67+) – The next generation of wealth creators (ages 18 - 46) • The survey explored a variety of topics, including: – Roles, influence and social obligations of the wealth – Putting wealth to work for the family (elder care, estate planning, wealth transfer and next-generation financial empowerment) – Protecting family privacy and security – Approaches to growing and preserving wealth – Use of financial advisors • As of the end of 2011, there are nearly 2 million households in the U.S. with more than $3 million in investable assets, There are distinct generational differences in the way the wealthy are preparing to meet a host of financial challenges in response to new economic realities, uncertain financial security, a looming elder care crisis and dual financial responsibilities for both children and parents.
Let ‘s wade into some of the findings of the survey and also some of what we can confirm through our own InKnowVision cases. The importance of family, the continuity of family wealth and social responsibilities are common denominators across all generations of wealth. Yet each generation is focused on different aspects of these goals and family responsibilities, and most wealthy Americans are not planning as well as they could be.
The younger generation appears to have heightened awareness of potential threats to family wealth, such as long-term care costs and their children’s ability to handle wealth responsibly, and they are ahead of Baby Boomers in taking action to address these concerns
– Fifty-four percent of young people ages 18 - 46 are paying medical costs for relatives, and 42 percent of Baby Boomers are paying medical costs for their parents or other relatives. Yet 40 percent of young people vs. 20 percent of Baby Boomers have established a financial plan for parents’ elder care needs. Marketing Idea #1 If you are not talking to the younger generation wealthy or not, not only about their own circumstances but the ones that they could ultimately inherit before their parents demise then you need to filter this into the conversation. Such a conversation could lead you to the next prospect and it may just be another family member. I remember when Scott and I sat down with this mother who was divorced at the time and in her mid 50’s to discuss buying long term care insurance. She ultimately purchased it as a matter of fact she bought one of the best policies that protected what she wanted to give her children in the way of an inheritance, moneys that were left to her from her parents. Shortly after retirement this vibrant, former life long librarian, genealogist, senior gold medal Olympian died of an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s. Not one penny left her estate to provide for her care. Her policy covered 100%.
These are alarming numbers so how can we provide value here? Marketing idea #2- Bring in a Geriatric Care or Health Care Management Services into your practice or your relationships. Be prepared for this conversation and help your clients be prepared for this difficult journey. Partnering with a this type of service firm so that you can educate your clients who could be the children of a HNW client on how to prepare and for changes in physical and mental health of loved ones. This type of person can be invaluable when the needs arise but more so in the education stages. We know that from this study parents do not want their children burdened by costs or physical and emotional needs. Yet they want the best medical care possible while protecting assets for their spouse/partner. Talk openly about the fact that there are so many people living 20 years longer than expected. You are not selling a product you are providing value here. A differentiator while getting more information about the family members and of course building trust. This is issue will grow 100 fold the next 10 years and it is certainly not going to go away. What you manage today could be gone tomorrow and attorneys need to focus on clients cash flow too in order to help plan for intergenerational wealth.
Speaking of which, the younger generation is more closely aligned with the generation older than the Baby Boomers on the importance of intergenerational wealth transfer . The primary reasons for leaving an inheritance are to preserve the continuity of family wealth and to influence their children’s lives after they are gone. By comparison, only about half (55 percent) of Baby Boomers think it is important to leave a financial inheritance to their children. Among those who don’t think it is important, one in three (31 percent) said they would rather leave money to charity than to their children. Marketing Idea #3 If you do not have any philanthropic background or planning knowledge then this is an area where you need to become more seasoned. If you do not want to take the time then you should find an independent philanthropic advisor in your area that can help you and your clients for a fee. You could also get your CAPS designation ( Certified Advisor in Philanthropy) should you wish to pursue further education.
More than one-quarter of the surveyed Baby Boomers are motivated to leave an inheritance as a tax strategy. So those who are leading with the tax strategy approach it is more likely than not that this approach will not work for the majority of people you speak with. You will need to quickly change your process to start with protection and values. The InKnowVision process focuses on four key elements to start. How can I protect/increase my cash flow to maintain my lifestyle needs and have a peace of mind? How can I reduce income tax liability to compound future growth? Then show me how to protect what I own against law suits, creditors and predators and then if I become disabled what planning choices to do have? Once clients have a peace of mind then their motivation for inheritance increases in the ways listed here whether it be to heirs or charity.
It is important for wealth managers to understand these generational differences. The younger generation HNW in particular is seeking professional advice and relevant solutions at an earlier age to help them achieve their financial goals. This goes back to my webinar two sessions ago where I spoke specifically about the need to focus on the inheritor generation and their need to be competently served. There is a larger more youthful emerging HWN that professionals are not focusing on. We will discuss in more detail about this group in a our next summer bonus marketing program in July. Stay tuned.
• Nearly four in 10 parents strongly agree their children would benefit from discussions with a financial professional. So my question is what are you waiting for! There is so much work to be done. No wonder why there are so many people entering the financial planning field. Your marketing messages but be such that they are grabbing the attention of this younger crowd of HNW individuals and families.
Elder care is really a mutligeneration issue. So Who are the HNW talking to about it? The youngest generation has been the most proactive about talking with parents about long-term care plans and they are as proactive about this as they are in planning for own spouse or partner. Wealth preservation is on the minds of these folks.
Most of the wealthy have not discussed long-term care with an attorney or a financial advisor; however, the youngest generation, ages 18-46, is more likely to have talked with a financial advisor than Baby Boomers have. Nine in 10 said it is most important to not become a financial, physical or emotional burden on children or other relatives. So these are more reasons why you need to create conversation and a process that not only talks about your current client but about those who are parents and grandparents and children of your clients. We incorporate this discussion into every plan we do.
Only about half (55 percent) of Baby Boomers consider it important to leave a financial inheritance to their children/heirs. So does this means that there will be less money to manage or lower probate fees once your Boomer client has passed? Perhaps not.
The primary reasons for not leaving an inheritance is a belief that each generation should earn its own wealth and because it’s better to invest in children’s/heirs’ success while they are growing up. Remember many of these boomers are self made and did not get any handouts. We see entitlement issues from family members like children in the family business vs children who are not. It is critical to remove the elephant in the room if you want to see your client succeed in their planning. • One in three (31 percent) Baby Boomers–twice many as in the younger and older generations–would rather give the money to charity. We will touch on this opportunity in a minute.
Six in 10 HNW parents are not fully confident their children will be well-prepared to handle a financial inheritance.
And Nearly four in 10 parents strongly agree their children would benefit from discussions with a financial professional. At the Inknowvision Institute in October we will highlight how to address these issues in greater detail.
Just over one-third of wealthy parents have fully disclosed their wealth to children, while half report having disclosed just a little regarding their financial status. Remember how private people are about their wealth. How do we get them to discuss this with their children without causing undue harm? Again we will be sharing ideas that work on this topic at the InKNowVision Institute in the fall.
Few wealthy parents overall believe their children will be mature enough to handle their wealth before the age of 25. – Approximately half believe their children will be mature enough between 25 and 34 years old. This suggests why the group ages 18- 49 are doing more today in the area of financial preparedness.
Wealthy parents are most concerned that disclosing wealth to their children may negatively affect their work ethic. • Nearly half (48 percent) of people over age 67 said, “I was taught never to discuss wealth.” What does this tell you about what you need to do with your current clients? And why is this important?
Whereas the older generation is more inclined to pass most, if not all, of its wealth to children/family heirs, younger generations are more inclined to divide assets among family and other beneficiaries such as charities. • Baby Boom parents are about twice as likely as those older and younger to say they will leave only a small portion or nothing at all to children In fact, an Ameriprise Financial Inc. survey of 1,006 affluent baby boomers, conducted in December, found that 93% have provided some level of support to their adult children. Maybe they will be tapped out! It is even more of a concern, considering that Americans spend an average of $235,000 to raise a child to 18 and then many help with college, which costs an average of $17,131 a year for an in-state four-year public school and $38,589 annually for a private-college education, according to The College Board.
A 2011 Associated Press survey found 64% of baby boomers didn’t even have a living will, which anyone over the age of 18 should have. Nearly 2.5 million Americans die each year, and many haven’t signed the basic documents needed to protect loved ones. Furthermore trusts generally are being underused in most wealthy households half of all respondents said they have a revocable trust and less than one-quarter saying they have an irrevocable trust. Which means two things. These wealthy folks are severely underinsured when it come to tax planning or they own insurance included in their estate and do not know the ramifications of such a disaster. Charities will play a much larger role than we realize. There is a significant underground movement of high profile women with extraordinary wealth focusing on developing the next generation of female entrepreneurs all through charitable means. If you have not read this month’s Fast Company magazine I suggest you pick it up and be inspired to do something different with your clients. These are all problems that you can solve. Marketing Idea #5 – Incorporate insurance reviews into your process even if you don’t sell insurance. We are asked to do this on large cases by attorneys and RIAs and some CPA firms all the time. Why because people trust our expertise and also our recommendations. Unless you understand more about the client then just the insurance policy that you really can do the proper job in the review process. So make sure you have all your discovery questions and data gathering information up to date. Wouldn’t you want to manage $10M in death benefit?
Take a look at these reasons. ( Go over the list ) Marketring Idea #6 Everyone of them could be an answered in a series of articles for education purposes. Or in a white paper. Here is where I see opportunity for content creation and delivering the right message to the right reader.
These three reasons are a good reasons why you can help them.
This poll is for all professionals. It does not matter whether you are an attorney, cpa for RIA. Please check all that apply.
Some have stated that they have done the bare minimum.
And Only four in 10 say they have a comprehensive estate plan. Here you see that Young wealthy individuals, ages 18 - 46, are nearly as likely as Baby Boomers to already have established a comprehensive estate plan. They have learned some hard lessons far earlier than their parents and are not willing to take a risk in protecting themselves. Perhaps they have a good set of advisors! Answer these three questions: What age group does your ideal client profile fall into? What do they have in the way of planning? Do you have a process to help them grow into advanced planning?
Two-thirds of all respondents have not made, nor do they have plans to make, a financial gift to family members to reduce the size of their taxable estate before the end of 2012, when tax laws are expected to change. Wow do we have a lot of work to do!
When it comes to investment risk tolerance, fewer than half (48 percent) of high net worth investors feel they have a good understanding of how much investment risk they can tolerate.
Privacy and safety are issues that the youngest generation is far more concerned about, particularly with the proliferation of social networking and amount of personal information now available online.
All generations share similar concerns about the protection of their assets, privacy and safety, but the number, range and level of concern increase with age. Just take a look at how much these vary.
One in three high net worth households overall considers social media and the availability of personal information online as increasing their safety and security risks.
Some of the actions taken noted here are examples of the degrees that people have gone to to protect their privacy and you will note that concealing major gifts is one of them. Marketing Idea #7 Prepare an Inheritance Summit in your area. Similar to the program put on by others- Truth about estate planning comes to mind- you can conduct quarterly programs for inheritors – include financial planning, tax planning, eldercare planning, etc. What comes out of this program could actually speak to them today whether it be their own situation or their parents. A couple of value add ideas for topics come to mind like the Family Bank, Family Security and privacy preparedness. There are few concerns more pressing than the security of one's family. With high-income or high-profile families as its clients, companies like Insite Family Security were created to professionally address those concerns with the most strategic and intelligent security management
Most wealth respondents have a professional advisor for investment management, tax planning and estate planning, but do not have anyone advising them on more complex, emotional intergenerational issues and legacy planning. So if you look at this list where can you fill in the void? Is there something here that can create opportunity, build trust and foster a HNW relationship? Of course there is.
They are eager for advice. There are so many undisclosed things on people’s minds that this list may help you to think about where to start. Things like estate planning are not being discussed. If you are financial advisor I ask you why not? As a matter of going through the InKnowVision advanced planning process advisors on average are managing an additional $500,000 to $1M more in assets than before they starting the advanced planning process.
Most wealthy individuals feel there are social responsibilities that come with achieving significant wealth. Just look at the high degree of those wanting to do something positive.
Six in ten wealthy individuals serve in some type of leadership position, with one in three serving on a community or philanthropic board or committee. • Baby Boomers (35%) and those who are older (32%) are the most likely to serve on a philanthropic board. Philanthropy and the emergence of leadership is a good place to start. Marketing Idea #8 You can conduct Board presentations on the impact of what advanced planning can do for charities. Use this report to demonstrate the shift and highlight a case study from the IKV presentation materials and a technical strategy to demonstrate how you can help them find more opportunity.
Employ HNW Marketing into your practice. In 2003 when we starting telling folks that we only work in the $10M and up market and then in 2010 we only worked in the $20M and up market that is the kind of case work we received. We don’t manage money, draft documents, we design. Be sure to tell your clients what you do, how you do it and who you serve. If you include HNW planning in the mix then you have us to lean on. By this point in the year you should be well versed and prepared to have a dialogue with a HNW prospect.
If you need our help – call us, attend the InknowVision Institute and employ our HNW marketing system. Use the 8 or so marketing ideas from today’s program to boost your visibility in your local areas. Do not ignore the estate planning piece if you are a financial advisor and if your are an attorney or CPA do not ignore the financial aspects of your client’s extended family as they could ultimately be more important to them in the near future than their own. In 2003 when we starting telling folks that we only work in the $10M and up market and then in 2010 we only worked in the $20M and up market that is the kind of case work we received. We don’t manage money, draft documents, we design. Be sure to tell your clients what you do, how you do it and who you serve. If you include HNW planning in the mix then you have us to lean on. By this point in the year you should be well versed and prepared to have a dialogue with a HNW prospect. We are looking forward to serving you!