After three years of crisis, nothing fundamental seems to be breaking right now in the wealth management landscape. This is not the time to rest and recharge. This is the time to get your clients and your practice ahead of the next crisis.
We've just released the 2023 guide to truly advisor-friendly trust companies willing to work WITH you instead of trying to lure your best clients away. You can get it HERE.
Maybe you think it's a good thing to review when you have plenty of free time. But I have to say, this is probably as good as it gets. Do you remember the last really "normal" stretch of time the market gave us?
For me, I remember that moment with crystal clarity. It was more than three years ago, right before the pandemic triggered rolling bear markets and a no-holds-barred bubble in between.
Going back, however, a recession was already on the horizon. People were worried. Markets were souring. Clients were anxious. An election was coming up and given that uncertainty, nobody had the desire to make a lot of sudden moves or the resources to spend a lot of time gauging the scenarios.
That’s exactly what estate planning is all about. We never know what’s going to hit us or when it’s coming. Weigh the possibilities, build out your ability to respond on behalf of your clients. Grab the opportunities when they’re open. Let the future come.
Life is change, a succession of curve balls. And there’s never a perfect moment. If you’re waiting for perfection, you’ll wait forever. Even a minute of clarity can be good enough to prepare for the next crisis, whatever it is. Use it. Get the resources lined up so you’re ready to go.
That's real life. The details are always in flux but a good estate plan revolves around eternal principles that have not changed in the pandemic era and beyond.
When taxes have gone as low as they can, every loophole becomes more precious. Grab them before they disappear. Lock them in. What Congress gives, it also takes away. What the IRS takes is gone forever.
On the verge of a recession, shield assets from both volatility and public view. You don’t want your clients to draw attention in an impoverished and angry environment where lawsuits trigger bankruptcy and vice versa.
And when mortality is especially close, locking in directives to the next generation gets more crucial with each passing day. You can’t do it when you’re dead.
When the pandemic hit, every investor should have started reviewing the family estate plans. Some advisors were ready for each and every one of these developments. They responded to every crisis year with vigor and even a little grace, helping their clients lock in what they had before the world shifted.
Others were not so lucky. Systems they thought would work on a hypothetical basis crumbled under the load.
Partners couldn’t scale up fast enough to handle a sudden wave of new business. They literally had to turn money away in order to avoid compromising on quality of service.
Conversations that should have happened years ago kept getting pushed back until, one way or another, it was too late. The clients died, the planning opportunities vanished, relationships frayed and slipped away.
That’s why we’ve argued, begged and once in a while even tried to trick the advisory community into opening up to trust services over the years. Assets in trust are stickier. Under ideal conditions, they can remain under an advisory firm’s supervision for generations or even perpetuity.
A trust is not mortal. There are no heirs to fire the previous generation’s advisors and take the money elsewhere. There are only beneficiaries passively cashing checks.
A trust enjoys certain intrinsic tax benefits as long as state and federal governments resist the urge to meddle with the details. We can’t make any guarantees that these benefits will remain open as the winds in Washington shift.
Trusts are all about continuity. They’re how you and your clients lock in the good times between crises. If you haven’t made them part of your practice yet, there’s still time. But the alarm has already sounded. Taxes have bottomed. The conversations need to happen now.
You need to have at least a few Advisor-Friendly Trust Companies in your network ready to move when needed. There are some familiar names on the list this year and a lot of new ones with fresh ideas.
We'll talk more about the players as we go. For now, the book is HERE. Download it and at least look through it whenever the market gives you time to breathe.
