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The Role of a Wealth Manager: Your Partner in Financial Success

Managing wealth involves more than just savings or investing in stocks. It’s about developing a comprehensive strategy to grow, protect, and transfer wealth across generations. This requires a multi-faceted approach—one that balances financial planning, risk management, tax efficiency, and estate planning. A wealth manager helps you achieve this, acting as a trusted partner who assists clients in navigating complex financial landscapes. Below, we expand on the potential functions a wealth manager might provide, illustrating how they can add value to your financial journey. It is important to note that all wealth managers are unique, and may provide these services in different formats or abilities. Choosing a wealth manager that works for you requires due diligence and thorough research.

1. Financial Planning & Goal Setting

Wealth management begins with understanding a client’s personal goals. A wealth manager works closely with clients to identify life objectives such as early retirement, funding education for children, purchasing property, or achieving philanthropic aims. These goals become the foundation for the financial plan.

What This Involves

  • Analyzing income, expenses, and current savings.
  • Building a financial plan with short-term and long-term objectives.
  • Adjusting strategies to match life stages (e.g., early career, mid-life, retirement).
  • Creating contingency plans for unexpected changes (e.g., illness, layoffs, or market downturns).

Example

For a couple planning for early retirement, the wealth manager may perform cash flow analysis, analyzing if their savings and investments are enough to cover future potential living expenses and medical costs without depleting their assets too quickly.

2. Investment Management

Investment management is a core function of a financial plan, requiring in-depth knowledge of market trends, asset classes, and economic indicators. A wealth manager might offer investment management services. These services can help clients build a diversified portfolio that balances risk and growth, continuously reviewing to prioritize the optimization of performance.

What This Involves

  • Identifying the client’s risk tolerance and time horizon.
  • Creating a tailored portfolio that may include stocks, bonds, real estate, or alternative assets (such as private equity or venture capital).
  • Monitoring the portfolio to rebalance it when necessary—either to reduce risk or seize market opportunities.
  • Providing clients with performance updates and making necessary adjustments based on changing market conditions.

Example

During periods of stock market volatility, a wealth manager might be able to monitor the performance of the portfolio, helping clients avoid rash decisions and refocus on long-term goals of investments.

3. Tax Optimization Strategies

One of the most significant services a wealth manager might provide is access to tax-optimization strategies. Utilizing these strategies can minimize the impact taxes have on investors’ capital and allow them to distribute their assets effectively. For high-net-worth individuals and families, managing tax liabilities is important in preserving wealth over time.

What This Involves

  • Creating tax-efficient investment strategies across all financial plans, including estate plans and retirement plans.
  • Identifying opportunities for tax-loss harvesting to offset capital gains.
  • Recommending charitable giving strategies (e.g., donor-advised funds or family foundations) to reduce taxable income.
  • Collaborating with tax advisors to ensure that all financial activities align with the latest tax regulations.

Example

A wealth manager might help a client with significant capital gains by strategically selling underperforming investments to realize losses that can offset taxes owed on the gains.

4. Estate and Legacy Planning

For many clients, wealth management is not just about growing their assets but designing a plan to transfer those assets smoothly to future generations. Estate planning helps create a path for clients to pass their wealth to heirs according to their wishes while working to minimize tax liabilities and avoid legal disputes.

What This Involves

  • Assisting with the oversight of wills and trusts to guide transferal of wealth.
  • Setting up revocable or irrevocable trusts that work to protect assets and enhance privacy.
  • Implementing strategies to minimize estate taxes and probate costs.
  • Developing philanthropic plans, such as creating charitable trusts or endowments.

Example

A wealth manager might work with a client to set up a family trust, helping protect the assets during their transfer to the next generation.

5. Retirement Planning

Retirement planning requires more than just saving money—it also involves developing a comprehensive strategy to ensure you have enough income to maintain your desired lifestyle throughout retirement. A wealth manager can help clients prepare for this transition by balancing savings, investments, and income streams to help meet both short-term needs and long-term goals.

What This Involves

  • Estimating retirement expenses and setting savings targets based on lifestyle goals.
  • Creating a sustainable withdrawal plan to avoid depleting assets too quickly.
  • Planning for healthcare costs, including Medicare and long-term care needs.
  • Adjusting investment strategies to focus on income generation and risk management as retirement approaches.

Example

A wealth manager might help a couple nearing retirement adjust their portfolio to reduce exposure to high-risk assets and develop a withdrawal strategy that works to minimize taxes while providing steady income throughout their retirement years.

6. Holistic Financial Coordination

Some wealth managers can act as financial quarterbacks, coordinating with other professionals such as accountants, lawyers, and real estate advisors to help align all aspects of a client’s financial life with their long-term goals.

What This Involves

  • Collaborating with tax advisors to ensure investments align with the latest tax laws.
  • Working with estate attorneys on wills, trusts, and other legal structures.
  • Ensuring that all financial plans are updated as client circumstances or legal environments change.

Example

A wealth manager might play the role of an investment advisor within a trust to help protect assets and manage investments within the trust.

7. Personalized Guidance During Life Changes

Life is full of changes—some planned, others unexpected. Whether a client experiences a major financial windfall, inherits wealth, or navigates personal challenges, a wealth manager can provide guidance to help align their financial strategies with their evolving needs.

What This Involves

  • Adjusting financial plans in response to major life events, such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, or retirement.
  • Offering advice on how to allocate unexpected windfalls (e.g., inheritance, bonuses, or business sales).
  • Helping clients prepare financially for new responsibilities, such as raising children or caring for aging parents.

Example

When a client inherits a significant amount of money, the wealth manager can advise on the best way to allocate the funds between savings, investments, philanthropy, and immediate needs, helping optimize the use of the inheritance.

Conclusion: The Value of Working with a Wealth Manager

A wealth manager can act as a strategic partner, providing a comprehensive range of services—from financial planning and investment management to tax optimization, estate planning, and risk mitigation. Their work is meant to not only help grow wealth but help preserve it too, ensuring that it serves both the current and future needs of the client and their family.

By building a long-term, trusted relationship with a wealth manager, clients can gain peace of mind knowing that their finances are in expert hands. Whether you are planning for retirement, managing a business, or creating a legacy, a wealth manager can provide value by providing tools, knowledge, and personalized guidance to help you navigate life’s financial complexities.

If you do decide to hire a wealth manager, choose your team carefully, understanding the unique services your life goals require. Engaging a wealth manager means taking a proactive step toward securing your financial future—allowing you to focus on what you need while knowing your wealth is being carefully managed.

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Important Disclosure Information

Investment management and advisory services are offered through Chicago Partners Wealth Advisors (CPWA), a Registered Investment Advisor. Burling Bank and Burling Wealth Management are not registered as a broker-dealer or as Registered Investment Advisors. All insurance products are offered through Chicago Partners Insurance Group (CPIG). Burling Bank and Burling Wealth Management do not sell insurance. CPWA is a separate entity from, and not an affiliate of, Burling Bank or Burling Wealth Management. CPIG is a separate entity from, and not an affiliate of, Burling Bank or Burling Wealth Management. CPWA and CIPG are not affiliated entities. Additional disclosure information can be found here.