What Does “Family Wealth Stewardship” Mean?

By HighView Financial on March 8, 2016

We often talk about providing “family wealth stewardship” for our clients – so what do we mean by that?

At HighView, the word “stewardship” refers to how we oversee and govern the management of client wealth: as an investment fiduciary in partnership with the client and their other professional advisors in the diligent pursuit of their specific financial objectives.

Let’s break that down:

Being an Investment Fiduciary – An Outsourced Chief Investment Officer

As a fiduciary Chief Investment Officer (CIO), we are legally and ethically entrusted with the oversight of our clients’ wealth. We act in our clients’ best interest, free of any conflicts of interest, to ensure their wealth and assets are protected and sustainable over the long-term.

Working with Your Existing Professional Advisors

Successful wealth stewardship depends on the expertise of many trusted advisors working on behalf of the client. We work together with a family’s professional advisors (such as lawyers, accountants, family offices, and so on) to create a “Stewardship Council”.

We then facilitate the Stewardship Council to collaborate and provide integrated, comprehensive advice across a family’s various professional advisors that works toward the client’s lifestyle, family legacy, and philanthropic goals and aspirations.

Understanding Your Unique Financial Objectives and Needs

At the outset of our relationship with the client, we will spend a great deal of time understanding the purpose of their family wealth and their specific needs and goals they are expecting to achieve, aligned against various time horizons.

In addition, we will explore their past experiences with various forms of risk, how they planned for and reacted to it, and how those experiences have shaped their attitudes towards risk and uncertainty.

These needs, goals, and attitudes form the basis for how portfolios should be constructed and serve as the benchmark against which the portfolio results must be measured.

On at least a quarterly basis we will review with each client the following:

• Are the short-term cash flow needs being met? This is a critical component; if the short-term needs are not being met, then the longer term plans are of little value.
• Do the portfolios remain on-track to meet the medium and longer term goals and aspirations?
• Are the portfolios behaving in a way that was anticipated?

This process of family wealth stewardship is so critical – especially in today’s global capital markets – as clients’ goals and attitudes to risk can change over time. If we as investment counsellors do not capture these changes in our regular discussions with clients, it will be very challenging for us to be successful in helping our clients diligently pursue their financial goals.

The Big Picture

Family wealth stewardship is about taking holistic approach to wealth management, and sitting on the same side of the table as our clients.

We are proud to be wealth stewards and one of the first Canadian wealth management firms to successfully implement the outsourced (CIO) model.

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HighView Financial Group is an investment counselling firm that takes a fiduciary approach to affluent family and foundation wealth. We are transparent and accountable in all that we do. Schedule a complimentary discovery session to see if we’re the right investment stewardship counsellors for you.

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