5 Characteristics of a Quality Wealth Manager (2024)

Kyle Whittington, CFP® on June 15, 2023

School of Financial Wellness

We spend our entire lives trying to build wealth. We accumulate a pool of investments that allows our children to attend college, enables our families to travel the world, and prepares us to finally retire with confidence.

It’s not enough to save – socking money away and earning bare-minimum interest. You and your financial future are best served by managing your hard-earned dollars in a way that ensures every financial goal you have set becomes a financial reality. For that, you need an extensive financial education, or in most cases a wealth manager.

1. Integrity

Integrity in the world of wealth management boils down to a commitment to do what’s best for clients – no matter what. In many cases, wealth managers are compensated based on how much money they bring to a firm — their so-called assets under management. That means it’s in their best interests to sell their services to a broad range of clients, regardless of whether they can serve them well. It also means you have to be highly selective in who you choose to manage your money.

There are certain designations in the financial planning world that come with fiduciary responsibilities, such as the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation. A fiduciary responsibility means that the advisor must put the clients’ needs first, regardless of their personal gain. When searching for a wealth manager with integrity, a CFP® is a good place to start because they are bound to certain ethical standards that ensure your interests are put first. However, a large part of identifying integrity happens during your initial conversations. For example, does the wealth manager ask detailed questions about you and your goals? If the answer is “yes,” there’s a good chance you’ve found a wealth manager with integrity.

2. Situational Awareness

While we all want to increase our wealth, designing effective investment strategies involves more than just making selections that could make you the most money as fast as possible. Instead, effective advisors will take stock of your financial past, present, and future. With this information in mind, they can determine the investments that meet your goals with as little risk as is necessary.

In the world at large, they call this process situational awareness. In other words, making decisions only after considering the entire situation. Situational awareness is an important quality to seek in a wealth manager because it ensures that your advisor considers every aspect of your financial life including your tax situation, government benefits, and estate plan.

3. Investing Experience

Anyone can research the value of different investments and develop an opinion on what works for a given financial situation. But you don’t really know all the details until you’ve been there. That’s why you need a wealth manager with experience.

The past few years have been interesting in the world of investing. We’ve seen record highs in equity markets followed by a huge pandemic related fall, only to see new highs just a few months later. This has created lots of winners and losers, but it’s also brought to light the critical importance of having a seasoned wealth manager by your side.

The fact is, it’s not difficult to make money in the markets when things are going well. But what happens when things start to shift? That’s when experience becomes paramount in the world of wealth management. An experienced wealth manager will know when to invest and when to play defense.

4. Financial Knowledge

With vast experience comes knowledge, which is vital to the wealth management process. There are countless ways to invest your money, with varying rates of return and levels of risk, and most advisors have access to a variety of investment options.

However, good wealth managers invest their time to understand which investments are right for your specific situation. That involves continuing education, of course, but also research and analysis. And in the best-case scenario, that pursuit of knowledge is fueled by passion and a commitment to making each client’s goals a financial reality.

A quality wealth manager will also have a proven strategy for implementing their financial knowledge. This strategy should draw on past experience and new research to identify the investments that give you the best chance at success.

5. Team of Financial Professionals

Finding a good wealth manager is important. More important is finding a good wealth manager who’s part of an incredible team of financial professionals. After all, wealth management is a comprehensive service. To get your money’s worth, your wealth manager should have a team of experienced and capable advisors well-versed in everything from financial and tax planning to retirement and estate planning.

With a strong team behind them, a wealth manager can provide a comprehensive financial plan and get all aspects of your financial life aligned around a strategy for long-term success. The right wealth manager for you is out there. To find them, you’ve got to know what you’re seeking. This list should be a great start to set you on the right track.

Comprehensive Wealth Management at Meld Financial

If you’re looking for an effective team of professionals to help you organize your finances, contact Meld Financial. At Meld, we can leverage our vast experience, in conjunction with ateam of financial and legal professionals, to help youdevelop your Financial Fingerprint™.

YourFinancial Fingerprint™ is a unique wealth management processdeveloped here at Meld through several decades of managing our clients’ wealth. In short, your Financial Fingerprint™ is a plan that isquick to assemble,easy to understand,andsimple to modifyas your circ*mstances change.

If you’re ready to talk, contact us todayto schedule a meeting with a member of our team – at your convenience.