Entrepreneurial Families: Your Personal Board of Directors
As seen in the Spring 2017 issue of Iconic Concierge Magazine.
Embracing the entrepreneurial spirit, we subscribe to the idea that the path of life is not a straight line, it is unique series of detours. As such, it is important that your financial plan services your unique set of circumstances and delivers the solutions that matter most to you and your family.
A variety of players sit at your personal board of directors and may include your financial planner, lawyer, accountant, business coach and others. These advisors build up your personal board of directors. This team should help you clearly articulate your vision for your business, your family and your philanthropic desires and align your intentions for the future with a goal-oriented plan.
From a financial perspective, this plan should include:
• Maximizing tax-efficiency and financial security
• Creating clarity around the next phase or future ownership of your business
• Identifying the most effective charitable giving techniques for you
• Clearly defining the transfer of the family wealth, to whom and when
A lack of clarity with these matters often causes unnecessary confusion and potential complications for future generations. Therefore, it is important to facilitate discussions around these sensitive matters by asking questions others are often afraid to and subsequently leverage your wealth manager’s expertise to develop a clear road map for your definition of success.
The Steps
1) Discover
Start the process with questions, and lots of them. Questions that others are often afraid to ask, or have seldom even thought to. Questions centred around what concerns you the most:
• Your values, goals, ambitions
• Hopes, fears and motivations
• Your family, business, community and philanthropic desires
Understand the facts of your current situation, including corporate and financial structures, cash flow and tax planning and any other strategies you may currently employ.
2 ) Design
Only once there is clarity surrounding the vision for your future and the facts of your current situation can you move to designing a plan. We recommend focusing on a comprehensive, goals-based financial plan. Review what’s possible and examine the what-if scenarios, assess the trade-offs and narrow the options, and ensure flexibility in the design, because we know change is a constant.
The outcome is a personally-relevant plan, tailored to what’s most important to you and adaptable to shifts that will inevitably occur in your life.
3) Act
Through a collaborative effort between your board of directors, implement your plan in a priority sequence that corresponds to your most pressing needs. The result is a plan that comes to life as intended, seamlessly executed in the appropriate timeframe with accuracy and transparency.
4) Monitor
We believe that once a plan is implemented, the most important thing to do is to review it, regularly. It is a common occurrence for us to see plans that have been left on the shelf and are out-of- date, seldom having been reviewed, if ever.
• Through regular reviews, we continually ensure the plan maintains its relevance in the face of change such as; shifts to your goals and objectives, new opportunities for your business or your family, or changes to tax laws and/or economic circumstances.
Monitoring the plan on a consistent basis allows us to quickly identify and act upon any misalignments, opportunities or risks that might arise as your life changes over time.
By knowing these important financial considerations have been thoughtfully managed, your personal board of directors and financial planning team should help provide the peace of mind for you to focus your efforts on your business, your family and living your life to the fullest.