If you want to see if working with our wealth team is right for you, please click on the link below. There is nothing for sale and you are not committing to anything. It’s just a few simple discovery questions to see if our Wealth Team is a right fit to help you build financial independence.
Yes, I’d like to see if access to our team is right for me
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Download the “Financial Strength Assessment” Checklist.
Notes:
The exact process you can use to find and assemble your own personal finance superteam
To figure out if you have the right people on your financial team, let’s start with some critical questions. If you don’t have an absolute yes to any one of these, then you’re at the right place.
- Do you feel like you are paying too much in tax? Do you know how to find out if you are? When was the last time you had a second opinion on your taxes?
- Did you know there is a specific order in which you should be paying your loans down? Do you have more than one loan? If so, have you refinanced or renegotiated your interest rates in the last two years? Are all of your loans structured to give you the maximum tax advantage?
- Do you have a system to pay yourself first and automatically build a cash reserve of money to invest?
- Do you know how to best leverage the cash you have saved?
- Do you understand all your investments? Do any of them cause you worry or concern? Do you feel like you are on track and where you want to be financially?
- Do all of your investments create cash flow for you? Are you happy with their performance? Have you protected the downside? Do you have a written exit plan for each investment?
- Have you updated your asset protection and your estate planning? Are you certain you have the right corporate structure?
- Are all of your insurance coverages up to date? Have you reviewed your policies in the last 2 years? Do you have an umbrella policy to reduce cost, increase coverage and avoid duplicate coverages?
- Do you have the maximum amount of life insurance to protect your greatest asset? Does your disability insurance adequately cover all your real costs in the event of a temporary or more permanent disability?
- Do you own your own building? If so, have you done a cost segregation study for tax purposes?
It’s ok to take a breather right now.
If you answered “no” or “not sure” to any of these, then take a moment to answer this:
If something happens to you financially, be it an up or a down, do you know who to call? Do you at least have one person, a financial quarterback, who you can call when you have a financial question, who’s also looking out for you proactively, every step of the way? Do you have the financial team you want? Are you missing anyone, or do you need to replace anyone?
This article is long, so it’s probably worth bookmarking, printing out, or spending a few minutes reading. So do that right now, if you want to.
We’ll hold on…
Ok, back?
At Wealth Factory, we believe that personal finance for entrepreneurs and business owners is fundamentally different than mainstream personal finance advice. The typical focus on budgeting, investing in the stock market, and reducing spending does not serve the unique needs and opportunities of business owners.
Instead, Wealth Factory takes a holistic approach to each client’s financial picture. We build coordinated teams of specialists to address key areas like tax strategy, cash flow, insurance, investments, and estate planning. By leveraging expertise across domains and customizing the strategy for each individual, we strive to accelerate our members’ economic independence.
Below we’ll share more about our philosophy, how we build teams, and what an integrated wealth team can accomplish.
Wealth Factory’s approach is based on the recognition that no one person can be an expert in every area of personal finance. Our network of specialists focus on their niche area of expertise, while collaborating across disciplines to serve the client. This avoids the fragmentation and conflicts that can emerge when working with an uncoordinated team. And it allows the collective wisdom of the group to provide financial strategies not accessible to general practitioners.
At Wealth Factory, we are selective about who joins our network. Prospective specialists must demonstrate deep passion for their specialty, have the capacity to take on limited clients, and align with our core financial philosophies. Once part of our network, specialists participate in ongoing education and dialogue to sharpen expertise and align recommendations.
For members, the result is strategies and execution that aim to maximize wealth while minimizing cost, risk, and effort. Below we share a few examples of what an integrated wealth team can accomplish:
- Tax savings through amending returns with a second set of eyes. Many clients find deductions missed by previous accountants.
- Reduced tax liability by coordinating estate planning attorneys and CPAs. Strategies like charitable trusts and cost segregation studies create substantial savings.
- Downside protection on investments by collaborating with financial advisors. Techniques like trailing stop losses can limit losses when markets decline.
- Interest savings by refinancing or repositioning debt. The right advisors assess investments alongside debt to find guaranteed returns.
- Insurance savings through an expert review of policies. Removing duplicate and unnecessary coverage provides instant savings.
This level of financial optimization is only possible with a coordinated team approach. At Wealth Factory, we find this provides clients more clarity, confidence, and peace of mind. They know exactly why certain strategies are recommended. They feel empowered by financial education. And they have the assurance that proven specialists are continually working in their best interest.
While Wealth Factory only accepts a limited number of new clients per year, we have developed resources to help others build their own financial teams. In the next sections, we provide a framework for choosing specialists, sample qualifying questions, and criteria for identifying the right experts. We hope these tools will help you take steps toward assembling your own personal finance dream team.
There’s plenty more to explore, and we look forward to sharing it with you in the next installment.
What an Integrated Wealth Team can Do for Your Finances
Let’s dive into some examples of what integrated wealth teams have been able to done for clients, and then we’ll go into how to select a team, along with some very specific questions you can ask your team to find out if you have the right person. And if you don’t have the right person, we’ll talk about how to find that right person.
The biggest benefit clients report is substantially saving money from a tax perspective by amending prior tax returns. You can go back three years and amend your returns just by getting a second set of eyes on your taxes. Why would you need a second set of eyes?
Maybe your business has grown, and you’re just in a better place than you were three years ago, and maybe you’ve outgrown your CPA or your tax attorney. Or maybe you didn’t get your information to them on time, or didn’t furnish them with all the information that they needed to devise a better strategy. We’ve seen cases where clients have found six figure tax savings through amending returns when the previous accountant missed key deductions.
Going back and amending the last three years of your tax returns and having the IRS cut you a check, instead of you cutting them a check, feels pretty good. Every few years, we recommend our clients do this to see if they can uncover savings.
In addition to amending past returns, the right tax attorney can uncover strategies to substantially reduce liability on current and future earnings. Techniques like charitable remainder trusts and cost segregation studies on real estate have created huge savings for our clients. But these kinds of advanced strategies require both deep expertise and coordination across accounting and legal disciplines.
Investments are another area where teamwork pays dividends. By collaborating with financial advisors, strategies like trailing stop losses can be implemented to protect the downside when markets decline. Instead of generic “long term” investing, specialists can customize tactical solutions to match the client’s needs and risk tolerance.
On the lending side, the ideal team scrutinizes investments alongside debts to find guaranteed returns. Often clients are earning a lower rate of return on investments than the interest they pay on loans. Refinancing or repositioning can create instant savings in these cases. But it requires advisors to look holistically at the entire financial picture.
Insurance is another common area of savings for team-based approaches. An expert assessment of existing policies can root out duplicate coverage, overinsurance, and other unnecessary costs. But optimizing insurance requires niche expertise across various policy types like disability, life, homeowners and umbrella. Coordination identifies gaps or overlaps.
In all of these examples, the key is customization to the individual and coordination across domains. This level of service and sophistication is only accessible through a team approach. At Wealth Factory, clients report increased clarity, confidence, and peace of mind knowing their finances are being optimized by proven specialists.
While Wealth Factory only accepts a limited number of new clients per year, we have developed resources to help others build their own financial teams. In the next sections, we provide a framework for choosing specialists, sample qualifying questions, and criteria for identifying the right experts. We hope these tools will help you take steps toward assembling your own personal finance dream team.
How to find the best people to be on your team
At Wealth Factory, assembling a team starts with our core financial philosophy. Over many years, we have distilled principles focused on cash flow, reducing risk, empowering education, and other wealth-building strategies. These become the guidelines specialists must align with to join our accredited network.
Beyond philosophy, the vetting process focuses on three key criteria:
- Passion for their specialty – We look for individuals obsessed with staying on top of their niche, not just clocking hours.
- Capacity for limited clients – Advisors must have the bandwidth to provide high-touch, customized service.
- Fit with financial philosophies – Alignment on win-win, client-first principles is mandatory.
For each specialist area, from insurance to legal to investments, prospects go through extensive interviews, evaluations, and workshops to assess fit. We examine their team, processes, and client results as indicators of their expertise. The result is a network of best-in-class specialists operating from the same guiding principles.
Once part of the network, there is continuous specialized education to improve skills and share innovations. Regular cross-disciplinary meetings foster collaboration and refined strategies. The team learns together in order to best serve clients together.
For clients, this means no gaps, conflicts, or guessing about the recommendations they receive. Specialists have deep expertise in their domain but integrate advice across areas. Strategies are tailored to the individual and unified across advisors. The result is significant optimization of finances based on a complete picture.
While building a high-caliber team takes time and diligence, the payoff can be life-changing wealth acceleration. In the next section, we share questions to identify if your current advisors meet these elite standards.
Do you have the right people? Critical questions to ask.
Since no one person can master all facets of personal finance, building a coordinated team matters immensely. But how do you assess the quality of each specialist? What questions identify fit, expertise, and alignment with your goals?
Here are some of the key considerations and sample questions we recommend clients ask of current or prospective advisors:
How do they get paid?
- Is compensation tied to transactions or products? Or do they charge retainer fees or hourly rates?
- Transaction-based pay can incentivize recommendations not fully aligned with your needs.
What is their niche?
- Ask advisors to clearly define the boundaries of their expertise.
- Beware of those claiming experience across unrelated domains.
Do they have a team?
- Even specialists should have a support team to serve you best.
- A lone advisor can become a single point of failure.
How do they stay current?
- Do they voraciously consume industry information and trends?
- Advisors should spend significant ongoing time developing expertise.
How often do they refer out?
- No one can be an expert in everything.
- Referring out appropriately builds trust and ensures optimal outcomes.
Can they clearly explain recommendations?
- You should fully understand the rationale behind any advice.
- Lack of transparency is a red flag.
Do they proactively provide ideas?
- The best advisors suggest improvements before being asked.
- Reactivity is not enough.
Do they integrate with other advisors?
- Frequent specialist collaboration ensures unified strategies.
- Siloes can lead to conflicts or oversights.
Do they put your interests first?
- Some client experiences can reveal self-interested behavior.
- But philosophical alignment is a safer bet.
Vetting specialists thoroughly across these dimensions takes diligence and discernment. But it puts your most important asset, your finances, in the hands of trusted experts coordinated for your success.
While Wealth Factory only accepts a limited number of new clients per year, we have developed resources to help others build their own financial teams. In the next section, we provide criteria for identifying the right experts to fulfill key roles on your ideal wealth team. We hope these tips will help you take steps toward assembling your personal finance dream team.
There’s plenty more to explore, and we look forward to sharing it with you in future installments of our personal finance education series.
So how do you go out there and get that team? If you’re worth $50 million or more, look up a family services firm. There are some amazing firms out there that do a great job. The second way involves the list of critical assessment questions we’re giving you today at the bottom of this article. The third is, you can apply to work directly with us. By filling out a few questions, you’ll help us understand if you’re the right candidate for the program, or what resources we might be able to give you based on your situation, in the event that our program isn’t a fit for you.
There’s plenty more to explore, and we look forward to sharing it with you in the next installment.
Download the “Financial Strength Assessment” Checklist.
