Stonehage Fleming Wealth Planning Director, Matthew Brown, has been in the industry for approaching thirty years. According to him, the single biggest shift over that period is a shift in clients’ expectations as increasing complexity in their affairs leads to client’s rightly demanding more from their professional advisers.
“People are still concerned about their own financial security, and they’re still concerned about passing assets responsibly to the next generation – that is universal. But complexity has increased, and what people expect of their relationship with their professional adviser has become wider. Now there is the expectation of a well-informed, thought through plan,” he told listeners on the latest episode of the ‘Family Futures, Wisdom & Wealth’ podcast.
From pensions and structures to inheritance tax planning and cash flow modelling, their experience with complexity also means there is rarely client circumstances they have not previously encountered. Being embedded in an international multi-family office, explained Matthew, enables the wealth planning team to draw on expertise across the group to offer the full gamut of services, making them equally comfortable assisting clients with the complexities of a multi-generational family with assets in several jurisdictions, as they are helping clients identify timely edits to their will. “I can go to my colleague who is a private client lawyer to amend the will to reflect a new list of wishes.”
Are there any recurring mistakes that clients make on coming to the team for help? According to Matthew there is no one common error. And despite clients’ fears, it is usually nothing unresolvable. “People worry that they have made a mistake, but they haven’t – they come with an organically-grown portfolio of different elements and say that they feel lost because they have put no strategy into it – in fact they have often done the right things, the wealth just needs ‘marshalling’.”
According to Matthew, “if your wealth increases, you need to think more widely”. As the financial landscape continues to grow more complicated, he and his team continue to emphasise strategy so we can help clients steward and grow their wealth in ways that are best aligned to their wider financial objectives and goals. “The peace of mind that there is a firm with that collective knowledge and wisdom that can support clients and their children is a huge reason client seeks us out. In that way, we build enduring relationships that are unusual in the marketplace.”
‘Family Futures, Wisdom & Wealth’ is out now. Access episode seven here to listen to host, Kitty Tait, interview Matthew Brown and Hattie Graham on the fundamentals of wealth planning, what sets our offering apart from the wider market, and much more.
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