LEVATUS Wealth | Elevated Solutions: Integrated Wealth Service
Relationships, purpose, and control are as central to how we feel in life as financial security. All are impacted by financial decision-making.
A quick scroll through HBO or Netflix offers an abundance of programming immersed in the dark side of wealth, witness - The White Lotus, Succession, Yellowstone. Wealth, often seen as the epitome of success and achievement, is unleashed in these dramas to create strong, and alarming cross currents beneath the shimmering surface. While the streaming dramatizations may be extreme, they raise the question of how these families arrived at the point of being so sad, disconnected, and lonely.
INTEGRATED WEALTH SERVICE
Integrated Wealth Service - a modern system of addressing financial strategy, quality of life, and the full impact of wealth across generations – looks at the world from a brighter perspective. It starts by identifying the factors surrounding financial security that most profoundly impact how we feel in life – relationships, control, purpose – and then applies services and processes that are designed to connect these directly and visibly to investment and estate strategy decision making. Our paper – Short Introduction to Integrated Wealth Service – conveys the basics in an easy-to-understand summary. In a nutshell, Integrated Wealth Service unifies a plan that focuses on the full impact of financial decision-making across generations.
From a human level, most people sense that money can become a trigger for a broad array of life outcomes. One of wealth’s most significant emotional impacts is financial peace of mind, it gives comfort that we and our family will be safe from some of life’s cruelest places of scarcity. Extending that peace of mind to other elements of well-being is central to integrated planning and decision-making. Examples included:
Children
Intergenerational Relationships
Purpose and fulfillment
Gratitude
Control
Below we share a few stories on some of the topics that arise frequently. To breathe life into the process, we have included examples of the types of services that might be applied in each situation.
Image by Casey Jarvis
CHILDREN + WEALTH
There are no relationships more important than the ones we share with family, especially the children in our lives. Our paper on Surprising Ways Wealth Can Impact Children delves into some of the factors that have shaped the process around LEVATUS Children and Wealth.
A strategy designed to include the impact of financial decisions on our children’s sense of earned success and purpose is a great example of Integrated Wealth planning. We know, based on experience and significant scholarly research, a sense of earned success is critical to long-term happiness. Wealth counsel that formally incorporates this known impact offers a more complete plan for achieving success. In other words, solving for our children’s financial security and opportunities is only the first step in a more rigorous process.
Quick Story:
A friend and advisor who has spent decades in the field of cognitive psychology recently sent us a fascinating research paper. It laid out a study that was set up something like this - kids were brought to an amazing playground with swings, slides, jungle gyms, bridges, and secret huts.
Some groups were brought to the playground and told ‘Go ahead and play’. The result, many children just stood there milling around, not making much use of the wonderland in front of them. Other cohorts in the study were brought to the same playground and told that they could not go on the slide, but they could go on the jungle gym and swings, and they could only go on the see-saw if they were four years old (this is not verbatim, but along these lines). With this group there was an almost instantaneous explosion of activity, noise, and effusive playground energy.
The LEVATUS Children and Wealth service program incorporates research like this. Wealth gives clients the ability to give their children many things. The process of setting up guardrails can be as intentional as investment choices. Our Children and Wealth service program runs through to young adulthood, where the importance of earned success and financial literacy become a core element of planning.
The long-term happiness of the children in our life is critically important to their quality of life, and the peace of mind and quality of life of parents and other involved adults. Outcomes are highly dependent on each individual circumstance, but this science has application at many stages of growing up. Unifying this effectively with financial decision making, using the same rigor applied to the growth of assets to support financial security, is central to the model of Integrated Wealth Service.
“An intergenerational transfer of wealth is in motion in America — and it will dwarf any of the past.”
INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships have a meaningful impact on how we feel in life, particularly family relationships. Intergenerational wealth transition can be a particular point of strain on family relationships, leading to anxiety over communication, inheritance, financial decisions, and differing values. The bottom line, advanced planning and a process driven approach can meaningfully bend the curve on family dynamics in a positive direction.
As an advisor, setting up a ‘multiple point of contact’ communication framework helps in fostering a successful intergenerational progress - education on wealth stewardship, leadership transition, and trustee training. All these services are key components of an integrated approach to wealth advisory. They not only impact stewardship of capital, but also create a common language across generations which is supportive of relationships.
Quick Story:
This is a frequent theme. Mary and Paul are parents with adult children, and they hesitate to share information about the extent of the family’s assets with their three sons and one daughter. They fear that ‘seeing the number’ will impact behavior, decision making, and important life choices. The children are very different but share history and core values.
The LEVATUS Intergenerational Capital Stewardship program creates a bridge between financial education and family wealth transition. The service directs progress from education, to governance, to trustee training, and does not require specific numbers to work.
With this program Mary and Paul’s adult children felt progress toward being more included, gaining perspective on the hard work of their parents, as well as perspective on the leadership roles they could best fill. Both children and parents become more comfortable with the positive transition of leadership over time.
Not every situation is the same, and there are always unique family circumstances that impact the journey. There is, however, a common thread within this set of services. A deepening sense of shared respect and understanding. These integrated wealth services run alongside capital stewardship and speak directly to the impact financial decision-making together with family relationships can have on the quality of life.
“Accumulating research indicates robust associations between sense of control and salutary health and well-being outcomes”
CONTROL
Image by Giulia May
With wealth comes lots of moving pieces - financial markets, estate planning, investments, cash flow, taxes, family dynamics. Sometimes this complexity can become overwhelming. This is especially true during life transitions such as divorce, career transition, or when the loss of a partner leaves unfamiliar responsibilities with a new leader. Knowing that a lack of control is associated with diminished well-being, how does a fully Integrated Wealth Service strategy facilitate positive outcomes?
LEVAUTS Life Transition Services are designed to prioritize order. If there is a need to increase financial literacy, then that is where we start. The foundational elements of financial understanding are not hard to understand when boiled down to straightforward terms and prioritized properly.
To create clarity, financial reporting is done in an executive summary format via a one-page Impact Statement, a giant step away from the hundreds of pages that are usually delivered. Cash Flow Mapping and Prioritization creates needed order from a money flow perspective, and document organization follows.
Gaining control is the first priority, and once achieved services focused on purpose and mission are dovetailed into the overall process. All of these services adhere to a framework that is developed and applied with the same standards for rigor as our investment processes. They are then customized with the help of your advisor, who is a partner dedicated to you in every step of the journey.
Quick Story:
Maddie was midway through her divorce. She was not the person who handled the finances in her marriage. Maddie felt she had no power in the process, and no power to see her future. The idea of thinking about money created anxiety. The idea that gaining control on the ‘money side’ could help lead her to a place of empowerment seemed ludicrous.
It is amazing how concrete steps, even small ones, can create momentum. An interesting aspect of money is that it is very concrete. You can learn what a retirement account is, you can see what an electric bill is. A partner to help you organize this information can create clarity that is the beginning of power. With this power, you can purposefully pursue dreams that once seemed distant.
Organization for Control is an important component of Life Transition Services. This particular story has been so rewarding to be a part of. During her divorce Maddie envisioned setting up a new business. The business is now a reality with Maddie managing the finances and finding purpose and fulfillment in the work.
“Integrating known research-based outcomes from across scientific disciplines can lead to breakthrough ideas.”
A More Complete Solution
Financial resources give comfort that we and our families will be safe from some of life’s cruelest places of scarcity, while providing the benefits of choice and opportunity. This has a positive impact on both peace of mind and quality of life. Financial decisions can also impact other important contributors to the quality of our life – relationships, purpose, control. Integrated Wealth Service addresses the whole of it as part of a unified plan because each part is connected and important.
LEVATUS Wealth Counsel | Investment Management is a leader at the forefront of Integrated Wealth Service - a modern system of addressing financial security, quality of life, and the full impact of wealth across generations, within a unified plan. We are always happy to connect and answer questions, big and small.
INTEGRATED WEALTH SERVICE
Unlocking the Good Across Generations
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Dahl is a well regarded executive, female industry leader and dedicated client advisor with over twenty-five years of experience. Susan writes on topics such as investing, Integrated Wealth Service, and financial planning. She is the author of the blog series Female Advisor Perspective, a look into the unique strategy, process and planning insights that emerge when problem solving is viewed through the unique lens of experienced female financial advisors. Susan’s deep and diverse background extends from global investing to risk management to change leadership. This background has laid the groundwork for an approach that asks more of wealth. She shares some insights in her talk for TEDx, Can Happy Make You Money?
