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It’s About True Wealth, not Just Money…and Why “Collaboration” is More Than a Buzzword

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I’ve been thinking a lot about how we as professionals can provide more timely and relevant services to more people. Personally, I know that I don’t have all of the answers and solutions to everyone’s problems or opportunities. But I do know that in our area of True Wealth stewardship services and Wyoming’s unique advantages, we have much to offer.

Then I came across the following article from Forbes. The article describes a typical approach that I’ve seen for years: advisors focus on minimizing taxes, maximizing returns, and mitigating risk through legal and insurance strategies. As the article suggests, most advisors believe they should communicate with other advisors. But here’s the challenge that I see: they’re communicating in order to save the maximum amount in taxes, seize investment opportunities, and address financial risks ONLY. To me, this perspective, while common, is short-sighted, self-serving, and misses the mark when it comes to what people really want and need.

Forbes Article “Why Your Financial Planner, Lawyer, and Accountant Should Talk”

I am far from a legal or tax expert. But I can say one thing: advisors would be well-served to ask their clients what they value more than money. In so doing, they may discover that their clients have values, concerns, aspirations, and unfulfilled dreams that saving taxes, maximizing returns, or mitigating financial risks don’t address.

Recently, I attended the The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Conference here in Jackson. STEP is a large international organization focused on the trust and estate planning issues of families from all over the world who have significant financial wealth. Here again, my sense is that most of the advisors in attendance concentrate on minimizing taxes, maximizing returns, and mitigating risk through legal and insurance strategies. They generally are not thinking about what really matters most to their clients.

I also noticed while attending the STEP conference that collaboration is the new industry buzz word. Just as in the Forbes article above, most advisors seem to view collaboration as talking to each other, cooperating amiably with each other, or being agreeable and tolerant with each other.

I would juxtapose this “business as usual” approach with Avi Kantor’s panel presentation at the recent Empowered Wealth Summit.

Avi knows that if we truly collaborate with our professional colleagues and hold each other accountable for serving our client families well, we can provide more timely and relevant services than what the world has experienced historically.

Wyoming Private Single Family Trust Companies Allow Families to Self Govern over Multiple Generations

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The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any constraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek.

– Karl R. Popper

For a family that can self-govern effectively over multiple generations, a Wyoming private single family trust company is a unique, perhaps even optimal, legal and administrative structure. While the legal and regulatory environment in Wyoming is very favorable for families who create private single family trust companies, the key factor is the ability of the family to self-govern over an extended period of time.

Private Single Family Trust Company Information

We, like all other organizations that serve trust clients, want to make sure that appropriate governance, standard operating procedures, and rules of ethics are created and implemented by client families. What’s often overlooked, however, are the cultural influences that bind a family together. That’s why we pay special attention to the ideas, concepts, and tools of Empowered Wealth. Beginning with Gratitude as a fundamental part of a family’s mindset, Empowered Wealth pays close attention to capturing and capitalizing the stories, rituals, ceremonies, and traditions that are foundational to a family’s culture and its True Wealth. Add to this the Certior Group’s perspective that True Wealth Stewardship is the goal of family leadership, I think you can see that our mission isn’t to promote private single family trust companies; it’s to support thriving families and family members who are living happy, fulfilled and meaningful lives.

Avi Kantor

The Impactful and Contagious Role of a Leader

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“I will study and prepare myself and someday my chance will come.”

– Abraham Lincoln

The short article below describes Warren Buffet’s idea that the qualities that make up good character can be learned and, in fact, are the results of choices that people make.

Warren Buffet Article

I’m reminded daily of the choices I make as a leader of my family and of The Certior Group. Whether I’m aware of them or not, the choices I make send messages to others about who I am and what matters to me.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from working with Empowered Wealth is that I have to show up every day with my “Leader Hat” on. I have to both lead by example and give others the opportunity to grow into their future roles as leaders themselves. I’m sure the same is true for each of you, especially as stewards of your family’s True Wealth. You too must simultaneously make decisions today, lead by example, and cultivate leadership in those who will one day take on responsibilities. These future leaders – especially the future stewards of your family’s True Wealth – must learn to lead in a world that we likely can’t imagine. Nevertheless, our role is to teach, guide, and help them become the leaders they are capable of becoming.

When we started The Certior Group, we saw an opportunity to support families as they steward their True Wealth. Collaborating with families and their advisors to cultivate family leadership is a challenge we’re prepared to take on. For further information, see our page on Family Stewardship.

Avi Kantor

The CERTIOR Group, LLC

The Certior Group, LLC.

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