Many family's use their most trusted attorney, CPA or financial advisor as the "coach" of their estate.
Unfortunately, that is a classic mistake. Why?
These are service providers, and that is what they are there for - to serve a specific legal, accounting or investment need.
But those specific needs are really only a piece of a larger goal. The family needs to decide what the big picture goals are, and then strategically execute.
Think about it - does any fortune 500 company let it's legal department or accounting department strategically run the company?
As I heard from a friend recently "Never dream with an attorney."
I love attorneys and accountants and work with them on a daily basis, however there needs to be a scope of project and an overall goal.
The same with an accountant or a financial advisor. Otherwise the service provider becomes your life coach, simply because you are asking them to be.
How can they see all of the intricacies of your life from their limited vantage point as a role player?
It's like asking the running back to act as the coach as well. It's not only unfair to the running back, it just doesn't work.
The better way to go about it is to have a goal in mind. The more clear cut and less technical, the better:
"I want to get all assets out of my name, but retain control"
"I want to get a 12%+ cash on cash, safe return on my investment portfolio"
"I have $500K liquidity needs, so I need at least that in free cash flow per year, without affecting my current investments or estate planning"
Most of these goals require not just an attorney, but also a CPA, a valuation firm, and a financial advisor. And they have to work together, in sync and on schedule!
Therefore, the goals must be presented to the relevant team members and collaborated on, then executed. Everyone needs to be highly accountable for their role, but no more.
Family offices use their C-suite to collaborate with the family and then oversee the legal, accounting, and finance departments to direct the project to stick to the goals.
That is how a real business runs, and that's how an estate should run as well.
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