While the wealth planning journey involves numbers, figures and calculations, those elements are only the means to a more important end. Wealth planning lets individuals and families evaluate their present financial lives with the hopes of exploring and achieving something greater. In the fourth and final segment of our wealth planning series, we describe RKL Wealth Management’s holistic approach to wealth planning and why a focus on long-term fulfillment proves more valuable than any investment return or financial transaction.
“Invest in something greater” has been RKL Wealth Management’s brand tagline for several years now, but incorporating the human element into wealth planning has been a core principle since the firm’s founding decades ago. In recent years, the fields of financial therapy, financial psychology and behavioral finance have emerged to validate key aspects of this approach, such as enriched family communication, greater community impact and a more holistic approach to legacy planning. New evidence-based theories and techniques have been developed to grow financial health and overall well-being and keep these two elements in harmony.
Planted Firmly in the Present
The RKL Wealth Management team has decades of experience supporting individuals and families along their holistic wealth planning journey. It is rewarding to witness a client’s mindset evolve throughout the process. Many clients start from a place of consternation and concern around their current financial status – whether it’s the adequacy of wealth, the impact of a large event like the sale of a business or retirement or the amount that will be left for heirs, just to name a few. A noticeable shift occurs, however, once the wealth plan begins to take form and the probability of various outcomes are quantified and stress tested. Only then does the financial side become clearer and clients can tap into their deepest hopes and dreams.
Opening the Door to Something Greater
Using coaching tools, communication techniques and discussion frameworks, the RKL Wealth Management team facilitates a robust discovery process with clients. Deeper dialogue and inquiry is necessary to uncover hopes, dreams and goals, and ultimately develop a plan to achieve them. Read more about RKL Wealth Management’s step-by-step process to maintain communication and remain agile along life’s twists and turns in part two of our wealth planning series. The discovery process and ongoing communication are essential to go beyond the numbers and truly integrate the wealth plan into all aspects of a client’s life.
One of the most effective tools in the discovery process are concise, open-ended questions that help evoke clarity, discovery or insight. The answers to questions like these examples below are part of what shift a wealth plan into a focus on something greater and spark action:
- What matters to you? What’s priority?
- How much is enough? For today, for the next generation, for philanthropy?
- What do we long for? How do we start to achieve it?
As clients explore these questions, it becomes clear that the financial side of a wealth plan plays a secondary and supportive role to the human side of a life full of fulfillment and impact.
This coaching approach creates space for individual stories of life lessons, challenges, successes and sacrifices. There is power in articulating all of the factors that go into creating a fulfilling life, and how it can shape the legacy we leave to future generations or important causes. If you are ready to go beyond numbers and identify a plan to invest in something greater, contact RKL Wealth Management or use the form below to start the conversation.
