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Wealth Management Benchmark


What do you think of  when you hear the words financial plan? In most cases, the financial  planning process starts with you gathering your financial documents into a big  pile on the kitchen table. You have your last four years’ tax returns, wills,  trust agreements, insurance policies, asset and expense records, and other  financial documents. Then you haul it all to your advisor’s office, where you  spend several grueling hours filling out an extensive questionnaire. The  process is exhausting, and very little of it has anything to do with you or  your personality; it’s mainly about your finances.
 
Eventually,  you receive a neatly bound booklet with your name on the front and about 100  to 200 pages of financial reports, depending on your net worth and how large a  fee you’re willing to pay. Your booklet includes a cash flow analysis, tax  projections, net worth statements, estate plans, and a host of  computer-generated projections. If you’re like most people, after two or three  meetings with your advisor you probably put the book away on a shelf someplace  and take it down a few years later, only to learn that little, if any, of the  information is still relevant.
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That’s because long-term  projections don’t work. They rely on factors that are difficult to  predict—things like market returns, inflation rates, taxes, government  benefits, health considerations, and job changes. Being off by as little as  one percent in just one of those areas can make more than a 50 percent  difference in the eventual outcome.
 
Not only are the  projections unreliable, but traditional financial planning tends to be a  one-time activity. Normally, you’re given an annual review, which requires  additional fees, centers around products the advisor wants to sell, or both.  If any attempt is made to measure the progress of your financial plan, it’s  usually done through benchmarking—comparing your progress to some combination  of market indices or long-term projections. But even if you beat the  benchmark, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be financially independent or meet  the goals you set for your life. Traditional financial planning is mostly  about numbers and very little about your life goals or objectives. In most  instances, it’s nothing more than a financial report that forces you to  address a host of issues you aren’t particularly interested  in.
 

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

At  Canterbury, we offer a different approach. Because we’re serious about your  money and excited about your life, we’ve developed the Wealth Management  Benchmark®—a revolutionary new tool that combines financial planning with life  planning. The WMB lets you evaluate your current status and decide  where you want to go from here. Unlike traditional benchmarking, the WMB  measures your progress against your own benchmarks, based on  your objectives and goals. You decide what matters most and which areas, if  any, require immediate professional assistance.

We know that  high-net-worth individuals have special needs. That’s why the Wealth  Management Benchmark addresses issues in each of the following six  areas:

  • Net Worth and Cash  Management
  • Investment  Planning
  • Retirement  Planning
  • Estate and Legacy  Planning
  • Asset and Income  Protection
 
Instead of emphasizing numbers and statistical data,  the Wealth Management Benchmark produces a personalized financial plan  exclusively for you. It’s a customized program that shows what’s  important to you—which issues you want to address and which ones you don’t.  And it’s an ongoing process that’s easy to update and refine as your  goals and objectives change. Best of all, you can get started immediately, not  several months later when some exhaustive report comes back.
 
The  initial process takes about ninety minutes, and you don’t need to bring any  documents with you. In one brief meeting, you’ll be asked a few simple  questions in each of the six key areas outlined above. When you’re done,  you’ll immediately receive a printout containing the following  information:
 
  • Your  personal Wealth Management Benchmark, an easy-to-read scale that lets you  measure your progress against your own life goals.
  • Your Action Plan, showing who’s responsible for  what, when each task should be completed, and when to follow up. We’ll  determine an optimum schedule for reviewing and evaluating your progress, and  we’ll create the best possible plan for fine-tuning your financial  strategy.
 

A SOPHISTICATED TOOL FOR SOPHISTICATED  CLIENTS


Don’t confuse the user-friendly  nature of the WMB with a lack of sophistication. The WMB is one of the most  comprehensive tools available in the financial planning industry today. It was  created specifically to address the concerns of high-net-worth individuals,  and has been thoroughly tested to ensure its efficacy. Like all financial  planning programs, the WMB is a tool—and like all tools, its success or  failure is based on the experience of the advisors who use it and their  ability to get things done. At Canterbury, we’re proud of our management  team’s background. With our extensive experience and diverse qualifications,  the WMB is much more than a financial planning tool; it includes sound  financial advice from highly qualified professionals. We invite you to read  about our management team in our brochure or on our Web site at  www.canterburygroup.com.
 
A key component in the Wealth Management  Benchmark process involves identifying and coordinating the efforts of all  members of your wealth management team. At Canterbury, we pride ourselves on  our ability to get things done and work smoothly with other advisors such as  accountants, attorneys, insurance experts, and private bankers. We can work  with any or all of your present advisors, or refer you to some of the top  advisors in their respective fields, people with whom we have an ongoing  professional relationship.
 
People often worry that they’ve left  something undone. Maybe their wills aren’t up to date, or their investments  have too much risk or aren’t in balance. Maybe something will go wrong in our  unpredictable world—emergencies will arise, markets might go down, accidents  may happen. But with the WMB, it’s unlikely that anything will occur that  hasn’t been addressed. The WMB provides the peace of mind that comes from  knowing no stone has been left unturned and no question has been left  unanswered.