When we try to do things all by ourselves, we are ignoring the fact that we all have only 24 hours in the day. By building a wealth team, we are leveraging those hours into hundreds or even thousands of hours each day.

A typical wealth team can include many different people. It often includes: Advisors, Employees, Vendors, Customers/Clients, and Partners. Most people understand who is involved in a wealth team, but few truly understand how to utilize each team member to their full potential.

Get Maximum Leverage from Your Team Members
Your wealth team is a valuable resource in your wealth strategy and one that I often see used incorrectly.

My profession is a great example of this. I talk with prospective clients every day and most have the following relationship with their tax advisor:Their tax advisor prepares their tax return.  Outside of their tax return preparation process, they contact their tax advisor when they have a question and their tax advisor answers their question.

One of the ways I want my clients to leverage me as a resource is to share my knowledge with them so they don’t have to do it themselves. This includes providing them with answers to questions they don’t even know to ask.

Here’s an example.

At least once a week I am asked the question, “What type of entity should I form for my business/investing?”  With a few follow up questions, most tax advisors will answer this question and the client will be happy with the answer.Then what usually happens is the client starts to learn more specifics as they progress in their business or investing. These may be details they should have been doing or should not have been doing, but they are all facts they wished they would have known sooner.

This is why I don’t just answer the specific question at hand; I anticipate what the client doesn’t know to ask. I have tremendous experience in the long-term implications of a tax strategy, which includes forming an entity, and I want to share my knowledge and experience with my clients so my clients can avoid common mistakes (that sometimes can set their business or investing back by years).Even though the client has come to me with one specific question, I typically find myself asking the client many more questions that cover bookkeeping, tracking expenses, business or investing operations, additional goals they have, estate planning and exit strategy (to name a few).Eventually most people learn these details, but usually it is not until they are at a point where they wish they had known about them sooner.

Remember: Every team member should be pushing your wealth strategy forward and not keeping it from moving forward.