You Have One Too Many People On Your Team

Someone at home, they may say, "I got four professionals on my team. I've got an estate planning attorney, I've got two wealth advisors, and I've got a CPA. How do I get all of them on a call? How do I coordinate that? It seems like it'd be really, really difficult."

You probably have one too many people on the team. You probably are... You probably need to reduce that team.

Yeah.

And second, someone needs to own the role of quarterback.

Yeah.

And it's not the client. So, number one, that client ought to look for whoever their advisor is or CPA, someone who welcomes, someone who endorses working with other professionals, someone who believes in coordination, because wealth and the management of it is complicated. Rules change all the time. Every year I can go... Yeah, man, I can go back through my career and count several times where implications of tax code change caused a lot of problems.

Yeah.

Those implications were major in some cases, depending on the size of wealth.

Mhm.

I think someone has to own that. And that person is responsible as part of their contractual obligation to the client, they're going to pull all that together.

Yeah. I would say there's one more layer to this. If you have people on your team that don't want to agree to annual meetings or to planning sessions with your other professionals, you probably ought to fire them.

I'd agree. You've got the wrong people. That's like saying to your surgeon and the team of people that they work with, that's like you feeling as though you have to say to them, "Hey, by the way, will you coordinate with all the other people in the OR? Will you talk to them?"

Yeah.

That's a given.

It's like the surgeon saying that they don't want to work with the anesthesiologist. Come on.

Yeah. It's a given. They don't have that luxury.

Yeah.

Whatever their issues are, whatever their pride points are, you get rid of that.

Absolutely.

And you come together because at the end of the day you're trying to create an outcome right for the person paying you. And that is the client in this case.

Yeah.

So, yes, I think they have four on the team, they probably have one too many. Two, somebody out of quarterback. And three, if those people are not willing, in fact, if they're not encouraging some semblance of a at least annual meeting to be sure everything is coordinated, to make sure everything supports the next thing. To be sure that nothing is being a stone is left unturned should never be an option. Right? If those kinds of things aren't happening, Spell, you probably have the wrong people on your team.

Why doesn't the industry work this way? It seems painfully obvious to me that this is how the industry should work because when you have the CPA and the advisor and in some cases the attorney at the same table, they're able to communicate. And in this case, probably save the client that major headache of having to listen to the advisor and the CPA say, "Hey, there was a mistake on your return from whenever it was. And by the way, it cost you $8,000." Why doesn't the industry work this way?

Yeah, the bifurcation or the disconnect has been there since I started. I've seen this problem for decades. And I don't know that it gets better, Spell, because I think the intentionality is void. I don't think it's there. With the exception of a few who get it.

Wealth management firms, they're tiptoeing into the other part of that space. They're moving into the tax planning shortage, and I think that's a good thing. Attorneys, that's a different world, different animal. The CPA nor the wealth advisory firm, we can't take any of those dollars. We can't share, right? There's no reciprocity or rather sharing of those dollars. That's not allowed, right? And that's a good thing.

It is a good thing.

But you see that there's really no motivation...

Right.

...for these people to want to work together. Everyone just works in their silo. They all believe they're the expert. And I believe that fails the client.

Yeah.

Because that lack of coordination exists. So, it's so important. You think about our professional advisory board, Spell.

Mhm.

We all just have good people who have agreed to do the right thing. We have people who are willing to take the phone call when it comes in.

Yeah.

They're willing to consult with the client whenever that time comes, regardless if they get them as a client.

Yeah.

We've put together something that allows the client to know there is coordination there at all calls, and we're willing to put that in writing.

Yes, we are. And that's different.

It is different.

That's different. I think more of that needs to happen.

Yeah. And one day it probably will because the liability will only get larger as things get more and more complicated.

True.

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