Wealth Protection Strategy #1: Understanding Insurance Implications for High-Net-Worth Families

As a wealth advisor to High-Net-Worth (HNW) families, you take a committed and guided approach to managing their financial affairs.  In fact, you most likely have become an integral part of their family as you help them strategize and protect their assets to maintain their lifestyle and leave a legacy to their heirs.  More often than not, estate planning attorneys and tax accountants are included in these strategic moves and discussions with your high-net-worth clients.  One commonly overlooked advisor is the insurance advisor.  In my experience, many financial advisors typically end their discovery phase with a simple question of whether or not the client has personal insurance (i.e. home, auto, umbrella, valuables).   After the client replies yes and says everything is taken care of, the advisor simply checks off a box.  But how can a financial plan be sound without knowing what uninsured assets are exposed or whether liability limits are adequate?  While many advisors do a wonderful job of consulting their clients on ways to shelter and protect their assets, some often overlook the simplest form of wealth and asset protection:  making sure personal insurance policies are written properly, so that in a time of need, the policy responds in the way the client thought it would.

In this series, we review and analyze these topics that need to be considered when discussing wealth strategies with your high-net-worth clients:

• The importance of working with an Insurance Advisor and Carriers that specialize in High-Net-Worth Individuals and Families, as well as the implications of not working with a specialist
• Protecting assets by properly structuring umbrella coverage and appropriate limits to confidently ensure your clients’ assets are secured.
• How to properly insure Trusts and LLC’s
• Protecting the MOST UNDERINSURED items for High-Net-Worth individuals:  valuables, fine art, collectibles and jewelry.

NOTE:  This blog is part of a series of blogs dedicated to wealthy families and their advisors to provide tips and strategies for protecting wealth and assets through the use of properly structured insurance policies.  Please check back with us often for the rest of the series or sign up on this page to receive the blogs instantly once they are posted.