PEERS
Wealth management: the game never ends, the rules keep changing.

Having wealth creates its own set of unique challenges, time consuming responsibilities and serious dilemmas. High net worth individuals and their families are confronted with the need to make decisions on the legal and tax structuring of their assets, on investments, on advisers, their fees, etc.

Just when you think you have your house in order things change. They always do. Just think of 2008: the Dollar lost even more of its lustre, commodities spiralled out of control, real estate went down and credit dried up. No traditional asset class was left unaffected. On top of that the UK goverment decided this was the right time to change the tax rules. The year is not over yet. Tomorrow there will be other changes. Just reacting is not a winning game plan.

Not only the environment changes: you change too. Your experiences may lead to changes in the way you want to bank or invest. New people come into your life and others fade away. New circumtances lead to new arrangements. As time goes by you may wish to change the wealth management support you have in place to get more or less involved.

Advice from banks, asset managers, even tax advisers and solicitors can be affected by conflicts of interest. The limitations of old advisers in new situations can become obvious too late. Depending on the situation family members can be trusted advisors or the source of complications.

Whether you want to be deeply involved in your wealth management or prefer to delegate and outsource as much as possible, you will at least have to stay up to date and connected enough to play your unavoidable role as overseer, expediter and ultimate decion maker.