I have always believed that there is an amazing similarity between coaching the game of football and managing wealth for the families that we serve. Both demand an incredible amount of preparation, strategy, proactive thinking and the ability to “call an audible,” making the necessary adjustments on the move.
In preparation for an upcoming game, the head coach puts together a specific tactical game plan for all his players and staff. If necessary, additional action steps are communicated, should appropriate changes need to be made during the game.
In the financial world, advisors develop personalized game plans, where they give advice in a common language, so that families can live out their hopes and dreams. Let’s look at how important the integration of offense, defense and special teams are to both a football team and a family seeking financial security.
Great defenses work very hard to make an opponent’s offense one dimensional, meaning they take away either the run or the pass. Most importantly they stick with their initial game plan, they trust their keys and reads, and they gang tackle on every play.
In the financial world, when evaluating a family’s overall financial situation, we manage risk and we work to prevent something bad from happening to us.
We work to not give up the big play, an unfortunate event that could derail a family’s retirement plan. This is accomplished through education, planning and the use of our risk survey and digital allocation tool.
Defense is important, but offense sells tickets. On offense, we want to have a balanced attack, with the ability to both run and pass the ball effectively. We use many different formations and players to accomplish this.
In the financial world, we accomplish this through our tested “bucket strategy,” which consists of now, soon and later buckets. This way we can diversify a family’s portfolio depending on their needs, time frame and risk tolerance based on what the markets – or defense – are giving us. A tactical approach allows our players and families to remain calm during difficult times on the field and in their portfolios.
Finally, the extremely important area of special teams. Turn on any football game, at any level, and I promise there will be a moment when a special teams play makes a huge impact on the outcome of the game.
With families that we work with, the ability to have in-house professionals – our version of special teams – is critical to our overall success. Access to CPAs, CFPs, JDs, CFAs and trust services is a game-changer for me and the people we serve.
It allows me as the lead wealth advisor to put the appropriate players on the field, which will provide our families the opportunity to worry less and enjoy life more.