Take the rancor out of divvying up an estate

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You’ve probably seen family members fight or sulk over the disposition of personal possessions after a loved one passes away. Estate planning and elder law attorney Susan J. Shipley‘s article below describes a website that may reduce the pain.

Have you used eDivvyup.com? Please comment on your experience.
Web Site Aims to Take the Rancor Out of Dividing Up an Estate

Dividing up family heirlooms after the death of a loved one can be a difficult business. Wills often deal only with financial assets, not personal possessions. The resulting infighting between family members over who gets which personal item can damage relationships for years to come.

Now there is a web site that may help families avoid acrimony and make the process of dividing up possessions in an estate easier. The site, eDivvyup, allows family members (and friends of the deceased) to divide up a relative’s personal estate using an auction platform similar to eBay’s. The estate’s executor gives family members non-monetary points which they can use to bid on estate items that can be listed and pictured on the site. Bids reflect a family member’s desire to own an item. eDivvyup seems particularly well-suited for families that are geographically dispersed, as many are.

The cost of the service is $49 to list 50 items. Additional item listings can be purchased as needed. For more information, go to: www.eDivvyup.com.

Producing investment pitch books without losing your mind, and other advice from Margaret Patterson

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Designer Margaret Patterson’s posts about investment management pitch books were among the most popular on my previous blog. Her tips can make producing these important marketing materials less stressful.

Here are links to her posts.

Contact Margaret by posting a comment on this blog. Or, if you’re a potential client, call her at 617-971-0328.

"Is Spelling Overrated?"

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Direct marketing guru Bob Bly recently asked “Is Spelling Overrated?” on his blog.

I don’t think so. Good spelling won’t win over new clients. But sentences rife with misspellings may make the reader wonder if you’re similarly sloppy with their money.

It’s one thing to have typos in the quick emails you send to your employees, as Bly points out. Quite another to tolerate them in formal communications to clients and prospects.

People often write “it’s” where “its” should be. “It’s” is short for “it is.” “Its” is the possessive form of “it.” This trips up many people because of the exception to the rule that you form a possessive by adding an apostrophe followed by the letter “s.”

English is a challenging language for spellers. Get someone else to proofread your most important written communications.

Tips for writing case studies

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Case studies can be powerful tools for the wealth management professionals who’re allowed to use them.

A case study typically starts with a presentation of a client problem–something that’s causing the client pain. The problem is followed by the solution, and then the client results. When prospective clients recognize themselves in the problem, you’ve grabbed their attention.

In “How to Write a Case Study” (available for download without registering) consultant Toby Younis lays out the steps for writing a case study. If you’d like to try doing it yourself, you may find his list of questions on page 12 particularly helpful.

However, don’t write an investment management case study. That falls under the SEC’s prohibition against testimonials.

Feeling emotionally connected to your client can cut both ways

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Feeling a connection with your clients can be a double-edged sword. It can fuel your personal satisfaction. It can also lead to burnout.

This is according to”Financial Feeling: An Investigation of Emotion and Communication in the Workplace,”an academic study by Katherine I. Miller and Joy Koesten, which appeared in the Journal of Applied Communication Research. The article was based on a survey answered by almost 300 financial planners.

However, the study also found that “the most effective and satisfying relationships for financial planners came when they truly cared about the client and saw themselves in a relationship with the client. These connections–when genuine–did not cause burnout.”

Here are the authors’ tips to help you avoid burnout:

  • Understand that financial planning involves relationships as much as it involves numbers.
  • Try to understand the relational needs of your clients through active listening and taking the perspective of the other.
  • Develop a stance of empathic concern in your client relationships where you feel for the client but do not feel with the client.
  • Realize that relationships exist at different levels, and it is sometimes okay to “paste on a smile” if it helps to accomplish the goals of you and your client. At the same time, it is important to remain true to core convictions about your profession and your relationship with clients.
  • Work to understand norms of interaction in different organizational and national cultures, and interact in ways appropriate for those cultures.
  • Rely on others for social support when dealing with stress. Coworkers who understand your job are particularly good at giving advice or just providing a listening ear.

 

Six tips for listening better to your clients

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In my last post, “The Client Relationship Autopsy,” I wrote about how to analyze client relationships turned sour. But if you’d listened better to your clients, perhaps they’d still be with you.

Consider applying the six tips for better listening described in “What?” a New York Times blog post by Marci Alboher.

Tip number six may be especially challenging: “Do not interrupt, even if you think you’re going to forget what you want to say.” Instead, jot down a note, so you can circle back to your idea, if it’s still appropriate later.

One of the tips suggests nodding to show you’re listening. Nodding was essential when I lived in Japan for that very reason. If I kept completely still and silent, my conversation partner would have stopped talking because she or he would have assumed I wasn’t listening. But in the U.S., you should be careful about nodding. Here, nodding suggests that you agree with the speaker.

Did this New York Times columnist listen to me?

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In “Passions Run High On Indexing,” New York Times columnist Joe Nocera writes about the conflict between traditional and fundamental indexers that has been running in the Financial Analysts Journal. He does what I suggest in my investment commentary workshop. He picks a controversial topic from a professional journal, then explains it in non-technical terms.

Nocera’s article is more about what he calls “an old-fashioned academic cat fight” than the indexing debate. If you tackle this topic for your clients, I suggest you focus on the latter rather than the former.

But Nocera does eventually express an opinion on the substance of the debate. He agrees with Jack Bogle that fundamental index funds are a form of active management. “… they ain’t index funds, and they shouldn’t be viewed as a replacement for index funds. Mr. Arnott and his allies would better serve investors by saying so out loud,” writes Nocera.

The charitable trust that’s best in a low-interest rate environment

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Now is a great time to create a charitable lead trust, assuming it would further your client’s estate planning goals.

That’s according to Nadia Yassa, Director of Estate and Gift Planning for the Boston Foundation. She spoke on “Tax Benefits of Charitable Trusts” to the Boston Security Analysts Society on May 13.

Why now? Because when interest rates are low, the IRS will value the non-charitable remainder interest at a lower value, using the IRS discount rate in effect when the trust is established. That’s regardless of what the actual value is when the transfer occurs. The bottom line: Ultimately, more of your assets will reach your beneficiaries because any growth in the trust above the discount rate passes free of gift tax to heirs. As Yassa explained, “A low Section 7520 discount rate allows donors to ‘freeze’ estate and gift values to minimize overall transfer tax liability.”

A non-grantor charitable lead trust provides income to one or more qualified charities for a preset period. At the end of that period, the assets of the trust transfer to non-charitable beneficiaries. People often use this kind of trust to contribute to charity, while ensuring that their assets end up with family members at a lower cost in taxes.

On the flip side, low interest rates mean this is the least favorable time for creating a charitable remainder trust. However, in any case, taxes should not be your only consideration when establishing a charitable trust.

Want to learn more about planned giving, including charitable trusts? Check out the Planned Giving Design Center, suggested Yassa. “It’s a free on-line resource sponsored by the Boston Foundation. Go to www.tbf.org and click on the Professional Advisors section/Planned Giving Design Center. Advisors can register and have access to technical outlines, articles, rulings, news reports, and receive periodic emails with legislative updates, as well as the Section 7520 rate as it is announced each month by the IRS.”

"The Client Relationship Autopsy"

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You’ve probably lost at least one client. But rather than chalk it up as inevitable, try to learn why your client left you.

“The Client Relationship Autopsy” proposes a process consisting of:

  1. Talking to your team
  2. Talking to your client
  3. Preparing a report

“The process will help you choose wisely when it comes to adding new clients, and it will help you glean insights for improving existing client relationships,” says Leo Bottary, the ad agency account director who wrote the article. He goes into detail with suggestions for each step.

Morningstar Market Barometer, 2003-2007

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Want to show your clients how equity styles and sectors perform differently over time?

The newly released 2-page Market Barometer from Morningstar can help.