Building Your Wealth Management Team

Whether your company is preparing for a sale or an IPO, or your wealth is concentrated in company shares you've accumulated over the years, building the right team is one of the most critical steps for navigating the challenges of complex wealth and achieving your goals. 

There are few decisions during your career as important as determining whose advice you will rely on. In times of transition, such as a sale or an IPO, you will be faced with numerous interrelated decisions across tax, investments, estate planning and more. While multiple advisors will play a role in these decisions, you need an advisor who can quarterback the decision-making process across disciplines in order to turn complexity into a cohesive plan. 

Find the Right Advisors

Selecting your team of advisors is, as the saying goes, both art and science. Ultimately, your team is likely to include a financial planner, tax preparer and advisor, and trust and estate planner. In addition to selecting advisors and firms who are equipped to adapt to the evolving complexity of your needs, it is important that the team communicates well, collaborates rather than competes and, most importantly, is aligned with your goals, risk-tolerance and the nuances of your specific needs.

When evaluating advisors, consider expertise, experience and empathy.

Expertise

Research, vet and interview multiple advisors. Learn about the licenses and credentials they possess to determine whether they have the expertise to provide the advice you require.

Experience

Ensure your advisors have extensive experience with the different components of your executive compensation. The financial advisor you choose, for example, should have significant experience helping clients with deferred compensation, section 83(b) elections, option tracking and rule 10b5-1 plans.

Empathy

Understanding is essential. Your advisors should undertake a holistic approach to support the realization of your personal fulfillment as you strive to accomplish your goals. Your advisors’ cadence, communication and strategy should be compatible with you and your partner, if you have one. Match and fit matter.

Evolving your team 

As compensation structures, portfolios and assets evolve — or during pivotal liquidity moments like a company sale or IPO — it is often necessary to grow the team to include wealth management. Ideally, your wealth advisor will serve as the "quarterback" of your team, coordinating investing and financial advice, tax services, trust and estate services and retirement planning across an array of experts, potentially within and outside of their organization. 

Questions to consider

When evaluating advisors, consider asking the following questions:

• How many executives do you work with, and what are their roles? Fewer are often better. You are seeking advisors who cater to your complex needs and can devote appropriate time and resources. Ensure that the advisor has experience working with clients whose compensation sophistication is on par with your own.
• Can you put me in touch with current clients? Whether it’s your colleagues or executives at other companies, references are critical.
• Can you explain in detail how you are compensated? Advisors in this space are often incentivized to sell insurance packages that may not suit your needs. Be wary of those who tout no fees or inordinately low fees. In the financial planning space, consider a straightforward planning fee for objective advice and advisors who put a premium on building relationships with you and, potentially, your family for generations.

Leverage Company Resources

Your company is a powerful resource for building your team – not only due to the tools and information it makes available to you, but also because of the institutional knowledge of your peers and predecessors.

• Know what is available. While most companies do not offer comprehensive planning for executive leadership, there is likely still an array of tools at your disposal. Some firms, for instance, offer tax preparation, a degree of financial planning, or an executive planning benefit to senior leadership. Additionally, human resources may have a list of approved providers. And while human resources is not likely to make hard recommendations, it may share that the majority of executives in your position have traditionally opted to work with a certain provider.
• Talk to your predecessor. While discussing team building with your predecessor can be sensitive due to dynamics such as the circumstances of their departure, no one is likely to know your situation better than the person who was in your chair before you. If you are comfortable enough in your relationship with your predecessor to do so, reaching out can be a valuable exercise.
• Talk to your peers. In addition to discussing views on general best practices with your peers, there is often value in working with advisors who know your company’s compensation and benefit structures.

Building the right advisory team is one of the most important decisions you will make — especially during major liquidity events like a company sale or IPO, when complexity increases and each decision carries long-term implications for your wealth. With decades of experience advising founders, executives and senior leaders, Northern Trust helps you navigate these moments with clarity and coordination. By bringing together trust and estate planning, investment management, tax strategy and philanthropy, we help align the many moving parts — so you can make deliberate decisions around equity, timing and liquidity, and turn a moment of wealth creation into lasting outcomes for your family.