My wife and I have seen this in the past. I was “just” floored, yesterday, when we saw once more how different advisors’ perspectives can impact one’s plans . . . for better or worse.

Yesterday, our legacy planners wanted to discuss what they characterized as “wealth planning” “to ensure that there is a legacy to plan.” –Especially in these uncertain and highly volatile times, they noted, we must pay particular attention to our cash and near-cash assets.

That all sounded well and good.

But then it hit me. About halfway through the meeting, I held up my hand. “Hold on a second. I just want to make sure I’m hearing you accurately and fully understanding what you are talking about. Read the rest of this entry »

The pressure had been building for weeks. And it all came to a head last Thursday. I was sure Sarita and I were about to lose our long-time investment advisor. In fact, I went into my meeting with him sure this would be our last meeting together. And I was totally–totally–bummed. It was the culmination of growing distrust between our advisors.

Why had things come to this point? Read the rest of this entry »

L____’s revelations yesterday have “just” consumed me. And made me realize I want to stop C____ from proceeding with her research . . . at least until I get some other questions answered first.

So I wrote to her: Read the rest of this entry »

J_____, our legacy planner, has been stressing, from the very beginning of our relationship, the need for the professionals on our team — our attorney, our CPA, our investment advisor, and J___ himself — to be on the same page when they speak with Sarita and me.

“You want to include all planning team members in the process from the beginning,” he said. “We need to be able to communicate openly one with another without worrying about being embarrassed or having our egos bruised by having you [John, client] hear any of our questions or comments.”

In order to ensure that end, then, he told us that he would meet with all our advisors prior to telling us anything about the details of the plan he is putting together.

Well, the advisors’ final, pre-presentation meeting was scheduled for this morning. And J_____ just wrote me: Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know what to think. Our legacy planner, J____, seems pretty excited about whatever-it-is he’s putting together for us. He’s supposed to be one of the nation’s — and, therefore, the world’s — leading legacy planners. So I sure hope he’s not hyping us!

Anyway. He just wrote me:

We have been working feverishly on your Master Stewardship Plan. We have another conference call with L____ and B____ tomorrow morning to review the plan design that we have been developing. I do not expect there will be much in the way of changes from either of them on the draft plan we have been building. We have been keeping them in the loop for the entire process. L____ [our CPA] has be extraordinarily helpful to us. We have not really had S_____ [our investment advisor] involved since most of what we are doing at this point is legal and accounting type planning. I will make sure he has an opportunity to review the proposed Master Stewardship Plan before we present it to you. We can likely send him the draft for his review next week. I cannot imagine he will have any problems with what we are designing. . . .

I will say that I fully expect that you and Sarita are going to be awestruck when you see the plan we are assembling for you. You can hold me to that. I have designed a lot of plans over my career and seen a lot more as well and your plan I think will be one of the most profoundly powerful plans we have ever designed.

Give us just a few more weeks to finish our design work and get the Master Stewardship Plan book and presentation finished and we will be ready to present it to you. I am personally about as excited with your plan as I have been with any plan I have ever designed.

Is that an adequate build up for what is coming?

Stay tuned. We are bearing down on the finish line.

Okay!