Private Wealth Management Services: What a Private Wealth Advisor Does Throughout the Year
Private wealth management is a coordinated service for individuals and families whose finances have outgrown a simple investment account. It usually combines investment management with tax planning, retirement and cash flow planning, business considerations, and legacy goals, all handled through an ongoing relationship rather than a one-time plan.
Descriptions of private wealth management tend to list services. That is useful, but it does not show what the work looks like in practice. This article covers both: what is typically included, and how a private wealth advisor may spend a year working on your behalf.
Start Here: A Complimentary Wealth and Tax Review
The simplest way to see whether private client services fit your situation is to look at your situation. Compound offers a complimentary, no-obligation wealth and tax review. It may include:
Investments: allocation, concentration, fees, and account types
Taxes: recent returns and planning items worth discussing
Cash flow and goals: what your wealth needs to support, and when
Complex assets: business interests, real estate, or equity compensation
Request your complimentary wealth and tax review.
What Does Private Wealth Management Include?
Firms define it differently, but private wealth management often brings these areas together:
Investment management: a portfolio built around your goals, risk tolerance, time horizon, and other assets you own
Tax planning: multi-year planning that considers how investment, business, and retirement decisions affect your taxes
Retirement and income planning: savings strategy before retirement and withdrawal strategy after it
Cash flow and liquidity: making sure cash is available for taxes, large purchases, and opportunities
Business owner planning: entity structure, compensation, retirement plan design, and exit timing
Estate and legacy coordination: working alongside your estate attorney on how assets pass to family and charity
Risk review: an educational look at whether insurance coverage and asset titling match your plan
Alternative investments: for qualified investors, private market strategies may be considered, with attention to risk and liquidity
The difference from basic investment management is coordination. Each decision is evaluated against the rest of the plan. For a broader view of how firms structure this work, see what to look for in a private wealth management firm.
What Do Private Client Services Look Like Over a Year?
Every relationship is different, but here is how the calendar may unfold for a family working with a private wealth advisor.
Early in the Year: Organize and Look Back
Tax documents arrive, and the focus is on an accurate return and a review of the prior year. This is a good time to confirm retirement contributions, review how the portfolio performed against the plan, and update goals. Families with a business or rental property may also need year-end books closed, which is where client accounting services can help.
Spring and Summer: Plan Ahead
With the return filed, attention shifts to the current year. A mid-year tax projection can show whether estimated payments are on track and whether planning items, such as Roth conversions, charitable gifts, or the timing of a property or business sale, are worth discussing. Portfolio rebalancing and cash needs are reviewed as well.
Fall: Act Before Year End
Many planning decisions have year-end deadlines. This is often when tax-loss harvesting opportunities, charitable contributions, required minimum distributions for eligible account owners, and gifting are evaluated. Coordination between the investment and tax sides matters most here, because the portfolio and the tax return are affected by the same decisions.
Throughout the Year: Respond to Life
A job change, an inheritance, a new child, a business offer, or a market decline can all change the plan. A private wealth advisor helps you think through those moments as they happen instead of waiting for an annual review.
Who May Benefit From a Private Wealth Advisor?
Private wealth management is often a good match for people whose finances involve several moving parts, such as:
Business owners, especially those considering a sale or transition
Executives with equity compensation or deferred compensation
Physicians, lawyers, and other high-income professionals
Real estate investors with multiple properties
Families planning to transfer wealth across generations
Individuals who recently experienced a liquidity event
If your situation is simpler, a more limited service may be enough. The question is whether coordination would add value for you. For more on this audience, read about high net worth financial planning.
Why Tax Planning Is Central to Private Wealth Management
Investment returns get most of the attention, but what you keep after taxes is what funds your goals. When the people managing your investments also coordinate your tax planning and preparation, decisions like selling an asset, choosing which account to withdraw from, or donating appreciated stock can be modeled for both impacts at once. Compound was designed around this kind of integrated tax and wealth management planning.
To see how taxes and time may affect a hypothetical investment, try the Compound calculator. Results are hypothetical and for illustration only.
Questions to Ask a Private Wealth Management Firm
Do you act as a fiduciary at all times?
Which services are included, and which cost extra?
How do your investment and tax professionals work together?
How often will we meet, and who will I work with day to day?
How do you coordinate with my estate attorney and other advisors?
Compound provides wealth management, investment management, tax planning and preparation, client accounting, business transaction, and family office services to clients throughout Wisconsin and surrounding areas. Request a complimentary wealth and tax review to see whether private wealth management fits your needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is private wealth management?
Private wealth management is an ongoing, coordinated service that typically combines investment management with tax planning, retirement and cash flow planning, business planning, and estate coordination for individuals and families with more complex finances.
What does a private wealth advisor do?
A private wealth advisor manages investments and coordinates related decisions, such as tax planning, retirement income, charitable giving, and business transitions, while working alongside other professionals like CPAs and estate attorneys.
What are private client services?
Private client services is a term many firms use for personalized, relationship-based wealth management, often including more frequent reviews and a broader range of planning than a standard advisory account.
How is private wealth management different from financial planning?
Financial planning can be a one-time project. Private wealth management is usually ongoing and includes implementing the plan, managing investments, and adjusting as your life and tax situation change.
Compound is a registered investment adviser. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized investment, tax, insurance, or legal advice. Tax laws are complex and subject to change. Strategies discussed may not be suitable for everyone, and there is no guarantee that any strategy will achieve its objectives or reduce taxes. Calculator results are hypothetical, are not guarantees of future results, and do not reflect any actual investment. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Alternative investments involve additional risks, including illiquidity, and are available only to qualified investors. Please consult your tax, legal, and financial professionals before acting on any information in this article. For more information, see Compound's Form ADV, available at adviserinfo.sec.gov.
About Compound Wealth
Compound Wealth brings together professionals across tax planning, wealth management, accounting, and business transition services to provide a coordinated planning experience. This collaborative approach supports evaluating financial decisions from multiple perspectives while supporting each client's broader planning objectives.
