How To Become a Better Steward of Your Capital

Many negative connotations are associated with the word, “audit.” For the most part, it makes sense. Why do you want someone poking around your financials with the possibility of a negative outcome?

Even an internal audit can have a negative stigma attached to it. Which is a shame because the whole idea of an audit is to find errors and inefficiencies to improve upon, which all sound like good things.

In order to design and conduct an audit that you would actually welcome, we must first shift our paradigm around what an audit should be.

 

We’re All Stewards of Our Own Capital

We all have our day jobs, whatever they may be. But we also have the duty to ourselves and to our families to be good stewards of our own capital and resources.

Think of your money and resources as your own private company. You and your spouse are the managers. You, your spouse, and the rest of your family are the shareholders. As a manager, it is your job to manage your company and grow the value of the company for the shareholders, right?

So, wouldn’t you like to know if your internal processes are out of order? Wouldn’t you like to know if there is a department that is wasting money? Wouldn’t you like to know about a better way to manage your affairs, if one exists? If not for you, for your shareholders?

 

Shifting Your Paradigm for Better Outcomes

Your paradigm is the lens in which you see things through. If I am wearing red sunglasses and I look at something, it looks red. If I am wearing blue sunglasses and I look at something, it looks blue. I might be looking at the same thing, but because my glasses have different color lenses, to me the same thing might look different.

The traditional paradigm of an audit is normally negative because people don’t see the benefits of traditional audits. They hear the word audit and think about how someone lost their job for not doing something right, or how a company got bad PR as a result of audit, or some other negative even that comes out of an audit. It’s almost like no one thinks, “Oh look, we’re getting audited, great!”

But consider this: if your auditor is your partner, and on your team, instead of just pointing out everything that is wrong, they can also show you how to make things better.  This means more money, less wastage, more efficiency, more simplicity, and BETTER outcomes.

This is why we’ve rewritten the script as it pertains to audits. We’ve developed an audit that we would welcome in our own lives, an audit that can help you:

  • Make and keep more money
  • Identify risky areas where you could be losing money needlessly
  • Ensure your financial records are adequate for effective tax planning and risk management
  • Anticipate cost saving strategies and proactively apply them
  • Insulate wealth and assets from excessive exposure to litigation
  • Pay only those income (and estate) taxes that are absolutely necessary
  • Save on the costs of insurance, lending, and professional service fees
  • Increase speed and ability to capitalize on new opportunities through precise cash flow management and optimization
  • Provide an ongoing, unvarnished, real-time view of your financial health, ensuring properly informed decision-making
  • Put the building blocks in place to efficiently transfer wealth to heirs and causes
  • Access important documents on-demand
  • Reduce and/or eliminate exposure to death taxes. (There are smart, effective ways to mitigate this exposure and still allow you to control your hard-earned money)

 

Who

The issue is most people don’t know where to get an audit like this done.

Who do you know who has the multi-disciplinary expertise to oversee all your financial, legal and tax affairs, making certain your team gets the job done right? Do you have the time, desire and know-how? Isn’t your time better spent growing capital and enjoying the life you’ve built?

We’ve designed our suite of Family Office services to provide the financial, legal and tax audit that you welcome.

At no cost to you, we diagnose your financial health, illustrating any deficiencies that detract from your well-being.

 

Comprehensive Wealth Management

Focused on non-traditional, creative income and estate tax minimization, and dynamic investment risk manage­ment strategies, AWP’s Family Office Services adapt the function of your wealth to meet the requisites of your lifestyle and responsibilities.

Families with inter-generational wealth benefit even more, having a reliable resource to manage the family’s financial affairs after the family pa­triarch or matriarch passes away. Most wealth is lost by the third generation due to a lack of planning, oversight and beneficiary education. We provide the appropriate mix of all three.

 

Spend It Elsewhere

Administering wealth is not your specialty, nor should it be your burden. By identifying existing gaps in your plan and driving expense reduction through elimination of excess fees (usually due to inefficiency), paid to advisors, money managers and other professionals, the our Family Office services free up capital for additional investment and allows you to focus your energy elsewhere and confidently maintain and enjoy your lifestyle, both now and in retirement – and to effectuate wealth transfer to future generations confidently.

 

Steve Olson

Steve Olson CFP®, AEP® CEO | Family Wealth Advisor

Steve Olson’s experience spans over a decade of focused tax planning, legal strategy interpretation, investment management, and advisory services to wealthy individuals and families throughout the U.S. Over the course of his still young career, Steve provides counsel and management on individual assets and portfolios—encompassing a combination of securities, real estate, privately held businesses and other alternative investments—ranging in value from $5 million to over $400 million in value.

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