Kayla Tausche CNBC

y felix badea
generosity in the financial future
The relationship between client and adviser is increasingly becoming one of greater intimacy, especially
in terms of the private and personal details an adviser knows about a client. It is an intimacy characterized
by advisers immersing themselves in the hopes and dreams of clients – to the extent that advisers
aren’t merely guiding the economic aspects of their clients’ visions, but are facilitating their realization.
This is so similar to the role a cheerleader might play. Financial and wealth managers are branding and
customizing each client’s experience, not based on what the firm is, but on what the client’s values are.
This is the path being
taken by Michael
P. Brady,
president of Generosity
Wealth Management,
based in Boulder,
Colo. In an effort
to help clients better
visualize more fully
what their written goals look like,
Brady has hired an area artist to create
artwork for each client based on their
financial goals. It serves as Brady’s gift
and also is an incentive to keep clients
focused on the reasons behind the financial
goals.
“Most financial advisers are going to
throw out the number of assets they
have under management or adding so
many new clients or meeting a particular
revenue growth when asked about
goals,” Brady said. “Mine is a little different.
Mine is about the client experience
and creating some distinction this
next year. It is really important to me.”
Brady believes the artwork in the client’s
home and the copy of it he keeps
decorating the walls in his offices,
serve as a vision board to keep clients
motivated and focused. “It is an
abstract methodology,” he said. But it
is also a distinctive approach, providing
a real picture of what goals such
as, “wanting to retire and spend time
with the grandchildren” or “wanting
to go to Hawaii every holiday” or “not
wanting to run out of money before
death,” really look like in visual terms.
In practice management terms, Brady
is a believer in the “four percent rule”
to answer the big question of how
to ensure that monies accumulated
in savings during a client’s working
years are more than enough to cover
the expense of the kind of retirement
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015