Families & Money Matters
What’s the number one thing that most families argue about? And why?
In our experience, most families find it extremely difficult to talk about money. Whether it’s conversations between parents and children, siblings, in-laws, or even spouses or domestic partners, money is fraught with emotional meaning that conveys power, control, status, opportunity and a whole host of other feelings.
It’s little wonder that many families struggle to talk about money effectively on their own. If you’re ready to stop money conflicts and start dealing with your finances as a family, it’s time to bring in objective, third-party experts.
Together, we can create solutions for you and every member of your family.
Here’s How We Can Help Your Family
We intentionally built a multi-generational advisory team with an eye toward facilitating conversations across the multiple backgrounds, experiences, age groups, and diverse demographics of the clients we work with. Here are some of the ways we work with a variety of families to solve a number of complex issues:
1. We often begin conversations with twenty-something children of our clients to provide the education and guidance so they can build good habits early. We continue to work with them as they build their careers and start their own families.
Topics may include:
- How to live within your means: budgeting and savings
- Funding retirement accounts early and the benefit of compound returns
- How to invest to diversify risk and grow assets
- Rent versus buy decisions
- Why Mom and Dad are not a bottomless ATM
- Stewardship of family assets
2. We help educate other family members so they can be more involved. Often one member of a couple plays the dominant role in managing the family’s finances. In many cases, we can help engage the less-experienced party to be a more active participant in the financial relationship.
3. We help older children deal with the financial realities of aging parents. We work with many members of the “sandwich generation,” or adults responsible for caring for both their own children as well as their parents. This can present both financial and emotional challenges and conflicts which are sometimes overwhelming. We are here to listen, help balance priorities, and provide a reality check in a stressful and emotionally charged time.
