Bill Hortz, Founder of the Institute for Innovation Development, recently interviewed Jennifer Specter, Shareholder/Chief Operations and Compliance Officer, and Alyssa Dalbey, CPWA®, CFP® and Shareholder/Wealth Manager at Schultz Financial Group (SFG) to understand how our “Four Capitals” applies to executives and business owners.
Hortz: Can you explain your “Four Capitals of Wealth” planning approach? How did you land on those four particular parameters of support for your High-Net-Worth and business owner clients?
Specter: Our “Four Capitals of Wealth” approach – financial, physical, intellectual, and psychological – was developed by the firm over the course of 40 years. This approach arose organically from listening to the needs of our clients who expressed early on that their health and well-being were just as important as their investment portfolio.
Dalbey: Our goal is not just to manage assets but to be a comprehensive solution provider for our clients. By paying close attention to all aspects of the client’s life and well-being, our firm developed this holistic framework to address the diverse needs of HNW families, business owners, executives, and professionals. The four capitals provide a structure for us to understand each client’s unique situation and develop personalized plans to help them achieve their goals and live fulfilling lives, not just build wealth. This multidimensional view allows us to optimally support our clients’ needs and goals.
Hortz: How did you design your firm and develop the resources needed to be able to deliver support on each of these areas?
Specter: By leveraging technology to handle administrative tasks, our firm can devote more time to deeply understanding each client’s unique situation and providing personalized services and plans to support them in each of the Four Capitals. This includes services like succession planning, business operations optimization, family dynamics consulting, and health and longevity planning.
Dalbey: Over time, our firm built specific resources and brought in experts to be able to provide individualized support in each of these four key areas of our clients’ lives. We have subscribed to medical journals, connected with leaders in their fields, and read and vetted books and research to have a list of tools and people that our clients can refer to when they have specific goals or issues come up. This positioned us to act as our clients’ strategic personal advisor and work with them to clarify their family and business goals, build a legacy, and lead more fulfilling lives.
Hortz: How do you apply each of the Four Capitals to your clients who are executives and business owners?
Specter: Across all client types, our advisors are skilled at having open, empathetic conversations to uncover hidden challenges and provide tailored solutions. By addressing each of the four capitals, they can support clients in their unique situations to achieve lasting fulfillment, not just short-term financial gain.
With executive clients, the focus is often on navigating major transitions, whether that is leaving a high-powered role at a large organization or starting a new entrepreneurial venture. Our firm helps these clients thoughtfully plan their next steps, ensuring they maintain financial security, intellectual stimulation, and a sense of purpose. This can involve everything from investment planning (including implementing specialized strategies around diversification and tax optimization) to coaching on work-life balance.
Dalbey: Business owners require a very different set of considerations compared to executives. They are often deeply, personally and financially invested in their company, so we need to carefully balance business and personal planning.
For business owners, our firm again applies the four capitals holistically – looking at the impact of the business on the owner’s family life and health, helping to structure the business for scalability and successful transition, and supporting the owner’s intellectual engagement and sense of purpose beyond just the business. Our firm provides a wide range of customized services based on the individual needs and stage of each business owner client.
Hortz: From your experience with your business clients, which areas do they tend to need the most support in?
Dalbey: For business owners, the human capital issues are critical – we work with them on talent management, succession planning, and building strong professional and personal networks. Family capital is also crucial, as business decisions often have major implications for the owner’s household. This might involve setting boundaries around work hours, facilitating difficult family conversations about succession planning, or identifying new intellectual pursuits to prevent burnout. And of course, we provide financial guidance on the business and their personal investments.
Hortz: Can you give us a few brief examples of the personalized services and plans you developed for some of your executive and business owner clients?
Dalbey: We worked closely with a senior partner at a large law firm who was leaving a litigation practice to focus on mediation. We consulted with him and his CPA on setting up the new business entity, and we worked with him to think through the financial and psychological implications of the career change. We also updated the client’s wealth management plan and financial analysis to understand how his financial capital could support his new business goals while still supporting the family’s long-term wealth objectives. All this support helped ensure a smooth transition from working at a large law firm to going out on his own that allowed him to leverage his years of experience in a more fulfilling way.
We had another attorney client that worked for a large firm, and we consulted with him over a period of a few years to begin the transition to owning and operating his own law firm. We’ve navigated the first several years of start-up business turbulence together and have focused on building out human capital in his business. We’ve also put together a team of consultants to build a competitive compensation package together for new attorneys that include base salary, appealing bonus structures, health insurance, retirement benefits, and more.
For a client who owned a successful roofing manufacturing company, our firm helped navigate the transition after the business was sold to a public company. This involved not only managing the financial windfall, but also helping the client determine his next chapter – how to stay engaged and fulfilled without the daily demands of running the company. This client is a serial entrepreneur, and we still consult with him on his other businesses.
Hortz: How has this holistic, “Four Capitals” approach allowed you to better serve and retain your business-focused clients?
Dalbey: Unlike many wealth management firms focused solely on investment products and transactions, we are not just trying to grow assets under management. We get deeply involved in our clients’ businesses, family dynamics, goals, and overall wellbeing, not just their financial matters. This is a key differentiator that we believe allows us to better serve and retain our clients.
Disclosures
Schultz Financial Group, Inc. (“SFG”) is a registered investment adviser with a primary business location in Reno, Nevada. Registration as an investment adviser is not an endorsement by securities regulators and does not imply that SFG has attained a certain level of skill, training, or ability. The Institute for Innovation Development (“IID”) is an educational and business catalyst for members determined to grow their businesses in a world of constant change, which is dedicated to educate, arm, support and motivate team member firms in making innovation best practices a vital cornerstone for their business growth. SFG and IID are not affiliated, meaning that neither entity controls the other entity, and they are not under common control. IID is not an SFG client, and nothing in this article is intended to be an “endorsement” of SFG by IID. Neither SFG nor IID compensated the other party for the publication of this article. However, SFG is a “member firm” of IID, which pays membership fees to participate in IID activities. Therefore, the recommendation by IID that an individual engage SFG presents a conflict of interest because it could be made based on IID’s interest in continuing its relationship with SFG and the collection of membership fees. IID drafted this article for the use of the other financial advisors. Not all services will be appropriate or necessary for all clients, and the potential value and benefit of the SFG’s services will vary based upon the client’s individual investment, financial, and tax circumstances. The effectiveness and potential success of a tax strategy, investment strategy, and financial plan depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the manner and timing of implementation, coordination with the client and the client’s other engaged professionals, and market conditions. This should not be construed as specific investment, financial planning or tax advice tailored to an individual reader. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of SFG as of the date of publication and are subject to change. This article does not constitute personalized advice from SFG or its affiliated investment professionals, or a solicitation to execute specific securities transactions. Readers should not use any of this content as the sole basis for any investment, financial planning, tax, legal or other decisions. Rather, SFG recommends that readers consult SFG and their other professional advisers (including their lawyers and accountants) and consider independent due diligence before implementing any of the options directly or indirectly referenced above. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss, and different investments and types of investments involve varying degrees of risk. There can be no assurance that the future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, including those undertaken or recommended by SFG, will be profitable or equal any historical performance level. Additional information about SFG, including its Form ADV Part 2A describing its services, fees, and applicable conflicts of interest and Form CRS is available upon request and at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/108724.