Rules for the New Reality

Back in September, before we were all inured to the tottering nature of so many financial giants, investors were looking for someone to blame.

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So when Prince & Associates, a market research firm in Redding, Conn., polled people with more than $1 million in investable assets, it wasn’t any great surprise that 81 percent intended to take money out of the hands of their financial advisers. Nearly half planned to tell peers to avoid them, while 86 percent were going to recommend steering clear of their firms.

In January, Prince took another poll of people with similar assets, and only a percentage in the teens had engaged in trash-talking. Just under half of the investors had taken money away from their advisers.

All of the bad feelings, however, raised a simple question that’s even more essential when we’ve all been so severely tested. What, exactly, does your wealth manager owe you? And what can you never reasonably expect?

Some of the answers are basic. Your financial advisers should have impeccable credentials. They should be free of black marks on their regulatory or disciplinary records. They should agree, on Day 1, to act solely in your best interest, not theirs or those of any company that might toss them a commission.

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But other standards are less obvious, and the carnage in the markets provides an excellent opportunity to review them.

What You Should Expect

A Long Look at Risk

Most of us aren’t honest with ourselves about how much investment risk we can handle. Even worse, we tend to change our minds at market tops and bottoms, making the wrong choices at precisely the wrong moments.

An accurate assessment of risk is important. But you can view risk in many ways.

David B. Jacobs of Pathfinder Financial Services in Kailua, Hawaii, usually starts with risk capacity. Young people have a great deal of risk capacity, since they have their whole career ahead of them to make up for any mistakes. A football player might have much less risk capacity, since he could have only a few years of high earnings. And some retirees have plenty of risk capacity, if they have a solid pension.

Then Mr. Jacobs moves to risk need. Need is driven by goals. Someone with no heirs and $20 million in municipal bonds might not care so much about significantly growing the portfolio. But if that person suddenly becomes passionate about a cause, he or she may want to double that amount in a decade to create an endowment or put up a building.

Only then does risk tolerance become a factor. “You have to help people visualize what the risk means,” Mr. Jacobs said. “If a year from now, your $1 million is $700,000, how would it change your life? Does that mean you can’t go visit your grandchildren? I’m trying to dig down and make people think of exactly what their day would be like.”

A Balance Sheet Audit

Diversifying the risks in your portfolio is merely the beginning of the process. Burt Hutchinson, of Fischer & Hutchinson Wealth Advisors in Bear, Del., trained as an accountant before earning his certified financial planner designation. He believes in tax diversification too, across a range of savings vehicles with different tax rules.

He wants his firm to act as a sort of personal chief financial officer, looking at liabilities as well as assets and at spending as much as saving. “How are you tracking your cash flow?” he will ask. “Is it increasing? Decreasing? Do you have any idea where it’s going?” He says that a good financial planner should ask to see your tax return, not just your investment portfolio.