How advisors can deal with UHNW household crises: Morgan Stanley panel

Glenn Kurlander as soon as had a businessman consumer who made his household so extraordinarily rich, they by no means needed to work one other day of their lives. 

There was only one drawback: The person’s son, who was threatening self-harm. At one level, the son even stated he would drive his bike right into a wall and kill himself. 

“If you happen to’ve been doing this work for any vital time frame, and in case your clients view you as a trusted family counselor, it is probably you may have obtained that late-night or early morning name from frantic dad and mom a few youngster in disaster,” stated Kurlander, talking on a panel Oct. 24 at Morgan Stanley’s 2023 Family Legacy and Governance (FLAG) Institute. 

The occasion supplied advisors and different wealth administration professionals recommendations on “household battle administration and backbone,” significantly for ultrahigh web price households. It got here as trade specialists report that ultrawealthy households are demanding more mental health-related services, particularly for youthful family members, as extra millennials seek out and normalize therapy. On the identical time, the wealth administration career has more and more embraced tools and practices of behavioral finance. 

READ MORE: What the growing family office sphere means for wealth managers 

Though most wealth administration professionals are untrained to cope with these seemingly non-financial conditions, it’s important that they know the way to reply, Kurlander stated. 

“With out being melodramatic, the stakes will not be about minimizing present and property tax, however actually possibly about issues of life and dying.” 

Kurlander, the managing director and head of household governance and wealth schooling at Morgan Stanley, spoke on the panel with Dennis Jaffe, the senior analysis fellow at BanyanGlobal Household Enterprise Advisors, and Daniel Lerner, the founding father of Strategic Household Answer. Elizabeth Chand, the pinnacle of household workplace assets generalists at Morgan Stanley, moderated the dialogue. Morgan Stanley has more and more supplied its companies to household places of work, having opened a new family office unit in recent times; the FLAG Institute, a service within the household workplace house, is simply in its third yr of existence. 

Whether or not the issue is a toddler with behavioral, psychological well being or dependancy challenges, or members of the family who’ve grown aside, or property feuds over who will get what and why, an advisor might face many challenges with their ultrahigh web price households. Failing to handle these might value not solely the household their fortune and happiness, but additionally the advisor their supply of revenue. 

Panelists on the FLAG Institute shared a number of recommendations on the way to efficiently intervene.

Acknowledge household battle and deal with it head-on 
Many monetary advisors come into the career hoping to keep away from feelings and simply cope with numbers, Jaffe stated. 

“‘When members of the family get upset, I simply need it to go away,'” Jaffe recalled an advisor telling him as soon as. Nonetheless, that is a missed alternative — as a result of as rich shoppers’ wants turn out to be extra complicated, they’ll count on and demand extra out of their monetary advisor, who has a enterprise incentive to turn out to be that deeply trusted individual and first name for a wealthy consumer in any scenario. 

READ MORE: 3 tips on how to connect with next-gen heirs for estate planning

And battle is inevitable in all households, Jaffe stated. “Battle is one thing that households wish to keep away from. However what they do not perceive is that battle is absolutely simply one other phrase for variations.” 

The most typical difficulty he sees with households is unwillingness to acknowledge their naturally occurring variations, he stated. Nonetheless, avoiding open dialogue mockingly creates the drama they hoped to keep away from. “It fragments the household over time. It might probably blow up as a result of it is not addressed.” 

Add huge quantities of wealth to the equation, and resentments can fester, he stated. For instance, the matriarch or patriarch might make “secret offers” with a toddler or different relative, allocating funds to them — however going behind the backs of different members of the family to take action, fearing disapproval or an argument. 

“It will get harmful, and you have got the sort of scenario the place anyone appears like there’s favoritism. Like, ‘He bought a job within the enterprise and I did not. Boys are handled in another way than ladies.’ … The outdated factor, ‘Dad all the time favored you greatest.'”   

“Parental consideration is a scarce useful resource,” Jaffe stated, brewing resentments that may carry over into the sentiments and dynamics that grown youngsters have towards one another and their dad and mom. When there is a household enterprise at stake, which is all the time the case for household places of work, these long-held feelings can coloration decision-making. 

An advisor could make issues worse in the event that they’re caught within the center and both fake to not discover what is going on on or seem to take sides, Jaffe stated. 

Create governance with an abundance mindset 
What advisors ought to do as a substitute, is assist the household transfer ahead in a collaborative route, Jaffe stated. 

“They’ll carry the household collectively to say, ‘Hey, we have to speak about this.’ They can assist them maintain household conferences. They’ll develop constructions to make selections. ‘Let’s create household insurance policies.'” These discussions, which the advisor can meditate to make sure accountability and open airing of points, create the grounds for governance that turns into an ongoing algorithm guiding the household on the way to deal with its wealth. 

“We will speak about what we’re doing in our lives. We will speak about philanthropy. Let’s meet often, and that is what we name a household council.” 

One other factor households can do is create a code of conduct, Jaffe stated. This establishes norms for respectful conduct and having productive conversations or honest fights. Floor guidelines may embrace agreeing to speak about issues instantly with the individual concerned, as a substitute of behind their again; listening with out interrupting, and utilizing “I” statements to take accountability for one’s emotions — “to say ‘I need this’ or ‘I really feel this,’ fairly than blaming one another.” 

Most of all, when households are this rich, advisors ought to information them to strategy such conversations from an abundance mindset, Jaffe stated, “fairly than an either-or, or a restricted mindset. … Now there are various management roles within the household, there may be sufficient cash for everyone. So let’s speak about the way to allocate it pretty.” 

READ MORE: Wealthy investors do a lousy job of telling heirs what they’ll get: report 

Err on the facet of security, in emergency conditions 
Within the case of a kid that’s threatening self-harm or hurt to others, advisors have an obligation to take any report of such conduct critically, Lerner stated. “Is there an imminent menace on this scenario? And if that is the case, then the primary name is to 911.”  

Sadly, these conditions are “not unusual” with the rich shoppers Lerner sees. 

“Even when it is simply this menace of, ‘Oh, I am gonna trip my bike right into a wall or I am gonna kill myself, or I can not take this anymore, I am gonna soar off a cliff.’ The underside line is that it is best to err on the facet of security. Make it possible for everyone seems to be secure. After which you may have any dialog after that about the way to transfer ahead.” 

The son within the above scenario, whose dad and mom Kurlander and Lerner labored with round 15 years in the past, was probably bluffing in his suicide threats, Lerner stated, however to be on the secure facet, he nonetheless had the dad and mom name 911. On account of that decision, the son had an uncomfortable expertise within the psych ward and was dissuaded from threatening suicide once more, Lerner stated, citing the dad and mom’ request for his or her son to as a substitute talk his grievances brazenly with them about what he wished. 

Have vetted psychological well being professionals on name 
One of many greatest errors an advisor could make when their consumer has psychological well being issues within the household is failing to have vetted specialists on the prepared to help with a disaster second, Lerner stated. 

“In the intervening time of disaster, the place at the very least the individual calling you or the household as an entire is in essentially the most ache, these are usually the alternatives, the place they’re essentially the most open for intervention… to assist and obtain steerage. And in the event that they’re calling you, meaning they’re asking for assist.” 

The fitting advisor will seize the second and have already got, at a minimal, a shortlist of trusted professionals they will instantly refer the caller to, Lerner stated. There needs to be some stage of vetting in place: “You have both labored with [them] earlier than and also you belief them, you’ve got despatched folks to them and you’ve got gotten optimistic suggestions, [or] there’s different individuals who you belief, different professionals, who’ve despatched shoppers to them.” 

READ MORE: Godfathers, feeding tigers, à la carte: how RIAs can win UHNW clients

The arsenal of well being and psychological well being specialists can embrace a household therapist, marriage and household therapist, a psychiatrist, or a household physician with a specialty in behavioral medication, Lerner stated. Ideally, at the very least certainly one of them might be “a strategist or a coach that actually has a confirmed capacity, confirmed specialization within the space of household dynamics.” There must also be a prison protection legal professional for the consumer who “from time to time” might have one, he stated. 

Getting folks to vary and be open to assist is already laborious, Lerner stated. Thus, when somebody lastly turns into keen, the advisor should not waste time making the hand-off. “While you get off the cellphone or finish the assembly … and begin your search, you then get again to them, whether or not it is a day or two days or per week. You could have misplaced that golden second, and now they’re off on to the following factor or one other disaster du jour.”