Picture this you are at the baseball game and they are selling 50/50 tickets. Your son asks you if you could buy a ticket. After buying him one of the tickets your son immediately starts explaining what we will do once we win. You know as his Dad there is a low probability of this happening.
We call this concentration and it is how you get wealthy. Eventually, there needs to be a shift in your thinking. Instead of trying to hit another home run you refocus on protecting wealth. The 50/50 has low odds but a great reward. The charity that gets the other half of the 50/50 has a 99% chance of success.
Our goal is to move you from the kid buying the 50/50 to the charity collecting the 50/50.
Said another way the charity is positioned in a win-win situation.
As specialists in wealth management for business owners, this is our goal.
In this blog, we are going to look at the frameworks and strategies to steward wealth for generations.
Investment Management for Business Owners
Chances are you have been measuring the success of your investment portfolio wrong this entire time. Most business owners I speak with want to know what the return on investment is within the portfolio.
After all, this is how you have measured the success or failure of the investments you have made in your business.
A better question to ask. Will this investment portfolio allow me to meet my goals?
Returns are important, but returns in a vacuum are an impossible measure of success or failure.
Investing money should always tie back to your goals.
Here are a few goal examples that illustrate this point:
My goal is to invest for the next generation (30+ years).
My goal is to invest in a way that gives me cash when needed (business acquisition).
My goal is to sleep well at night knowing that my current needs will be supported (lifestyle goals).
See how that works? Goals first then decide on the investment strategy to reach that goal.
Let's look at the framework we use to construct an investment portfolio for business owners.
We simplify investment portfolios into 3 strategies.
The War Chest – The money that we have for peace of mind
The Growth Strategy – The money you have set aside for long-term investments
The Aspirational Strategy – The money you have allocated for higher-risk strategic investments
Let's look at the factors we consider in investment management for business owners.
What is an Investment Portfolio?
Before we dive into our three strategies let's define what an investment portfolio is.
Your investment portfolio is a combination of all the assets on your balance sheet.
This includes the following:
Real Estate
Business Equity
Private Investments
Stock Market Investments
Families often make the mistake of thinking about an investment portfolio as the assets that an advisor manages. This is a mistake. As a business owner you know your largest asset is your business.
Now that we know what is included in an investment portfolio let's dive into the three strategies your assets can fall into.
The War Chest
You have done the hard thing and won the money game. When you win the money game you want to protect what you have and make sure you never lose it. Remember, building wealth and keeping wealth are two completely different skill sets. The assets that you need for peace of mind will be allocated to the war chest.
Now how do we determine how much money goes into the war chest? My favorite answer:
It Depends.
These three questions will help determine what needs to go into the war chest.
How much does it cost to live my lifestyle?
How heavily am I relying on my investment portfolio to fund my lifestyle?
What are my known capital needs in the next 5-7 years?
Why are these the magic questions? First, our war chest is the money we need to have no matter what. Typically in this bucket, we will put 5 to 7 years' worth of your living expenses. Why this magic number...most market cycles happen in a 5 to 7 year time frame. We want to have a bucket of safe assets that can protect us from unknown risks in the world. This war chest is our peace of mind.
What types of investments go into our war chest? These are typically investments that we are generating yield from and have little to no volatility.
Money Markets
Municipal Bonds
Corporate Bonds
Government Bonds
Private Credit
These are the types of investments we will look to place in the War Chest.
Now that we have our war chest let's move on to the growth strategy.
The Growth Strategy
The next strategy we look to fund is our stay-rich money. Remember if you are reading this you probably have won the money game or are on your path to winning the money game. Our job isn’t to get you rich again our job is to keep you rich.
The way we do that is by focusing a portion of the portfolio on growth. How do we determine what we should have in this strategy?
How much does it cost to live my lifestyle?
How heavily am I relying on my investment portfolio to fund my lifestyle?
How much risk am I willing to take?
Note that the first two questions are the same as the war chest. Without knowing these answers it is impossible to build a tailored investment portfolio. The key to the growth strategy is risk. The reason we have 5-7 years of living expenses in our war chest is to allow us to let our growth assets have the right amount of time to grow.
75% of the time the market goes up, but this means that 25% of the time it does not. We never want to get over our skies and end up needing money from our growth strategy when the market has dropped. Think about the great financial crisis of 2008-2009 or COVID in 2020. This was a time to rebalance into your growth strategy, not a time to cash out from the stock market. Those who stuck with their growth strategy ended up in a much better place than those who panicked.
What type of investments go in bucket two:
Diversified Public Equities
Public Real Estate Equities
Public Alternative Investments
These investments are going to have higher expected returns with more risk than our war chest.
The amount of money that goes into each strategy will be specific to you. Make sure you have a portfolio that is tailored to your needs.
Aspirational Strategy
The last bucket we fund is the aspirational strategy. This is the money that you don’t need to fund your goals in life. A properly funded war chest and growth strategy will fund our goals in perpetuity. The aspirational strategy is the money that we are allocating to get outsized returns and are fine putting at risk.
What questions will guide you to the right amount of money in the aspirational strategy:
How much does it cost to live my lifestyle?
How heavily am I relying on my investment portfolio to fund my lifestyle?
Can the war chest and growth strategy support my lifestyle in perpetuity?
Once you have answered these questions you can determine how much money to allocate to the aspirational strategy. Now we have a decision to make. This decision is client-specific. How much of my excess do I want to put at risk?
Are you going to buy another business?
Do you want to invest in Venture Capital or Private Equity?
Some entrepreneurs want to protect assets while others want to focus on maximizing returns. Remember there is no right answer to the exact amount that can go into the aspirational strategy but there certainly is a wrong answer.
The Wrong Answer:
You overfund the aspirational strategy and get greedy risking the money you need to meet your goals.
So what types of investments go into bucket three:
Private Equity Investments
Venture Capital Investments
Private Real Estate Deals
Buying a Private Business
Each one of these investments has a higher expected rate of return than our war chest or growth strategy. Remember return doesn't come without additional risk.
So remember investment portfolios for business owners are unique.
The investment portfolio is a tool in your toolbox to help you meet your family's goals. This is not a one size fits all equation. When you are constructing your portfolio start with the end goal in mind.
As you think about your portfolio today ask yourself this question.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you in your investment portfolio meeting all of your family's goals?
If the answer isn't a 10 schedule a call to get a second opinion.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our goal at Moment Private Wealth is to help you reach your ideal outcome. This is why we help construct portfolios for business owners. It isn't enough to know what tools to use but you need a team to help you implement.
If you are an entrepreneur who is concerned about your portfolio, schedule a call, and talk with a Moment founder.
Not sure what questions to ask, check out this video on 10 questions you should ask when interviewing a financial advisor.
Get in Touch With An Advisor
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic.
Are you a fiduciary? Moment Private Wealth serves clients as a fiduciary 100% of the time.
How does Moment Private Wealth make money? We are only paid in one transparent way, by our clients. We receive no kickbacks or participate in any profit-sharing arrangements. Our fees are simple, transparent, and clear for our clients.
How are you different than other financial advisors? We are specialists in working with professional athletes and business owners. We limit the number of new clients we take on. This allows us to provide unparalleled value and highly personalized service to professional athletes and business owners. We work as a team to service our clients. We believe in building a team of “A” players. This ensures our clients receive world-class tax, estate, insurance, and investment strategies. We focus on educating first, then executing.
Where do you hold my investments and how can I see them? Moment Private Wealth uses Fidelity Investments as a third-party custodian for our client investment accounts. As a third-party custodian, Fidelity safeguards and provides reporting to you and the IRS each year. Clients can also access all financial information via the Moment Private Wealth Client Portal.
How do you work with other members of my team? We believe in the power of the team. For most of our clients, their team consists of Moment Private Wealth, an accountant, an attorney, a banker, and an insurance specialist. We help our clients build out their team of individuals or work with existing partners clients have. Our goal is to ensure every family has a team of experts to protect their interests.
How do you choose investments for clients? As independent financial advisors, we can gather research and make recommendations based on all available options. We determine clients’ portfolios in partnership with some of the largest asset managers in the world. Each quarter, we have calls with teams of CFAs (Chartered Financial Analysts) to ensure our clients are receiving the most up-to-date strategies and recommendations.
What does your average client look like? Our clients are nearly all athletes and business owners. Our average client has a net worth greater than $5M. The strategies, solutions, and planning that we implement have a high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth client in mind.
Does Moment Private Wealth help you pay less in taxes? Taxes are going to be your largest lifetime expense. Our goal is to help you pay the least amount possible and never leave the IRS a tip. Our team of specialists understands this and works to reduce your taxes today and in the future.
Can Moment Private Wealth help business owners with succession planning? Yes, this is part of creating a roadmap for your goals. Having first-hand knowledge of selling a business will allow you confidence throughout the process. Many business owners get one chance to sell a business. Having a firm that can help is key.
Why should I consider hiring Moment Private Wealth? Great question! But first, let us explain why you shouldn’t hire us. If you’re looking for an advisor who will pitch shiny object investments or be a “yes man” you are in the wrong place. Why? Because we believe in being truth tellers and only giving advice that we take ourselves. The investments, strategies, and planning we do are all things our advisors do with their own money. If you are an athlete or business owner interested in things like lowering your tax bill, investing smarter, and finding a trusted partner we might be a good fit.
*Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.
Comments