There's a Little Citizen Kane in All of Us

Do you think Citizen Kane’s (aka Charles Foster Kane) wealth managers did a good job? Okay, it’s an odd question, but bear with me.

When he died, Citizen Kane was one of the wealthiest men in the world, but there’s that nagging issue of his dying word: Rosebud. As any trivia buff will tell you, Rosebud was the name of the sled Kane rode as a child and symbolized the happiness he felt living an unfettered life in Colorado in the 1870s. The adult Kane had tremendous wealth, a national media empire, an opera-singer wife and a spectacular estate named Xanadu, yet it would seem he longed for something else.

Volumes of analysis have been written about what actually troubled Kane. The important point is that there was something missing and it caused considerable disquiet in Kane’s life (evoked so vividly with film noir shadowing). Though the movie may be dated, the disquiet that Kane felt is still common among wealthy individuals. And, believe it or not, this brings us back to the topic of wealth management.

Good advice that addresses well-defined financial needs is fairly abundant. I’m talking about needs like investing, growing and protecting wealth; transferring wealth to successive generations; and allocating and budgeting financial resources. But there’s another set of needs that often remain unmet because people either don’t recognize them or aren’t willing to talk about them. These unarticulated needs—often complex and sometimes emotionally laden—are to blame for a lot of sleepless nights.

Don’t get me wrong; plans for growing and transferring wealth and managing resources are absolutely important. But a financial planning document is not the ultimate goal; it’s the guidebook to help you accomplish those things you care about—some of which are clear to you and others that aren’t.

What’s Your Rosebud?

Typically, people with significant wealth have unarticulated needs that fall into two broad categories: living up to responsibilities associated with wealth and making the most of the opportunities that wealth presents. Because we use the words responsibility and opportunity every day they may seem relatively straightforward. But as concepts associated with wealth, they can whip up a considerable amount of uncertainty and anxiety. For instance, if you have inherited some or all of your wealth, ghosts of generations past and future may be whispering in your ear. Will your stewardship be consistent with the intentions of previous generations? Will it deliver what you hope for your children and theirs? Wealth generated through entrepreneurial activity brings its own pressures to bear. You may feel a strong need to give back by helping family, friends or the organizations that helped you along the way. And while your sense of duty to people and institutions may be clear, the appropriate actions and level of support may not be.
Your responsibility to your children may weigh especially heavily. You want them to benefit from your financial success, but how? Should you try to set them up to succeed on the same scale you have? Or do you give them only a safety net and the encouragement to pursue their own dreams?

Unarticulated needs are difficult to deal with (and therefore avoided) because the answers aren’t usually clear cut.

To address these needs, you have to examine your personal values, attitudes and assumptions, like how much control you need over your money and whether it’s reasonable to expect others to work as hard as you do.
Even the opportunity that your wealth affords you—something that should inspire joy and excitement—can raise difficult questions. Devotion to a business you’ve built, for example, may prevent you from considering a different lifestyle focused on philanthropic pursuits or new entrepreneurial adventures.

Redefining Wealth Management

It should be clear now why unarticulated needs are unarticulated: sorting them out requires a level of introspection that many people are unwilling or unable to engage in. Some of the avoidance is a function of the time it takes to delve into these needs. Or they may touch on issues so sensitive that you don’t trust anyone enough—not lawyers, not accountants, not financial advisors and sometimes, not even your own spouse—to discuss them in the kind of depth, or with the kind of honesty required to really resolve them. In some cases, they’re just confusing and overwhelming. Like pulling a thread on a sweater, more and more questions unravel for every one answered. Whatever the reason for avoidance, the nagging unease so many wealthy people feel will persist until the issues are addressed and those heretofore unarticulated needs take shape.

While most financial services businesses were built to develop and distribute financial products, a wealth manager who understands the importance of unarticulated needs will take a different approach. She’ll create a safe, nonjudgmental environment and use both her intuition and well-honed facilitation techniques to help you and your spouse or partner to deal with those issues you may have been avoiding:

• Are our kids in danger of being spoiled by our wealth?
• How do we transfer our values to them?
• Are we using our wealth in a way that is consistent with our values?
• What happens if I die prematurely?
• What do I want my legacy to be?
• If we make a gift of wealth, will we want to control how it’s used?
• What would I do differently to create a truly extraordinary life for myself and my family?

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Though there are common themes of individual, family and community needs, there are probably as many specific issues as there are wealthy clients. No pre-printed financial questionnaire is going to unearth the variety and complexity of these needs. That’s why these very personal, guided conversations are so important.

When all of your needs are clear and the related issues have been resolved, then your wealth manager can turn her attention to figuring out how to put your wealth to work in service of those life goals. This is the time for the financial products and services like tax and estate planning to kick in. These more traditional financial services aren’t merely afterthoughts. Quite the contrary. Poor execution on the product and service fronts can not only destroy your confidence in your wealth manager but can also get in the way of achieving your goals. All of this work takes time and dedication—yours and your wealth manager’s.

Why Bother?

Unless someone is experiencing torment on par with that of Citizen Kane, is all of this really necessary? What are a few sleepless nights after all, especially if your wealth is growing and your financial ducks are all in a row?

Today, wealth management is focused on the left-hand side of the chart, with an emphasis on the lower left-hand quadrant, where the needs of the client are clearly articulated—there are jobs that need to be done and well-defined products and services to meet those needs. If you manage to move into the lower-right quadrant, you’ll begin to recognize new wrinkles in what seemed like straightforward needs: Are your children ready for the money they’re about to inherit, and is it really appropriate to give them equal shares? As you uncover and address those unarticulated needs around your responsibilities, you may well sleep better at night. But it’s in the upper right hand quadrant—the land of unarticulated opportunities—that things become truly interesting. Within this quadrant, those with significant wealth can begin to transform lives—their own, their family’s and those of others in the community and beyond.

Transformation is a tricky term because it’s been overused to the point of meaninglessness. But it’s real meaning—to become or to create something new—is powerful. By using this term, I’m suggesting that wealth can do more than fix problems, fulfill responsibilities and make lives incrementally better. You can create an altogether richer experience for yourself and others if you’re willing to explore what’s possible. As a wealth manager, I have an opportunity, too. I can create a deeper, richer relationship with my clients by dedicating myself to facilitating transformation. 

What I find really intriguing about this notion of uncovering unarticulated needs—especially those related to opportunities—is that it’s unclear where it will lead. Working together with each client, my colleagues and I engage in a collaboration that takes us in some new direction and we’re only beginning to understand what kinds of outcomes are possible.

The SEI Wealth Network is an “umbrella” name for various life and wealth advisory services provided by your personal business manager and SEI Investments Management Corp. (SIMC). Components of these services and programs may be offered by SEI subsidiaries and non-affiliated third parties. SIMC is a wholly owned subsidiary of SEI Investments Company.