Building Generational Wealth

children in for an annual review with your financial advisor.”

Building wealth is a long-term process and requires discipline and patience. Professional guidance can provide valuable insights and help an individual make informed financial decisions.

“Our No. 1 answer for building generational wealth is to create a ‘family process’ and diligently stick to it,” Garlock said. “Establish a structured framework of actions that bring your longterm financial picture into focus.”

For example, you might choose to review your retirement plan investments, savings rates, and performance semi-annually, in June and December.

Annually, look to annualize your insurance coverage and make sure you have the most cost-efficient options for the highest coverage possible. Work with an estate planner every two years to make sure your estate plan is intact, and it creates the legacy you desire. Quarterly, have a quick family check-in to review any life changes that have happened that might impact your financial future.

“Our team has developed and refined a process we call the G360 Process that helps our clients put all the pieces of their financial puzzle together,” Garlock said.

Trust the markets.

“Our team believes equities have proven to be one of the greatest producers of real, inflation-adjusted wealth available to the general public over long periods of time through growth of income and capital appreciation,” Garlock said.

RBC uses stocks to grow wealth, protect purchasing power, and meet planning goals. Keep in mind that your retirement could potentially be for more than 30 years.

“While our team takes a financial planning approach, we understand that a well-constructed, diversified investment portfolio is the engine that helps us achieve your goals,” Garlock said. “We utilize a value-added service team within RBC Wealth Management, which maximizes our impact with different areas of knowledge and experience.”

This internal extension of the firm’s team supports the seven pillars of its process that are critical to building generational wealth: investment management, wealth planning, risk management and insurance, tax considerations, estate planning services, cash and lending and philanthropic and charitable giving.

“As our clients reach retirement age and up, we understand they have unique needs and challenges that go beyond traditional wealth management,” Garlock said. “That’s why we built a network of closely-vetted professionals who can help our clients live more meaningful lives. Our longevity team aims to provide comprehensive support to our clients in all areas of their lives, with services ranging from estate planning and long-term care specialists to caregiver advocates and health care consultants. By assembling this team of outside experts, we hope to help our clients age well, maintain their independence, and achieve their goals for years to come.”

Common Wealth-Building Pitfalls

To maximize your wealth, it’s crucial to live within your means and spend wisely.

One common wealth-building mistake is putting off estate planning or not updating your estate planning documents.

“With laws constantly changing, these should be reviewed every few years,” Bruno said. “What made sense when you drafted the documents, may not be the best plan now.” CONTINUED

Lindsay SVP, Sr. Business Development Manager

Another wealth-building pitfall is neglecting savings and emergency funds. Not prioritizing savings can leave you vulnerable to unexpected expenses or financial setbacks.

Lifestyle creep and living beyond your means, overspending, accumulating excessive debt, and relying on credit cards will impede wealth accumulation.

Becoming too conservative upon retirement is a common mistake as well.

“CDs and money markets are now attractive given federal interest rate changes, but we feel this is short-term thinking,” Garlock said. “If leaving a legacy for your next generations is important, and your financial goals are paid for and covered, continuing to own the great companies of the world you and I interact with every day is imperative.

“Clients often think ‘to retirement’ and not ‘through retirement,’ which could potentially be over 30 years with medical advances. The reality is that once your expenses are covered you are investing for the next generation, and you need to keep that in focus by continuing to have a portion of your assets allocated to equities.”

Don’t make emotional short-term decisions about saving and investing.

“[This] is so common and so avoidable,” Lindsay said. “Establish a long-term and disciplined investment approach that aligns with your personal risk tolerance.”

Decisions made purely to avoid taxation may also be shortsighted. Your overall financial plan should be the driving force in your investment decisions, and taxes should only be a consideration in the larger picture.

Another mistake is creating a savings/budget plan that is not realistic or sustainable for a long period.

“As with an extreme nutritional diet or workout regime, the plan generally isn’t sustainable over time and people may revert to even worse spending habits than before establishing the overzealous savings/budget plan,” Lindsay said.

“We build what we call a WealthPlan for every client of ours,” Garlock said. “It helps us understand their current financial situation, identify their personal vision for retirement, and determine what steps they can take to meet them.

“WealthPlan drives estate reviews for our clients — we engage with an attorney to establish ‘efficient transfer’ of assets to the next generation as our clients see fit. Through our ‘Philanthropic and Giving Pillar,’ we help align our clients’ resources with the causes and organizations that are most important to them. Through WealthPlan, we also offer insurance efficiency reviews, where our goal is to protect future assets and future income through insurancebased solutions for the next generations.”

Over the last two years, we have seen a stock market that has impacted a lot without really doing much.

“Total values have hardly changed in those few years, yet we have seen market values swing much higher and lower in that timeframe,” Lindsay said. “What this has proven is that the age-old mantra of being a patient investor will pay off. If you didn’t panic when the markets were lower, you are much better off today and closer to your goal of building wealth.”

Dundee Bank financed my dream property. I was able to level-up an already successful acupuncture practice that continues to grow and transform to provide a healing environment to our community.

Donna Huber | Thirteen Moons