Estate Planning Issues for the High Net Worth Client:
A Private Banker's Approach

As I delivered my tax return analysis seminars over many years,
participants repeatedly raised issues related to estate planning
technique their clients use…or want to use. Many bankers
confessed being embarrassed at not knowing how to discuss
these issues with their customers, an embarrassment that probably
cost them opportunities to build a stronger customer relationship.

Many of your wealthy customers have reached a point in their
lives and careers where estate planning is becoming much more
important to them. If you want to maintain, and extend profitable
relationships with these customers, you need bankers who can:

Take part in estate planning conversations
(short of designing the estate plan), instead
of avoiding them, or deferring completely to
the customer’s own accountant; and

Understand the impact of estate planning on
financial reporting, and on future availability
of resources, for credit analysis and for
additional sales opportunities.

I want your bankers to understand how estate planning works in
the real world of their customers, and an intellectual understanding
of the technical aspects of estate planning isn’t enough!
My participants work with a comprehensive case study to see how
an accountant (a role I play in the classroom) works with a client
to build an estate plan. At each step along the way, we stop to
examine the opportunities, and concerns, those financial
manipulations present to the bank. You can see a list of the
topics I cover here.

Do I turn your bankers into estate planning experts?
No! Your customers will still get better advice from their own CPAs.
I just turn your bankers into better bankers!

They are prepared to offer credit related advice and ask questions
related to estate planning, instead of avoiding the issue. And that
means better service for your customers, and better protection and
opportunity for the bank.

And if you think changes in the tax law are “just around the corner”,
making estate planning obsolete…well, your customers aren’t
banking on that, and neither are their accountants. Until this
issue really goes away, you need bankers who can deal with
it in their interactions with affluent individuals.

Who Should Take the Course?
Bankers working with the wealthy (or wealth building) individual
encounter these issues regularly, not only from the customer,
but from customers’ guarantors.

This is an advanced course. Participants generally should have
some experience working with the wealthy before coming to
this seminar. Most of them will have taken one of my other
seminars on tax return analysis before tackling estate planning topics.


Pricing and Customization
Basic pricing for the Ready To Go version of Estate Planning Issues
for the High Net Worth Client: A Private Banker’s Approach is
$795 per participant. There is a 20-participant minimum fee -
that is, you will be charged for 20 participants even if, say,
only 15 employees take the seminar - and my travel expenses
will be added to the invoice.

There are many ways to customize the content to provide
faster learning and better retention. Custom-built case studies
can focus participant attention more clearly on the types of
wealthy customers you see most often in your market.
Post-seminar testing can be developed to ensure that your
participants have mastered the content.

Customization fees are billed one time, when the work is done.
That means that once the custom seminar is developed, I can
be deliver it to your employees again and again without additional
customization fees - only the per participant (and travel) costs will apply.

I cannot provide flat rates for customization, as the amount of
effort involved varies depending on the degree of customization,
the number of components customized, the lead time available,
and so on. The factors that drive customization rates are
described on the For Greater Impact page.

I suggest you review that page, perhaps look at the list of
topics covered in this course, and then contact me to discuss
your best options for customizing the course content, and
the associated costs.

 

 

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