Quite often at PPS we get clients that are looking to use Concierge Bill Pay to help manage their parents finances. This article is great advice on when to tell if the time has come to take over.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15429252/
Understanding when to take control is a tough decision and this article has some great advice. Asking friends and family that have dealth with similar issues may have some great insight as well.
Our experience focuses on what to watch for when you do decide to step in. The article talks about hiring a daily money management firm or contractor to take over for your parent. There are some areas that you must consider before hiring though, such as:
- How reliable is the service provider? Is it just an individual or a larger organization?
- What is their background and level of security? Are they insured and bonded to provide this service?
- Is daily money management the core focus of the business? Do they regularly invest in improving the service?
- Are you getting your moneys worth? This is their profession, they should be better at paying bills than you are.
- Are they local, regional or national? How will they work with you as part of the team if you are out of the area?
We find that most people who are looking for financial help for their parents come to us at a troubled time. This is an area that should be reviewed by family and / or friends before the need arises to see what everyone wants or would be willing to do.
Devin
March 12, 2007
Family offices expanding
Family offices are wealth management firms that primarily focus on serving the worlds most wealthy families and individuals. These firms were first started by families such as Carnegie and Rockefeller to help manage the vast wealth they created.
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050221/SUB/502210721/-1/INIssueAlert04&ht
The creation of the multifamily office began in order to provide similar services to smaller groups of less wealthy families. So, instead of having one client worth a billion dollars, a multifamily office would have ten clients, each worth around $100 million. The services provided in these types of firms can be vast and are all meant to help the client better understand their finances, make better use of their wealth and ideally make better use of their time. Multifamily offices can offer services such as bill pay, concierge services, investment due diligence, tax filing, foundation management, selling a house, family meetings and so on.
With support services such as those offered by PPS the threshold for creating and servicing clients in the way a multifamily office strives is lowered even further. Hopefully, as these services expand and improve, more firms and financial advisers will be able to help bring this model down market. Firms that work with PPS to provide Concierge Bill Pay in many cases have found that by partnering with managed service providers such as ours they can lower the minimum requirements for clients to join their multifamily office. A family of any level of wealth is done a great service the better they understand their time and money. At PPS, we love the family office model and hope to see more advisers move this way.
If you work with a financial advisor, make sure that you are getting good value for the fees they charge or commissions they earn. Learn what other services that they as an advisor or their firm can provide.
Devin
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050221/SUB/502210721/-1/INIssueAlert04&ht
The creation of the multifamily office began in order to provide similar services to smaller groups of less wealthy families. So, instead of having one client worth a billion dollars, a multifamily office would have ten clients, each worth around $100 million. The services provided in these types of firms can be vast and are all meant to help the client better understand their finances, make better use of their wealth and ideally make better use of their time. Multifamily offices can offer services such as bill pay, concierge services, investment due diligence, tax filing, foundation management, selling a house, family meetings and so on.
With support services such as those offered by PPS the threshold for creating and servicing clients in the way a multifamily office strives is lowered even further. Hopefully, as these services expand and improve, more firms and financial advisers will be able to help bring this model down market. Firms that work with PPS to provide Concierge Bill Pay in many cases have found that by partnering with managed service providers such as ours they can lower the minimum requirements for clients to join their multifamily office. A family of any level of wealth is done a great service the better they understand their time and money. At PPS, we love the family office model and hope to see more advisers move this way.
If you work with a financial advisor, make sure that you are getting good value for the fees they charge or commissions they earn. Learn what other services that they as an advisor or their firm can provide.
Devin
Budgeting
The core focus of this blog is to talk about how to best manage time and money. In my last posting we talked about the best place to start was by creating and managing a household budget. If you don't have one, get one! No matter what you make or what your net worth is, you need a budget. I find that the people who don't have a budget are the ones who need one the most. Most high net worth clients we see have some sort of budget and track with great detail what they spend and where it is coming from. If they do not, that is a red flag and it is even easier to get in trouble, because these people are more inclined to think that they are alright because they have cash readily available. Most don't end up having as much as they need to cover expenses. Even if they do, did they really spend their money in the best way they would have if they had taken a few minutes to plan? Life comes at you fast and money can fly out of your hands, especially if you have no plan on when to say yes and when to say no to spending.
For most Americans, finding time to create, manage and review your budget is the biggest problem, figuring out what to do with the data from it is pretty black and white usually. If the budget says you are doing alright, then don't change! If you are not doing alright, then cutback.
But again, where do people start? In our experience, people come to PPS looking for very detailed budgets and have had great expectations at one point or another in creating one. Those with some computer savvy may turn to Quicken, Microsoft Money or other systems. Typically though this attempt fails and when the customer ends up with us they have shelved that software and gone back to the 'seat of your pants' method. A family member summed this method up well once to me when they said "if the ATM gods deem it appropriate to give me money, then all is well. That is my budget".
Best advice I have is to start simple. A paper ledger updated once a week with receipts and expeneses compared to desired (the budget). Or, excel is a great tool for creating a template that works perfectly for you. A quick web search for 'Excel budgeting tools' brings up many great sites, usually they cost around $20; that might be worth it. This link from Microsoft is free (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC062062791033.aspx?pid=CT101172321033 ) and seems to be an intuitive template. The best part of Excel and something that any organizational expert will tell you is the ability to create your own format that matches your personality and needs will give the greatest chance for success.
Of course the template is only half the battle. You have to figure out how you will manage it. Will this be a once a week project? Will you manage it or your spouse? Will it be a group project? Will you keep all of your receipts or just review the credit card? Personally, I find that this is a great time to review your overall life and then start building a system that works for you.
At PPS we create a categorized report for our clients that shows overall monthly expenese and breaks them into categories. The easy yet time consuming piece is done for them. Now the hard part comes of deciding how much is the right amount to spend in each category and then tracking your progress. The process is the same though no matter who you are, pay yourself (savings, charity, pay down debt, etc..) first, then move onto the set monthly bills. Next, determine the variable expenses in life; how much will I spend on groceries, eating out, will I have the premium channel package for cable, will I be vacationing in a tent this summer or at the Four Seasons? Set a budget for these and then find a way to track the expenses as they come in.
In review, no matter who you are create a budgeting system and stick with it. Find a platform that works for you and develop a system to manage it. Pay yourself first, keep a realistic level of fixed bills then decide how much variable to spend. The best part about paying yourself first is that whatever is left over after you have made rational saving decisions is open game, spend it on what you want.
Again though, having a system and a budget is the most important step. Good luck on finding one that works for you and if you have any suggesstions, let me know.
Good luck,
Devin
For most Americans, finding time to create, manage and review your budget is the biggest problem, figuring out what to do with the data from it is pretty black and white usually. If the budget says you are doing alright, then don't change! If you are not doing alright, then cutback.
But again, where do people start? In our experience, people come to PPS looking for very detailed budgets and have had great expectations at one point or another in creating one. Those with some computer savvy may turn to Quicken, Microsoft Money or other systems. Typically though this attempt fails and when the customer ends up with us they have shelved that software and gone back to the 'seat of your pants' method. A family member summed this method up well once to me when they said "if the ATM gods deem it appropriate to give me money, then all is well. That is my budget".
Best advice I have is to start simple. A paper ledger updated once a week with receipts and expeneses compared to desired (the budget). Or, excel is a great tool for creating a template that works perfectly for you. A quick web search for 'Excel budgeting tools' brings up many great sites, usually they cost around $20; that might be worth it. This link from Microsoft is free (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC062062791033.aspx?pid=CT101172321033 ) and seems to be an intuitive template. The best part of Excel and something that any organizational expert will tell you is the ability to create your own format that matches your personality and needs will give the greatest chance for success.
Of course the template is only half the battle. You have to figure out how you will manage it. Will this be a once a week project? Will you manage it or your spouse? Will it be a group project? Will you keep all of your receipts or just review the credit card? Personally, I find that this is a great time to review your overall life and then start building a system that works for you.
At PPS we create a categorized report for our clients that shows overall monthly expenese and breaks them into categories. The easy yet time consuming piece is done for them. Now the hard part comes of deciding how much is the right amount to spend in each category and then tracking your progress. The process is the same though no matter who you are, pay yourself (savings, charity, pay down debt, etc..) first, then move onto the set monthly bills. Next, determine the variable expenses in life; how much will I spend on groceries, eating out, will I have the premium channel package for cable, will I be vacationing in a tent this summer or at the Four Seasons? Set a budget for these and then find a way to track the expenses as they come in.
In review, no matter who you are create a budgeting system and stick with it. Find a platform that works for you and develop a system to manage it. Pay yourself first, keep a realistic level of fixed bills then decide how much variable to spend. The best part about paying yourself first is that whatever is left over after you have made rational saving decisions is open game, spend it on what you want.
Again though, having a system and a budget is the most important step. Good luck on finding one that works for you and if you have any suggesstions, let me know.
Good luck,
Devin
21st Century personal finances
For several years Premier Payment Services has been helping individuals around the country manage their daily financial chores. PPS manages the entire process of 'paying bills' for individuals including the actual payment, tracking, vendor disputes,monthly reporting and the many random intangibles that occur. As the life of the average consumer continues to become more complex, services such as ours have begun to blossom. Our industry which is still growing can be called daily money management, personal bookkeeping, bill pay, or in our case we have named what we provide Concierge Bill Pay. The difference in PPS is our mix of market focus, company scale and proprietary technology to bring our clients the best service of its kind anywhere.
Through our experiences, past struggles, everyday success and continued development, we have collected a deep knowledge on what people from all sorts of walks of life are doing to try and better manage their time and understand where their money is going. We regularly work with some of the best wealth managers, CPAs, estate lawyers and investment professionals in the country. In this blog, we hope to combine all of our knowledge and point readers of the Wealth Administration blog to helpful areas, discuss news and trends of the day and provide actionable advice on how to better manage your time and money.
In the 21st century we face some amazing statistics:
- A negative savings rate in America for 2005, down from 11.1 % in May 1985. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/sav/20060308a1.asp
- Americans have an average of 8 credit cards each with a total combined balance of $8,400
http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/credit/2004/06/29/stupid-credit-tricks.aspx
- More than 50% of Americans have a cell phone and spend on average $49.91 - this for a device that for the most part none of us had or even thought to need 15 years ago.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/miscellaneous/003136.html
And these are just a sample. In a survey sponsored by PPS recently, only about 25% of respondents when asked about their personal finances said that they tracked monthly expenses. We hear from financial advisers quite often that speak of clients making several hundred thousand dollars a year yet having a negative net worth. No one is immune, financial insecurity and debt can plague anyone.
The best way to start taking control again is to track your expenses. Then try and understand where you want that money to really go. Build your own system, here are some that we really like:
Intuit's Quicken is a favorite of ours
http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance/
For the Microsoft fans
http://www.microsoft.com/money/order.aspx
Or if you are looking to really start from the beginning
http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/0470038322/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1157534-7556819?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173739315&sr=1-1
This is just the start of what I hope turns out to be a successful platform to help Americans spend more wisely, both in time and in money. There are so many noble causes and worthwhile endeavors in life, make sure you have the resources to pursue them. I look forward to providing whatever help I can.
Devin
Through our experiences, past struggles, everyday success and continued development, we have collected a deep knowledge on what people from all sorts of walks of life are doing to try and better manage their time and understand where their money is going. We regularly work with some of the best wealth managers, CPAs, estate lawyers and investment professionals in the country. In this blog, we hope to combine all of our knowledge and point readers of the Wealth Administration blog to helpful areas, discuss news and trends of the day and provide actionable advice on how to better manage your time and money.
In the 21st century we face some amazing statistics:
- A negative savings rate in America for 2005, down from 11.1 % in May 1985. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/sav/20060308a1.asp
- Americans have an average of 8 credit cards each with a total combined balance of $8,400
http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/credit/2004/06/29/stupid-credit-tricks.aspx
- More than 50% of Americans have a cell phone and spend on average $49.91 - this for a device that for the most part none of us had or even thought to need 15 years ago.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/miscellaneous/003136.html
And these are just a sample. In a survey sponsored by PPS recently, only about 25% of respondents when asked about their personal finances said that they tracked monthly expenses. We hear from financial advisers quite often that speak of clients making several hundred thousand dollars a year yet having a negative net worth. No one is immune, financial insecurity and debt can plague anyone.
The best way to start taking control again is to track your expenses. Then try and understand where you want that money to really go. Build your own system, here are some that we really like:
Intuit's Quicken is a favorite of ours
http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance/
For the Microsoft fans
http://www.microsoft.com/money/order.aspx
Or if you are looking to really start from the beginning
http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/0470038322/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1157534-7556819?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173739315&sr=1-1
This is just the start of what I hope turns out to be a successful platform to help Americans spend more wisely, both in time and in money. There are so many noble causes and worthwhile endeavors in life, make sure you have the resources to pursue them. I look forward to providing whatever help I can.
Devin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
