The General Contractor Approach to Managing Finances

Most homes are built with a general contractor who outsources or sub-contracts out each area of expertise, i.e. the plumber, electrician, carpenter, HVAC, etc. The future homebuyer talks to the general contractor and doesn’t talk to each sub-contractor. You may want to consider hiring a financial steward that manages all your money connections in order to simplify your financial life.

It can be overwhelming for you to watch over ever aspect of your money and all the people it who manage it. There are insurance companies that can sell you protection for your home, cars and your life, but the “bundling” approach doesn’t always deliver the best coverage for premium outlay. It may be better to shop each separately with independent insurance agents. Do you want to do that? Some insurance agents also sell various types of annuities for retirement. How do you determine which annuity is suitable for you and whether the insurance agent has a broad inventory of products to ensure you’re buying the best annuity? Are you going to shop for this on the Internet?

What about financial advisers? Some are like architects who can design an overall blueprint for a comprehensive financial plan that integrates smaller plans for college, retirement, long term care and estate planning? Other financial advisers are asset allocators, some do the allocation themselves and others outsource the mutual fund and ETF management. These are all individuals who may have their area of expertise, but they need someone to ride herd over them to ensure you get the best possible management of your money.

Consider your legal team: from CPAs who work on your taxes, to attorneys who oversee real estate transactions, business transaction, and estate documents like wills and trusts. How do you find the time to interview the many fiduciaries involved? Could you even intelligently conduct the interview? 

Could someone have the breadth of knowledge to understand all these areas? More than likely no. But there are financial stewards that can vet all these areas of concern and hire the right representative for each area. A financial steward is a position that carries a sacred family trust; he is like a financial consigliore. He or she reports to you, delivers financial statements from all areas of your finances and is your most trusted adviser.