What Inspires Us
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Seeing the Elephant
A wise Rajah once asked each of his blind servants to approach an animal and describe what it was. The first servant approached the creature, grabbed the trunk and declared it to be a snake. The second servant put his arms around a leg and was certain he had hold of a tree. The third servant ran his hands along a tusk and thought that he had found a spear, while the fourth servant flapped an ear and decided it was a fan. The fifth servant moved his hands across the stomach and was sure he had bumped into a wall and finally, the sixth servant grabbed ahold of the tail and exclaimed it to be a rope.
A brisk disagreement among the servants quickly ensued. The wise Rajah stepped in explaining that each was correct, yet they were all wrong. Each was correct in describing the part of the creature they experienced. Yet, each lacked an accurate description of the animal’s entirety. Of course, the animal was an elephant.
Just as the servants experienced the elephant from their own unique perspectives, so too do your advisors (estate planning attorney, accountant, insurance agent, stockbroker, etc.) all see things a certain way. So, while well-intentioned, each is capable of “seeing the elephant” in a limited way. To get a complete picture, your advisors need a collective perspective. They need to be working together, sharing information, and focusing on the same things—your vision and your goals.
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Wealth Management
Developing a client's complete picture requires leadership experience and interdisciplinary training to coalesce the bodies of knowledge from the allied disciplines of wealth management in a context relevant for each client. Relevant context requires discovering the internal strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and dangers, circles of competence and places of greatest potential for each client.
All too often, the professional advisors to prosperous families are unsuccessful in helping their clients with the strategic visioning that helps their clients achieve the clarity, liberty and inspiration they desire to make wise choices—choices that will help them capture and enjoy the benefits, and avoid the pitfalls and mistakes, of their wealth. This absence of success does not result from a lack of the individual capabilities of each of the advisors, but from a lack of collaborative focus on integrated, “big-picture” planning.
Often, as practitioners in different disciplines of wealth management mature professionally, they identify and migrate to specialized positions in the marketplace that they enjoy and at which they succeed and excel. As a result, they naturally refine and define their focus of attention with clients within narrowing, specialized scopes of engagement.
The attorney who works on the estate plan often specializes in the preparation of documents, such as wills, trusts and partnership agreements, and handling the orderly transfer of a client’s estate with a minimum of adverse estate tax consequences.
The business attorney is primarily concerned with business contracts and liabilities, and does not focus on the management and wealth transfer issues associated with the estate of the closely held business owner.
The accountant who works with the business and owner is concerned with maximizing the business’ cash flow and market value and minimizing business and personal income taxes.
The insurance professional is concerned with the necessary disability and premature death protection for the client and with providing the necessary liquidity for the transfer of an estate.
Finally, the investment advisor is primarily concerned with the management and performance of the investment portfolios created from savings.
Each of these professionals may be highly competent and perform their individual tasks superbly. Yet they may not contribute enough to helping their mutual client achieve the clarity, liberty and inspiration the client needs to make wise choices. Wealth management requires strategic visioning and dynamic implementation to assist clients and their professional advisors develop the focus of “big-picture,” integrated and strategic planning.
We have built Inspired Capitalworks to purposefully support independent, objective and well-reasoned investment management, client-enabling technologies and attentive services for our clients. We have designed the firm for people who have experienced or are experiencing increased demands for their time, professional collaborative expertise and help with daily implementation tasks that come from a successful career or business, or accumulation or transfer of wealth.
Our goal is to respond to the growing needs of prosperous individuals and families who are demanding the hallmarks of our capabilities and help them gain the clarity, liberty and inspiration they need to make the wise choices that will help them capture and enjoy the benefits, and avoid the pitfalls and mistakes, of their wealth.
