The Human Aspect of Financial Planning

With our knowledge of tax and financial planning matters, it is easy to forget that a well-structured and well-executed plan can be defeated because of personal issues within a client’s family. It is important to take these personal issues into consideration when planning for a client because understanding these issues can be crucial to knowing how to plan around the issue.

For example, let’s say that the family member of a client has a deliberating addiction. Now, it becomes important to decide how best to provide for this individual without providing him or her money to finance their addiction. There are several ways that an attorney can accomplish this goal, such as creating a revocable trust for the benefit of that person. There are other personal issues that affect how an attorney should plan. Health, both physical and mental, issues might become important as the client ages. An attorney might also want to consider the sentimental value of property that a client owns. While the property might not be expensive, it is might hold a great deal of sentimental value and play an important role in who receives the property after the death of the owner. An attorney might also want to take into consideration the cultural values of his or her client so that the attorney can properly take into consideration funeral arrangements and other documents, such as a health care proxy. 

See Martin Shenkman, The Human Factor, Financial Planning, July 1, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.