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Due to accelerating rates of industry change and hyper-competition, financial advisors have been driven to develop more innovative approaches in redefining and redrawing the parameters of what a financial advisor can do and be for their clients. This business model innovation is geared to go well beyond the traditional expectations and capabilities that clients have attached to financial advisors. Some advisors are responding by providing their clients with a more holistic and carefully integrated family and business wealth planning approach.
To explore how some advisors are building better value propositions and more engaging competitive positioning, we reached out to Institute members Jennifer Specter and Alyssa Dalbey of Schultz Financial Group (SFG) of Reno, Nevada – an independent RIA firm with a decades-long commitment to deepening client relationships and offering a unique integrated package of services to create a working partnership with their clients. With a firm motto of “A Legacy of Trust and Innovation”, the firm started in 1982 with a belief that their firm’s purpose should realize that true wealth is measured by more than money, and that it is as much about aspirations as assets.
This belief has shaped their conscious decisions, activities, and firm goals to provide their clients with a more holistic and carefully integrated family and business wealth planning approach that covers, what they term as, the “Four Capitals of Wealth” – Financial Matters, Physical Well-being, Intellectual Engagement, and Psychological Space. We asked them questions to understand the origins and applications of their business model, particularly for top executive and business owner clients.
Hortz: Can you explain your “Four Capitals of Wealth” planning approach? How did you land on those four particular parameters of support for your High-Net-Worth and business owner clients?
Specter: Our "Four Capitals of Wealth" approach - financial, physical, intellectual, and psychological - was developed by the firm over the course of 40 years. This approach arose organically from listening to the needs of our clients who expressed early on that their health and well-being were just as important as their investment portfolio.
Dalbey: Our goal is not just to manage assets but to be a comprehensive solution provider for our clients. By paying close attention to all aspects of the client's life and well-being, our firm developed this holistic framework to address the diverse needs of HNW families, business owners, executives, and professionals. The four capitals provide a structure for us to understand each client's unique situation and develop personalized plans to help them achieve their goals and live fulfilling lives, not just build wealth. This multidimensional view allows us to optimally support our clients' needs and goals.
Hortz: How did you design your firm and develop the resources needed to be able to deliver support on each of these areas?
Specter: By leveraging technology to handle administrative tasks, our firm can devote more time to deeply understanding each client's unique situation and providing personalized services and plans to support them in each of the Four Capitals. This includes services like succession planning, business operations optimization, family dynamics consulting, and health and longevity planning.
Dalbey: Over time, our firm built specific resources and brought in experts to be able to provide individualized support in each of these four key areas of our clients' lives. We have subscribed to medical journals, connected with leaders in their fields, and read and vetted books and research to have a list of tools and people that our clients can refer to when they have specific goals or issues come up. This positioned us to act as our clients’ strategic personal advisor and work with them to clarify their family and business goals, build a legacy, and lead more fulfilling lives.
Hortz: How do you apply each of the Four Capitals to your executives and business owner clients?
Specter: Across all client types, our advisors are skilled at having open, empathetic conversations to uncover hidden challenges and provide tailored solutions. By addressing each of the four capitals, they can support clients in their unique situations to achieve lasting fulfillment, not just short-term financial gain.
With executive clients, the focus is often on navigating major transitions, whether that is leaving a high-powered role at a large organization or starting a new entrepreneurial venture. Our firm helps these clients thoughtfully plan their next steps, ensuring they maintain financial security, intellectual stimulation, and a sense of purpose. This can involve everything from investment planning (including implementing specialized strategies around diversification and tax optimization) to coaching on work-life balance.
Dalbey: Business owners require a very different set of considerations compared to executives. They are often deeply, personally, and financially invested in their company, so we need to carefully balance business and personal planning.
For business owner clients, we again apply the four capitals holistically - looking at the impact of the business on the owner's family life and health, helping to structure the business for scalability and successful transition, and supporting the owner's intellectual engagement and sense of purpose beyond just the business. Our firm provides a wide range of customized services based on the individual needs and stage of company development of each business owner client.
Hortz: From your experience with your business clients, which areas do they tend to need the most support in?
Dalbey: For business owners, the human capital issues are critical - we work with them on talent management, succession planning, and building strong professional and personal networks. Family capital is also crucial, as business decisions often have major implications for the owner's household. This might involve setting boundaries around work hours, facilitating difficult family conversations about succession planning, or identifying new intellectual pursuits to prevent burnout. And of course, we provide financial guidance on the business and their personal investments.
Hortz: Can you give us a few brief examples of the personalized services and plans you developed for some of your executive and business owner clients?
Dalbey: We worked closely with a senior partner at a large law firm who was leaving a litigation practice to focus on mediation. We consulted with him and his CPA on setting up the new business entity and worked with him to think through the financial and psychological implications of the career change. We also updated the client’s wealth management plan and financial analysis to understand how his financial capital could support his new business goals while still supporting the family’s long-term wealth objectives. All this support helped ensure a smooth transition from working at a large law firm to going out on his own that allowed him to leverage his years of experience in a more fulfilling way.
We had another attorney client that worked for a large firm, and we consulted with him over a period of a few years to begin the transition to owning and operating his own law firm. We have navigated the first several years of start-up business turbulence together and have focused on building out human capital in his business. We have also put together a team of consultants to build a competitive compensation package together for new attorneys that include base salary, appealing bonus structures, health insurance, retirement benefits, and more.
For a client who owned a successful roofing manufacturing company, our firm helped navigate the transition after the business was sold to a public company. This involved not only managing the financial windfall, but also helping the client determine his next chapter - how to stay engaged and fulfilled without the daily demands of running the company. This client is a serial entrepreneur and we still consult with him on his other businesses.
Hortz: How has this holistic, "Four Capitals" approach allowed you to better serve and retain your business-focused clients?
Dalbey: Unlike many wealth management firms focused solely on investment products and transactions, we are not just trying to grow assets under management. We get deeply involved in our clients’ businesses, family dynamics, goals, and overall well-being, not just their financial matters. This is a key differentiator that we believe allows us to better serve and retain our clients.
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