Money has stopped being the scarce resource for the ultra wealthy. Good judgment is what is actually hard to find, according to Michael Gold, founder and CEO of Gold Family Wealth in Westport, Connecticut. “Access to capital is no longer limited; access to good judgment is,” Gold says, describing a shift he has watched play out among his own clients over the past several years.

That shift is changing how families choose advisors. Michael Gold says clients are becoming more selective and more intentional about who they let into their financial lives, asking pointed questions before signing on with anyone. Who is truly responsible for a given decision. Who has managed a situation of this complexity before. Who will actually stay involved once the initial planning work is finished.

Fragmented Advice Loses Favor

Families that have worked with technically skilled advisors whose services never quite connected are driving much of this change, Michael Gold Westport says. A portfolio manager, an estate attorney and an insurance broker can each be excellent individually and still leave a family with gaps nobody notices until it is too late. Gold argues that this experience is pushing more families toward advisors who can demonstrate real coordination rather than simply pointing to credentials.

He connects the trend to why senior or founder level involvement matters at a firm like his in Westport. For Gold, having the founder personally engaged is not about status. It signals that the person setting the direction for a family’s plan will still be around through the transitions that matter most, including business sales, generational handoffs and shifts in family leadership. “UHNW families want to know that the people advising them today will stay engaged tomorrow and that leadership understands their world firsthand,” he says. As competition among advisory firms increases, Gold expects this kind of scrutiny from clients to become the norm rather than the exception. Refer to this article for related information.

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