Picturing your life 20 years from now, what does an ideal world for you and your family look like?
We ask our clients this question, and the responses run the gamut. Perhaps it’s a future with access to quality education. Maybe the goal is to empower others, develop innovative technologies, or create support for small businesses. When we ask our clients to articulate their vision for the future, we want to help them identify the right tools to help make it a reality. At Tolleson Wealth Management, we work intimately with our client families to take care of all things financial with our comprehensive family office services. How we approach a family’s financial strategy is steeped in a deep history of working with ultra-high-net-worth clients and understanding multi-generational needs for the long term.
By viewing a client’s situation holistically, our goal is to find the best solutions to optimize their financial returns and align decisions with their values. Typically, philanthropic giving comes to mind when looking to enhance communities or support a specific cause. Although philanthropy can play a vital role in a family’s financial strategy, we also take advantage of an often-underutilized tool: values-based investing.
A family’s investment choices shouldn’t feel limited by a strategy focused solely on profit. In many cases, families want to ensure what they do financially today, tomorrow, and 20 years from now makes the world a better place for their family and community.
Over the years, values-based investing has become synonymous with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing. ESG can be a narrow lens and somewhat limiting when looking at the diverse changes people want to make in the world. We believe values can be inclusive and broad, depending on what’s important to the individual and what future they want to invest in. With a values-based strategy, our goal is to help clients find attractive and innovative investments that also align with their values.
The ideal future looks different to each family member, and what is most important can vary generationally. Where one generation may value cutting-edge technology, another may prioritize sustainability.
Working with multi-generational clients, we’ve observed that a values-based investment strategy can act as a bridge-builder between generations. Finding commonalities and value overlap is possible. Our role is to explore and uncover these commonalities by digging deep and working collaboratively with families. What makes it rewarding for us is discovering the thread that ties everyone’s goals together.
Families shouldn’t have to sacrifice financial return or their values – both are possible. So the question then becomes why wouldn’t you use your investment assets to move closer to your “ideal” world?
This article was written by Tolleson Wealth Management (“TWM”). Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses. All investments involve risk, including the loss of principal. A client’s return will be reduced by the advisory fees and other expenses. TWM’s advisory fees are described in Part 2a of our Form ADV. This article is for informational purposes only and not a solicitation or an offer to buy a security or instrument or to participate in any trading strategy.
