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Family Offices: Talking money with your family during Lockdown 3.0

Supporting your family isn’t just done with money. When it comes to family wealth, every member of the family needs to feel enriched and supported beyond that of simply financial means.

It can be an alien concept for a family to sit together and discuss issues, especially money ones, for the first time. But, it must be said, overcoming that fear is better and can relieve underlying pressures and answer questions that may be playing on one’s mind. There may be conflict or differences of opinion, it wouldn’t be a family if there wasn’t, but that’s a good thing because now you’re talking.

Admittedly this shouldn’t ideally take place around the dining table but rather within the safe space of a trusted adviser, but that is only to facilitate a safe space for the conversation. By talking in this manner the family squabbles are less likely to arise and the business of family wealth will remain the featured event.

By having the conversation, a level of financial literacy can be gleaned and shared among those that will be affected most. It is a proven methodology to have more lasting success of working together for a set of shared goals rather than having responsibility resting on a few, or worse, just one family member.

The frequency of meetings is dependent on each family’s need for them, whether they be monthly, quarterly or annually. As with many families, getting together isn’t always possible for many reasons but at least having an initial sit down followed by regular updates, even using screens and technology, is prudent now more so than ever. With another national lockdown imposed on us, at least within the UK, it offers a unique opportunity for households and families and this unique opportunity comes in the form of time.

Sharing time and having these conversations with your family can bring a togetherness that you are all in it together. A sense of belonging. It is where you can either start conversations amongst yourselves or even virtually introduce the advisors to the family who have helped maintain and grow the portfolio. Stories of shared experiences with money and learning from the good, bad and ugly ones are encouraged.

By allowing this support network for the family wealth, it not only keeps lines of communication open but it will educate the next generation of family members on all aspects of mutual benefit.

In business, you are encouraged to offer tools and coaching to the employees to help them develop and keep the business moving. So why not the same with your family wealth?

Strategic planning and investment in this fashion has shown that it not only protects the parents wealth, but it also leads to a greater return for the financial well-being of the children, as well as offering them a safe place to discuss other matters that they may be struggling with and are less likely to share outside of the confines of a ‘safe space’.

After all, now more so than ever, support, trust and honesty are required as we continue to navigate this ever-changing world around us.

Why outsourcing, why us?

The number of businesses and individuals that are outsourcing some of their essential and non-essential functions to third-party companies are rising globally, to save on costs and streamline efficiencies and also save what is considered to be one of the most important assets of all, time.

Even prior to Covid-19, outsourcing marketing and other functions such as project management were considered to be a common approach, with outsourcing areas such as operational elements becoming increasingly prevalent in recent times for many start-ups and larger firms. However, this year’s pandemic has offered times of uncertainty and hardship for many and has pushed people to cut back on costs to ‘steady the ship’. This means that marketing (and other teams) budgets and teams have been either cut back or cut all together, meaning that the only way to continue moving forward with existing efforts is either to add additional workload to existing staff or diversify and outsource business functions to cost-effective third party contractors.

In this ever-changing world, we have witnessed that individuals and businesses are not only busier than ever but are pushing themselves hard to keep up with the likes of increasing digital trends in order to compete during the pandemic. There have been few businesses that have cut back efforts and instead have faced additional workload to continue to drive performance, which is both unsustainable and inefficient. These circumstances, teamed with the inability or unwillingness to commit to long-term staffing and budget requirements, is where outsourcing comes into its own.

Earlier this year, Capital Counselor, produced the following intriguing top outsourcing statistics:

In 2019, the worldwide outsourcing market was worth $92.5 billion.
The top reason for outsourcing (59%) is to save money and cut costs.
Around 300,000 jobs are outsourced by the US annually.

Around 37% of small businesses use outsourcing to handle at least one of their business processes.

With demands for outsourced marketing services increasing but the above mentioned challenges not seemingly budging any time soon, En Avant’s overall purpose is to act as an extension of you or your existing team(s) or to act independently on your behalf, providing several advantages for your business, which include:

Saving time. Our time is Your time.
Saving on costs and effectiveness.
Costing you less to deliver a better return on investment (ROI).
Giving you access to a broader pool of expertise.
Enable you to set a scope of work and budget, moving forward in a way that you are comfortable and confident with.

Additionally, there are several reasons outsourced marketing can be beneficial for businesses. Examples include:

You don’t have the expertise in-house.
You already have too much to do without taking on marketing or concierge activities.
You want to reduce spend on larger marketing firms or avoid hiring in-house.
You want to better position your business to achieve higher results and returns.

All businesses have different requirements and En Avant offers a private and personal approach, providing bespoke marketing and concierge services, ‘filling in the gaps’ in a way that businesses and individuals can trust and can tailor marketing packages to fit almost any budget.

For us, we owe a lot to the individuals and experiences that have shaped us throughout our lives and careers and believe that strong values and ethics, along with trust and dependability, are the key to success in our line of work. We take pride in everything that we do, from our strong relationships with clients and partners, through to delivering the final product and treating every opportunity as a new experience in which to immerse ourselves.

Family Offices: Talking money with your family during Lockdown 3.0

Why outsourcing, why us?

Let’s push things forward. Together.

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