ABOUT THE BOOK

WHY DID WE WRITE OUR BOOK?
While "The Wealth Steward", in many ways, reflects and captures the business model we have developed for HighView Financial Group, the desire to publish this book was more to present an alternative perspective to bring more sustainability to meeting the goals and expectations for families, their business related assets as well as their philanthropic interests within a Stewardship-based process.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FOR INVESTORS?
The global wealth management industry was founded on an understanding and acceptance of their fiduciary responsibility to the individual client. As the industry became increasingly dominated by pension plans, the focus has, unfortunately, drifted to a relative performance driven array of never ending products that promise, yet fail to deliver, on a solution set that actually addresses the needs, goals and expectations of the investor client. It is our belief that this continued proliferation of product has only served to cause more and more confusion for investors resulting in an increasing level of mistrust and an erosion of confidence in the quality of advice being provided.

WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?
It has been our experience, after many decades of serving family wealth, that if we, as industry practitioners, truly expect to fulfill our responsibilities, we have to get Back-to-Basics and focus on becoming Stewards of Wealth rather than Developers & Sellers of Product. This will require new behaviours on the part of the counsellors that work with clients. Behaviours that address:

• Conducting ourselves with a fiduciary mindset.
• A collaborative approach to harnessing the expertise of other professional practitioners to truly address the wealth continuum for the client.
• A commitment to spending the time to understand the goals, expectations and desires of the client. A commitment to objectivity in the design and delivery of the investment solution provided to the client, and
• A commitment to providing the required level of transparency needed to gain the confidence and commitment of the client

It is issues such as these that we have tried to capture and address in "The Wealth Steward".