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The Role of Financial Professionals in the Digital Age: How to Provide Timeless Service and Peace of Mind

Human nature never ceases to amaze me as the majority like to learn the hard way and be reactive rather than proactive. We all learned what this reactive behavior could do to one’s mental and financial health during the pandemic. Sure, we are all told to have an emergency fund with X amount of months’ worth of expenses to cover basic needs, but this pandemic has taught us that we must go beyond this. Death and illness came knocking very close to home for so many, leaving the vast majority of family members or those closest to having the misfortune of being personally affected by the inevitable far too soon, completely caught like a deer in headlights.

For Financial Professionals, Financial Advisors, Independent Broker-Dealers, RIAs, Community Banks, Credit Unions and Banks:

So what can we do as professional service providers such as financial advisors or banks? Offering the service to your clients that will help them capture anything and everything that may be important to their lives is one of the greatest services you can offer. It is timeless for the client and their family, and the peace of mind component it can provide indefinitely. Let’s face it we know as financial advisors that investments are a commodity these days. We must retain clients, and the only way to do this is to provide service that allows us to be held in our client’s eyes as nonreplaceable. Your client has hired you because they trust you and use your current technology stack because they are used to it.

Bringing the digital vault experience alive by adding or integrating it into your existing tech stack will keep the clients on your platform engaged in a unique way and keep them with you, the person they have grown to trust for advice. You have them; don’t lose them in these turbulent market conditions.

Show up differently; show up with 2ndVault (but white labeled as your own). Our digital legacy is alive and real. Let’s tap into it with our clients and speak the language that has evolved since we began serving clients. Let us fit into our client’s agenda rather than focusing on what solution we can sell them next, which eventually will be seen as self-serving.

Advice for our Clients:

Become better financial stewards in our everyday lives but always prepare for the unknown and know what we have and where we can find it when we need it when something unexpected comes up. We typically have one “point person” in each household who manages most of our finances or takes responsibility for paying the bills and managing the basics. The other may have somewhat of a clue but not much. It’s normal. But moving forward, we can’t have this be the norm. Instead, keep a digital vault with anything important to you and where it can be found rather than being caught with our pants down when the unexpected hits.


For example, what medication or allergies you may have to a favorite cookbook to where you bank. The list is long, and getting this done can seem taxing. Oh, but it’s not because a new tech company has solved this and created an unbelievable user-guided experience through yes or no questions to remove the thinking for you on where to begin and what to consider capturing. It’s non-intrusive and allows you to provide the breadcrumbs to prevent searching for them in a time of grief or panic. It creates efficiency in your life today by allowing you to pull PDF documents on the information you entered to meet the requested information needs that may come up, such as filling out school forms for your child or applying for a mortgage. Let’s become more mindful of the important vs. urgent and not just deal with what is urgent today.

I believe we have been taught a valuable lesson that, eventually, the important will become urgent at some point, and it is a horrible feeling when you are not prepared. Preventing panic is much less costly than treating it under pressure.

 
start planning for your family's future today!

Start planning for your family’s future today! 2ndVault

It’s a question that all of us eventually have to face: what happens to our loved ones after we die? If you want to ensure your family is taken care of, you must start planning now. If you take the time to plan, you can ensure that your family is taken care of both financially and emotionally when you’re gone. You can do several things to protect them, including making a will and setting up trusts. This blog post will discuss how you can provide for your family after you’re gone. We’ll also talk about choosing the right estate planning lawyer for you. So don’t wait – start planning for your family’s future today!

As our lives move increasingly online, it’s important to think about what will happen to our digital footprints after we die. For many of us, our digital legacy is just as important as our physical possessions. So what can you do to ensure your loved ones are cared for when you’re gone?

There are a few things to consider when planning your digital legacy. First, you’ll need to decide who will access your accounts and files. You’ll also need to consider whether you want your online presence to be deleted or preserved after you die. And finally, you’ll need to ensure all of your passwords are stored safely so your loved ones can access them when the time comes.

The best way to ensure that your digital legacy is taken care of is to plan. Talk to your loved ones about your wishes and make sure they know how to access your accounts. It would be best if you also considered setting up a digital vault, a safe and secure way to store all of your important information. And finally, be sure to choose an estate planning lawyer who is experienced in handling digital assets. With some planning, you can rest assured that your family will be taken care of after you’re gone.

While it’s impossible to predict the future, making plans for what will happen after you die is one of the most responsible things you can do for your loved ones. If you take the time to plan, you can ensure that your family is taken care of both financially and emotionally when you’re gone. So don’t wait – start planning for your family’s future today! Wills: why everyone should have one

Making a will is one of the most important things you can do for your loved ones. A will ensures that your wishes are carried out after you die and that your assets are distributed according to your wishes. Without a will, the state will decide how to distribute your assets, which may not align with your wishes.

Drafting a will can seem daunting, but plenty of resources are available to help you. You can hire an attorney to draft a will for you or use one of the many online will-drafting services. The important thing is that you take the time to make sure your wishes are properly documented.

Once you have a will in place, keep it up to date as your life circumstances change. If you get married, have children, or acquire new assets, update your will accordingly. And finally, make sure your loved ones know where to find your will so they can easily access it when it comes.

With some planning, you can ensure that your family is taken care of after you’re gone. So don’t wait – start making plans for your family’s future today!

2nd Vault – The Importance of family members and memories

2ndVault – The Importance of family members and memories

Family is essential in our lives because blood is thicker than water at the end of the day. Sure, you can always add to your family with “chosen family,” which are close friends; regardless, those with whom you share DNA have your back. We all likely have that bizarre uncle or family member, but we accept them for the most part for the simple fact of them being family. I have learned that when situations arise in life that you need support or an extra set of hands, it is family that I can turn to for help. I agree when people say that you may hire someone to be the extra hands regarding childcare. But  I have also experienced firsthand that paid child caretakers have limited love for your children. When something better comes up for them, they are gone and don’t look back.

As we age, our parents also age, which can be a hard pill to swallow. To ensure we serve those we love the most, we must commit to open communication and avoid difficult conversations. It is all about the approach to these conversations with our family that determine either a positive or negative outcome. The goal is not to leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth but rather provide peace of mind for the family as we have hard conversations, especially when the topic is about “when” the time comes as we can’t debate that it shouldn’t be labeled as an “if.” A light approach to these conversations is leveraging tools at our fingertips. There are solutions from photo organizing, journal writing, or digital organization of anything and everything necessary to you that you want your family to know about when you are unavailable. The tools are easy ice-breakers and almost a crutch to difficult conversation starters. When it comes to providing the information on where the breadcrumbs to what is important to you, consider 2ndvault.com, it allows you to delegate a “confidant” and alert the person when you name them. This will lead to a natural conversation from the confidant about what this means, and magic, the hard-to-start conversation just began naturally.

We all want the best for our family, even if we have had some bumps along the way. Family is the most likely to forgive even if they don’t forget. It is not easy to decide and successfully fire a family member and never hear from or see them again. At some point, a family celebration or family challenge will bring you back together, and with that embracing, this notion serves us all better. It is easy to get caught up in daily life and miss out on the big picture because we all enter and exit this world humbly and hope to have our family surrounding us when we do.