MoneyWise
‘Setting the
estate planning objectives is not for your financial planner to decide, it is something that you, as a client, should decide
’
Counseling is not only reserved for life or business coaches or therapist – financial planners have a real advantage when they can apply various aspects of counseling to get to know their client’s type and needs. Van der Westhuizen is himself a fan of brain analysis to determine what type of person he has to advise – is it a right (creative type) or left (analytical type) brain dominance?
Steps to follow in estate planning “Estate planning equals with the decision in advance by an estate owner of what to do with his assets and liabilities (including digital assets) during his lifetime and upon retiring”, defined van der Westhuizen. The necessary steps to use in the process of estate planning are as follows: • Accumulate the information needed • Determine the wishes and objectives of the client towards estate planning • Analyze the information (estate planning environment etc) • Structure the information The Professor advised the inclusion of the following tasks during the estate planning process: • Determine the client’s personal profile • Determine the estate profile • Proceed with estate duty and CGT calculations • Determine the estate liquidity “Don’t end it here, carefully analyze the client’s psychological environment”, he said. Below we listed some of the factors that should be included for a more holistic approach to estate planning that one should know about: • Increased risks (eg.: ill health) • Law changes • Brain profiling and personality assessment • Psychological factors such as fears of family feuds • Financial/other risks • Cultural and religious factors (traditional versus modern views) • Political factors such as changes in government policies, BBEE, expropriation, nationalization
22 WealthWise