Financial advice should be a “kitchen table conversation” involving families, according to those at newly formed advice firm Six Degrees.
Six Degrees, which launched in November, works to involve whole families in financial decisions.
Co-founders Katherine Waller and Ollie Saiman, said they want to plug an advice gap in services for high net worth individuals and get the whole family talking about money.
Saiman said: “We ask people, ‘who else should be part of this conversation?’
“A lot of people think the wealth creator is the client but wealth isn’t created in isolation, there is an ecosystem which has enabled it.”
The benefits of having conversations about wealth in the homes of clients was something that became apparent during the Covid-19 lockdowns, said Saiman.
At the time the pair were working together at RBC Wealth Management, where they had been for more than a decade.
Saiman added: “During Covid, advisers were parachuted into their clients’ living rooms and met their families, which provided a much richer family conversation and a much richer wealth conversation.
“We were having these physically removed conversations that were actually much deeper, the conversations in the home are a much more valuable use of people's time.”
While Waller added: “Everyone thinks very differently about money. The point of it being out of a corporate environment is that we get to the crux of what is important.”
Six Degrees believes there is an advice gap when it comes to high net worth clients.
Part of bridging this gap is providing information in an app which shows all of a client’s investments.
Waller said: “Typically these individuals, when they are receiving information about their investments, will get a spreadsheet or a PDF which seems mad.
“It is not as transparent which creates the questions, there is that technology gap.
“We wanted to create something that was indispensable, it shows your liquid investments, [it also shows] properties and private company shareholdings.
“They are probably thinking about other family members too and the capacity to view all of that in one place is invaluable.
“The app becomes that space not just for the one creating the wealth but for other family members.”
Overall, Waller and Saiman said they want to engage the left, more analytical, and right, more creative and emotional, parts of the brain.
Saiman added: “Most wealth advisers think it should be a left brain conversation and come with a spreadsheet.
“That is important but this is as much a right brain conversation. It is an emotive conversation which we feel is not suited to a corporate environment, it is a kitchen table conversation.”
Six Degrees works with those with between £3mn and £50mn of investable assets.
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