The Ross Companies Is Often the Insurance and Planning Choice of Professionals
Trust Is a Key Reason for Referrals by Financial Teams
The Ross Companies is frequently referred to clients through the financial and legal professionals who serve as close, trusted advisors. We often join these advisors as part of a client’s financial team. To us, this speaks volumes about how much respect firms have for us and our process.
Before we get too deeply into this idea, we probably should spell out what a financial team is and what it does for a wealthy client or family. A financial team is often made up of four key players: a wealth manager, a tax professional, an estate-planning attorney, and an insurance broker. A stockbroker or banker could be part of the picture, although those relationships could fall to the wealth manager who will oversee their processes for the client.
These professionals are not only great at the technical aspects of their jobs – whether it’s law, finance, or accounting – but they are also implicitly trusted by client legal and financial advisors. Managing that client relationship can be tricky, but doing it well is something The Ross Companies has in common with these top-notch professionals.
We often enter the picture because there is a deficiency in a client’s financial plan. We come in as the insurance broker, but our legal and financial partners know we bring much more to the table. Our track record is long, extensive, and deep, and we bring that expertise to solving a broad variety of long-term financial planning issues, ranging from estate planning to succession to asset retention to business buyouts. We are even asked to deal with planning how less sophisticated heirs will be managed so they don’t get into trouble.
The role The Ross Companies plays can be essential in bringing together the complete picture. Because we are highly trusted, the advisors we work with are confident that we will operate in a fiduciary manner, meaning we will put the client’s interests ahead of our own.
When it comes down to dealing with the client, some clients are very involved in their legal and financial dealings, and they want a more hands-on approach. The patience we have in working with clients, assessing what they have, their needs, right-sizing and structuring components of their financial plan is incredibly valuable.
The interesting component of this is that, depending on the situation, The Ross Companies can either be paid directly or be paid by commission on new policies. Our compensation can be very situation dependent. This flexibility can be an incredibly important component of our relationship, particularly if we are dealing with a family office or multi-family office.
In thinking about this, we realized that there is a fun way to tie this entire concept together, and we realized it listening to the radio. There’s a hit song by Ringo Starr that has the following lyrics: “I don’t ask for much, I only want trust / And you know it don’t come easy.” The Ross Companies know that trust doesn’t come easy, that earning trust is important and that like Ringo, relating ideas to people is both a critically important and highly satisfying part of our work.
For more than 90 years, The Ross Companies has been advising clients on how to resolve complex financial problems using insurance and other tools. These problems can include estate taxes, succession, buy outs, preservation of assets, or executive compensation. Our long history informs our thinking, and while many situations may be similar, we have learned well that each solution must be unique to the circumstances and individuals being served.