Establishing and maintaining a relationship of trust and close co-operation is key when handling the finances of high net-worth Canadians. And that requires patience, experience, adaptability, discretion — and a lot of careful, detailed work.

“Part of it is saying what you’re going to do, and then going out and doing it,” says Filomena Nucaro, an advisor and portfolio manager with Raymond James Ltd. in Toronto who deals exclusively with high net-worth clients. “You’re building trust as you go along.”

Although all clients — whether they have $10,000 to invest or $10 million — share some concerns and needs, such as planning for retirement and caring for family, dealing with high net-worth clients poses special challenges, the most prominent of which is the sheer complexity of their financial affairs.

“High net-worth and ultra-high net-worth clients have much more sophisticated needs than those who aren’t in those categories,” says Nucaro, whose clients have at least $1 million in investible assets. A portion of her book consists of ultra-high net-worth clients who have $10 million or more to invest.

Most firms that deal with high net-worth individuals employ the services of a team of professionals, whether in-house or third parties, to work with clients to build financial plans and to manage all varieties of financial holdings, including stock options, company pensions, property holdings, family trusts and insurance.

But before a financial plan can even be drawn up, it’s critical when working with high net-worth clients to establish the basis of a strong, long-term working relationship, advisors say.

“It’s about absorbing and understanding the needs of the individual first,” says Michael Ricafort, who is director of marketing and planning at Toronto-based GMP Private Client LP, which has 36 investment advisory teams managing $4.6 billion in assets.

Andrew Auerbach, senior vice president and chief operating officer of BMO Harris Private Banking in Toronto, agrees. “While it’s important that you have a strong lineup of services and products, what’s far more important is your ability to listen, to listen and to listen to your clients,” he says. “To be curious, to ask questions that go beyond the portfolio, to build a relationship in which, over time, you’ll be able to add tremendous value.”

All advisors in the high net-worth space say that working with such clients requires patience and a long-term perspective. “For example, some estate or business succession plans might take three or four years to build,” Nucaro says. “The implementation of these things takes a bit of time.”

Before choosing an advisor, high net-worth clients, who often made their wealth as savvy business people, conduct their due diligence and take the time to research and get to know the financial advisor. Likewise, the financial advisor must learn as much as he or she can about the client, what family concerns the client might have and, of course, every aspect of his or her financial affairs.

“I’m constantly there for my clients in different capacities,” explains Nucaro. She often works with more than one generation of a family of clients. If, say, a client’s child has a health issue or is getting married, she will anticipate how that might affect the client’s overall financial plan and can make a recommendation on whether or not to make changes.

“I’m offering my clients, really, a very customized service,” says Nucaro, who adds that a big part of her job is working with the other professionals in the wealthy client’s life, such as his or her lawyer, accountant and other specialists.

High net-worth clients are also looking for experience and expertise; they want to know they’re going to get top-quality advice, service and access to products. And they’re looking for stability.

“Many of our high net-worth clients did not inherit their wealth, they earned it,” says Eric Laflamme, president and CEO of Montreal-based National Bank Trust. “As entrepreneurs, they had businesses, they took risks.

“But now they’re not willing to jeopardize financial independence or wealth at this time in their lives,” he adds. “They are more concerned with things such as philanthropy or making sure their estate is handled in an orderly manner.”

Laflamme says that National Bank Trust, which employs 60 advisors to work with approximately 1,200 to 1,800 clients who have $1 million or more in assets, hires only those who are willing to make a long-term commitment to serving the clients.

@page_break@“They’re there to serve affluent customers; it’s a career,” Laflamme says. “Turnover is very damaging. So, it’s all about selecting the proper people. When we open a client account and build a relationship, we might have some very sensitive information about the customer. Clients don’t want to go over those details every few years with someone new.”

It’s also important that clients are able to relate to their advisor, and vice versa, he says. “We look for experienced people,” Laflamme says. “That’s why you very seldom see young advisors working with wealthy clients — because they need to know some things about life, such as family concerns.

“And you need to be comfortable with people who have a lot of money,” he adds, “to understand how they think.”

BMO Harris’s Auerbach agrees: “The ability to connect with your clients is absolutely a skill. It takes significant experience.”

One of the most important aspects of dealing with high net-worth clients is discretion, advisors say.

“Absolute confidentiality is essential,” Nucaro says. “I’ve had clients who are in the same social circle or are even related, and neither knew [the other worked with me] because I’ll never reveal that. If they find out, it’ll be on their own, not from me.”

A key to discretion is knowing how a client thinks and what he or she values. Laflamme says that there are some wealthy clients who aren’t as concerned with anonymity and will happily attend a seminar or a speech presented especially for high net-worth clients.

“Of course, we let them know before inviting them who’ll also be in the crowd,” he says. “But those clients are the ones who are usually comfortable meeting other wealthy clients.”

Other high net-worth clients, however, put a high value on total privacy, Laflamme says: “Some of them we don’t invite to seminars, because we know them. We know they don’t want to be seen with others and reveal they are very wealthy.

“So, maybe we meet them in the dining room of the bank [for meetings],” he adds, “and use a door where they won’t be noticed coming and going.”

Laflamme says that being adaptable and properly reading a client’s personality is key to building a long-term relationship with high net-worth clients. That will stand the advisor in good stead during choppy times in the market, when they inevitably arise.

“If we have a bad quarter or two, or a year, they’ll respect the overall plan and they won’t leave,” he says. “They know, over the long term, you’re committed to preserving their assets.” IE