(As reported in WSJ.com on February 27, 2014) By Kevin Noblet:
“It’s all too common a situation: A client has beloved possessions that he or she thinks the children will treasure someday, too. But have they ever been asked if they really want the house, antique furniture or whatever it is dad or mom held so dear? No, they haven’t. California wealth manager Mark Van Mourick relates just such a case to Wealth Adviser at WSJ.com. The client had $250,000 in Asian art she and her late husband spent 50years collecting. She didn’t want it sold off after she died but, when asked at the adviser’s suggestion, the kids said they were likely to do just that. Mr. Van Mourick helped with an estate plan which took that reality into consideration.” READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

When selling a business, owners time their exits for many reasons: health, retirement planning, availability or lack of family successors, competition, technology change and many more. Yet overwhelmingly the question most often asked of financial advisors by entrepreneurial companies is “what’s my business worth?”
Pairing Elite Investment Research With Personalized “Family Office” Services For OC’s Wealthiest Families
Mark is smart and hardworking (eight years after graduating from USC he reached the rank of SVP at Smith Barney and was their leading retail stock broker in Orange County), but ultimately he lived life by his conscience – and he knew he wasn’t serving his clientele the way they needed to be served. Hard earned wealth, a family’s peace and comfort, the opportunity to impact the world through giving; these are no small things. Mark had worked into a position to manage critical life investments for many families, and he began to believe that they warranted more than a phone call every once in a while and a monthly check for more or less than average.