Your Personal Brain Trust

Considerations…

for building a personal advisor team

BRAIN TRUST

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Why Consider Forming a Personal

Advisor Team?

When life events occur, many aspects of your well being may begin to

shift. Just one major change can have a ripple effect into several key areas

of your life.

As you begin to manage change and the resulting transitions, it’s

likely that you’ll find the need for professional advice from a number of

experts.

We have found from experience that you will be best served if your

advisors and experts communicate with each other and coordinate their

recommendations. We invite you to use this discovery process to determine

how a personal advisor team might elevate your financial transition

experience and help you support the life you want to live.

Best wishes,

Susan Bradley

CFP®, CFT™

Founder of the Sudden Money® Institute

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What Has Changed?

Personal Finances

Comments:

Home

Investments

Expenses

Retirement

Accounts

Insurance

Comments:

Health

Home

Professional E&O

Long-term care

Auto

Other

Disability income

Life

Home

Comments:

New home

Property tax

Change of ownership

Remodeling

Financing insurance

Decorating

Taxes

Comments:

Filing status Quarterly payments Deductions

Relationship & Family

Comments:

Spouse/Partner

Siblings

Neighbors

Parents

Friends

Other

Children

Colleagues

Legal

Comments:

Beneficiaries

Trust transfers

Real Estate contracts

Guardianship

Will or trust

Change in ownership

Company benefits

Trustees

Titles and deeds

Estate settlement

Giving & Sharing

Comments:

Tithing

Trust

Gifts

Sharing with family

members

Foundation

Self-Discovery

Comments:

Focus

Energy

Confidence

Outlook

Attitude

Health

Comments:

Your health

Personal time

Family health

Stress level

Close friend’s health

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Desired Outcomes What are the benefits you would expect from your Brain Trust advisor team? What problems are more manageable with an advisor team that might otherwise remain unresolved?

Rate from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most positive

Your willingness to commit additional time to forming your advisor team.

1 2 3 4 5

Your willingness to commit additional time to managing your team

once it is formed and running smoothly.

1 2 3 4 5

Your acceptance of additional overall wealth management costs.

1 2 3 4 5

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Who Should Be on Your Team? List who should be on the team, either by name or by category of expertise.

Permanent Team Members

Single Project Team Members

As-Needed Team Members

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What Type of Team is Right for You?

You prefer to find and hire the individual experts you need and you don't feel the need to have an advisor team. You meet with your experts on appropriate schedules and share information between them on an as-needed basis.

You delegate responsibility to a team leader to help

form and organize your team. You decide how much

responsibility you want to give your team leader,

who could:

Help you design your team and establish

the goals, expectations, agreements, and

overall structure of your team.

Help you find and hire the other team

members.

Manage the majority of the tasks and report

back to you.

You prefer to create and manage your own

team. You set the expectations and goals for

each member, and then either meet

individually, or organize the full team

meeting with agenda and follow-ups.

You might want to have a small advisor team

managed by someone you delegate and manage

several individual expert advisors on your own.

You

(YOU)

YOU

A A

A

A A

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Anatomy of a Good Brain Trust

Respect

Timeliness

Integrity

Professional excellence

Best in class

competencies for specific

expertise

Collaborative ready

Other

Other

Who communicates with

whom

Scheduled

communications

As needed communication

Meeting schedules

Meeting agenda

preparation

Meeting follow-up

Central collection of

documents

Written agreements

Agendas

Accountability protocols

Fee disclosures and

agreements

Other

Other

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The Inter-Professional Collaboration Challenge

The Collision Points

Client information sharing

Competencies

Disclosures

Existing relationships

Communication

Scheduling

Accountability

Consilience Points

Shared purpose

Client’s objectives, goals, and dreams

Test points and benchmarks for recommendations

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Review

Desired Outcome

Type of Brain Trust

Degree of Formalization

Action Plan

Immediate Actions

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You

A

Brain Trust Model DIY Worksheet

Advisors and Experts Needed

Referral Sources

Immediate need-to-know and need-to-do items

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Brain Trust Model Delegator Worksheet

Advisors and Experts Needed

Duties of Delegators

Immediate need-to-know and need-to-do items

(YOU)

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Brain Trust Model Director Worksheet

Advisors and Experts Needed

How information will be shared

Immediate need-to-know and need-to-do items

YOU

A A

A

A A

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Delegate(YOU)

A

AA

Brain Trust Model Hybrid Worksheet

Advisors and Experts Needed

Referral Sources

Immediate need-to-know and need-to-do items

You

Team Member

Team Member