An approach to wealth management that takes into consideration both financial and nonfinancial areas of the client’s life and circumstances.
Much like the term “client-centered services,” holistic services implies that a wealth advisory firm’s offerings cover a broad range of services that account for the client’s goals, aspirations, needs, and values, beyond just considering their net worth and other basic financial considerations. The term grows out of the life planning and holistic financial planning approaches where “top-down planning” takes into account the client’s full range of needs and goals, in contrast to the “bottom-up” approach of determining assets, liabilities, risks, and financial goals.
However, similar to the claim of having client-centered or comprehensive services, holistic services is a well-intentioned term that has no clear standards or guidelines that prove whether a firm truly determines or utilizes a comprehensive approach to working with the client. It may convey a sense of including a client’s personal values, goals, and needs in the discovery process and implementation of services, but it does not guarantee that a firm will be delivering truly integrated services across multiple domains.
