Member Article

Financial Planner draws on decades of experience to write book on family wealth

Financial Planner draws on decades of experience to write book on family wealth

Cascading Your Wealth looks at the emotional and psychological factors of intergenerational wealth

Entrepreneur and experienced Financial Planner turned author, Marlene Outrim, has published her second book, providing top tips and advice on how people can manage their money as well as navigate the complexities of passing wealth through the generations.

Cascading Your Wealth centres around six steps to creating a Family Wealth Plan, empowering readers to put their affairs in order and make the right choices now about how to pass on their money to loved ones without compromising their current lifestyle, or future ambitions.

While the book includes a comprehensive, practical guide, it also uniquely addresses the emotional and psychological factors that affect intergenerational wealth and explains how to put together a clear and detailed plan of action.

Without delving into the technical detail, Marlene, who has more than 30 years’ experience as a Financial Planner, outlines how inheritance tax, exemptions, trusts, allowances, and reliefs work.

However, as the founder of leading Cardiff Financial Planning firm UNIQ Family Wealth, Marlene has drawn on her decades of experience helping clients plan for their futures to touch on some of the wider, lesser talked about topics that can impact on future planning, including what to consider in relation to blended families, religion, and culture.

Commenting on her decision to write the book, Marlene said: “As you might expect I have always considered Financial Planning to be incredibly important. However, the last year or so has really shone a spotlight on the importance of a comprehensive plan of action that can be moulded or adapted as the world around us changes, and the impact that has on us, as people.

“Take for example the unprecedented rise in house prices, which means families are now sat on more potential wealth than they had previously anticipated. Meanwhile, divorce rates in older people are far higher than they were a decade or so ago, and so are marriage rates.

“This book isn’t about the technical aspect of managing your money, it’s about the journey that you should go on to ensure that you are in the best possible position to have a life well lived.

“Of course, most people want to leave a legacy for their loved ones. Cascading Your Wealth is really intended to empower readers to make informed decisions in the here and now so that they can better work towards that objective.

“In some cases that might be leaving a lump sum on their death; in other cases, helping with a house deposit, or to set up a new business might be the better approach.”

Throughout the book, Marlene encourages readers to create their own Family Wealth Plan, working to the theme of WEALTH.

She explains: “Clients regularly come to us for financial advice, with a good idea of how much wealth they have, and how much they want to leave to their children or loved ones. They often forget the middle part, which is what is needed to sustain their current or future lifestyle plans.”

By thinking WEALTH, readers are encouraged to: Work out what they have; Evaluate what they need; Analyse how best to manage the funds; Lay the foundations; Take action; (embrace) Habits for success.

Marlene adds: “There is very little technical detail or legalese in this book. There are plenty of guides out there already. This is about the emotional, psychological and practical approaches necessary for the sensitive, but very important, subject of intergenerational wealth.

“My hope is that readers will embrace the idea of a Family Wealth Plan, and that in turn they will be free to enjoy the rest of their life, and their money, in whatever way they choose, confident that their wealth will go to the right people or causes when the time is right.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Liv Cooper .