Into the Lumiverse Episode 3: What Does Wealth Mean to You?
In this episode, Lumiant's Mark Akeroyd is joined by co-hosts Dennis Moseley-Williams and Tom Frisby from Serious Shift to discuss Charles Schwab's Modern Wealth Survey 2023. The trio focus on a clear signal from the report: our definition of "wealthy" has changed. No longer is it about the balance in our accounts. When describing wealth in their own words, more Americans referenced well-being over money and assets.
But as Tom rightly points out, we've all known this for quite some time. This serious shift isn't new — there have been plenty of studies pointing to the fact that people are seeking greater fulfillment in their lives, and even more saying how we're looking to invest in experiences over owning nice things.
So what can we do about it? Here are some key takeaways from the episode.
Define Wealth
Work with your clients to define what wealth means to them. Accumulation without context or purpose will not engage clients — it will leave them feeling empty. And if everything else has been commoditized — the planning, the investment management, and the things delivered around that — then a client's definition of wealth is really the next frontier for financial advice.
Dennis puts it this way:
“Imagine it's your children. One of them says, "I want to be rich." Your first reaction is "Oh good." And then you'd ask, "What does that mean?" Because you know the point isn't about money — it's about the relationships and experiences that matter. The relationship between mother and father. The bike rides. The six o'clock dinner. That's wealth. That's love. That's what matters.”
The question for everyone reading this is: if you know that's true, how are you helping your clients address the things that feel like they need attention? How are you helping them become healthy, wealthy, and wise?
Be an Advocate for Life, Not Just Retirement
Branch out from defining the end game — the magic retirement number — and start having a genuine dialogue with your clients about life.
As Tom puts it, a dialogue is an ongoing conversation to establish common meaning and understanding. It's a process, not an event, and it happens over time. As an advisor, you don't need to know all the answers. You just need to be able to guide clients on an ongoing basis — helping them discover what they already know and advocating for them to take action on it.
If you focus only on retirement and investments, that will become the entire point of the client relationship: what their investment number is and making it go up. But as the data shows, there are more races to be run than hitting a retirement figure. It's up to you to help clients define what those races are — not their neighbours', not their best friends', not what the media says they should be doing. Their races. On their timeline.
Mark puts it beautifully:
“If the only game is money going up, you wouldn't do all the things that are so beautiful in life. No one's wealth goes up when a partner takes time off to have a child. And if the only race is money going up, then you can't have a child — and you miss out on that experience. As an advisor, your job is to help create clarity around what the race looks like for the client.”
Two Questions to Get the Conversation Started
If you're looking to be an advocate for life, Tom offers two questions you can ask clients right now:
- Now that we have a financial plan in place to help you achieve your goals — what's next?
- You've come to see me today to strengthen your financial position, but could you tell me what it's all for?
Once you know the answers, you can start asking what you're going to do about it together — and build a framework to support clients in achieving their aspirational outcomes, not just the traditional goal-based outcomes the plan is looking after.
Want to hear more? Watch the full episode above. And if you have questions you ask clients to help them define wealth, share them in the comments below — let's help more people live their best lives.