The 17th-century writer John Donne famously penned, “No man is an island.” That sentiment is all too true when it comes to handling the needs of your wealthiest clients. As CPA Insider™ readers know well, advisors need the support of others to build strong wealth management practices and achieve the level of success they deserve.

True wealth managers go beyond simply recommending investments. They identify the full spectrum of the financial challenges that affluent clients face. Wealth managers then determine the best strategies for solving those challenges and provide solutions in an integrated manner. In an earlier column, I summed up this approach using this formula:

Wealth management = investment consulting + advanced planning + relationship management (or WM = IC + AP + RM)

Investment consulting is the foundation of a wealth management offering. Advanced planning focuses on areas such as wealth enhancement, wealth transfer, asset protection and charitable giving. Relationship management deals with fully understanding and meeting clients’ critical needs over time and assembling and overseeing a network of financial experts to help you meet those needs.

That final part of the equation is especially important. You simply can't expect to become an expert in the entire range of advanced planning needs and solutions. Even if you're the smartest advisor in the world, you don't have the time to address all of those areas yourself. Instead, you need to build a network of experts — professionals with deep knowledge across the range of these specialties. Here's what that network should look like.

Three Core Experts

As a savvy CPA, your professional network should be composed of three core team members: you as wealth manager, a private client lawyer and an insurance specialist.

Wealth manager. The wealth manager is the general manager — the person in charge of defining clients' goals and key challenges. As wealth manager, you will know enough to be able to recognize when there may be an opportunity, but you will always rely on your professional network to identify those opportunities. Being a technical expert will never be your primary role. Your expertise must be in client profiling, instead.

Private client lawyer. The private client lawyer will be the most important member of your network. He or she will be responsible for addressing tax, estate planning and legal needs — all critical areas of concern for solving the challenges of wealthy clients. You should expect a private client attorney to provide a broad range of services. The biggest is planning services, which include estate planning, asset protection, income taxes, succession planning, business planning for entrepreneurs and philanthropy. Other key areas include administrative services, opinion letters and related services, probate services and guardianship and conservatorship services. Typically, these attorneys are partners at high-end boutique law firms, not the trusts and estates lawyers found at private banks or insurance companies.

Insurance specialist. The insurance specialist will work closely with the private client lawyer to identify and structure solutions that incorporate the entire range of insurance products. When it comes to this type of professional, you want a true independent — not someone who receives any kind of incentive from a company.

Additional Expertise

There are a number of additional experts beyond the three core specialists whom you may need to work with occasionally (or perhaps just once). These experts, therefore, do not need to be a permanent part of your network. Instead, you can locate the right ones and tap their abilities when you need them.

Let's say, for example, that you need a credit expert to read and translate loan documents. Often you can find credit experts nearby — for example, at a community-oriented bank or mortgage lender. You may also need a corporate tax attorney from time to time to assist clients with a net worth of $100 million or more.

Other professionals you may need to tap on a one-off basis include a derivatives specialist, who deals with concentrated stock positions; a securities lawyer, who supports the work of the derivatives specialist; an actuary, who is often needed when dealing with certain life insurance issues; an income tax specialist; and a valuation specialist, who may be required to appraise business interests, real estate or collectibles.

Keep in mind that this list is only a suggestion. The requirements of your particular clients will largely determine which experts you need to work with to address specific challenges. Interestingly, one specialist you may not need is an accountant. With a private client lawyer already part of your network, an accountant may add little or no additional tax expertise. You will, however, need to involve various clients' accountants as necessary. Part of your client profiling process should determine how a client wants an existing accountant to be involved in your wealth management planning process.

You also don't need to have close relationships with every one of these experts. Instead, you should be able to rely on your core team members to bring in their own experts as needed. While you will likely have direct relationships with some specialists, especially as you grow as a wealth manager, these relationships should be secondary to your ties to the private client lawyer and insurance specialist.

Important Qualities

It's imperative that you carefully build your network of experts by choosing to work only with those specialists who possess four important qualities:

Expertise. You absolutely must have access to the best expertise available. Important prospects don't come along every day, and only by having top experts at hand do you maximize your chance of getting their business. So don't choose to work with a particular lawyer, for example, simply because you think you might get clients in exchange down the road. You don't need a second-rate attorney who will give you plenty of referrals, because you won't be getting what you really need: the ability to generate the best solutions to your clients' financial challenges.

The ability to cooperate as a team. Every expert must respect the network model you build and must recognize and accept that you — as wealth manager — have the primary relationship with the clients. In a successful professional network, experts never undermine the wealth manager — nor one another, for that matter — in front of a client. You should be present at all meetings with the client (except those that deal with issues of attorney-client privilege). And no member of the network should contact the client without your knowledge and permission.

Members of the network must also be able to support one another's efforts in an integrated manner. For example, the lawyer and insurance specialist must be able to work closely together because insurance products will often support the lawyer's planning strategies. Finally, experts must be willing to walk away from a product or service when it's not in the client's best interest.

The ability to work well with your clients. You must be able to put the members of your network in front of your clients and not worry about the possibility of being embarrassed. This means you need people who, even after doing a great deal of work to prepare a potential solution, will graciously accept a client's decision not to use that solution.

A noncompetitive outlook. It's simple: Members of your network cannot compete with you. So your insurance specialist, for example, should not manage money in any manner. To do so would sabotage the network model you have built.

Clearly, building a network of specialists who meet all the required criteria can be one of the most challenging aspects of creating a wealth management firm. But the fact remains that you can't be successful without such a network. And when you consider the greater level of success that wealth mangers enjoy versus their peers, you've got to admit that it is time and effort well spent.

John J. Bowen, Jr. is the Founder and CEO of CEG Worldwide, LLC, a leading research, publishing and consulting firm serving independent financial advisors, CPAs, insurance representatives and registered investment advisors. Download the latest research from CEG Worldwide or learn more about our coaching programs for financial advisors.