The Rise of Holistic...

The Rise of Holistic Planning: What It Really Means to Serve the 'Whole Client'

In today’s evolving advisory landscape, “holistic planning” has become one of the most overused and least understood buzzwords in wealth management. Many firms claim to offer it. Few truly deliver it. However, as the profile of the high-net-worth client evolves, particularly with more business owners entering and exiting the market, holistic planning is no longer optional; it’s essential.

So, what does holistic planning actually mean?

At its core, holistic planning is about expanding the scope of advice from strictly financial to fully comprehensive, encompassing the personal aspects of life. It recognizes that wealth is never just about money, it’s tied to identity, family dynamics, business obligations, future aspirations, and legacy goals.

Serving the whole client means considering:

  • Their business as part of their net worth, not separate from it

  • Their personal goals, not just financial benchmarks

  • Their relationships, family, partners, successors, and how those influence decisions

  • Their mental and emotional state during major transitions, like a business sale or retirement

This shift requires advisors to move beyond investment management and become strategic partners in their clients’ lives.

Business Owners Demand a Broader Lens

Consider the business owner client. Their financial life is often deeply intertwined with their business, yet many wealth plans ignore the operating company entirely, treating it as a black box or “bonus asset” that will someday be sold.

This is a missed opportunity.

Valuation, growth planning, and timing of a potential exit all play a critical role in wealth creation and protection. When advisors fail to account for this, they’re often left scrambling when the business sells, or worse, when it doesn’t.

Holistic planning brings that business value into the conversation early and often. It helps answer questions like:

  • How does the business’s value and overall health impact investment, insurance, and tax strategies?

  • Is the business in a strong enough position to support your client’s retirement timeline?

  • Is your client overly reliant on the business to fund their future, and how risky is that if the business isn’t ready or stable?

  • Can the family or successors take over, or is a sale inevitable?

It’s Not About More Services. It’s About More Integration.

Holistic planning isn’t about tacking on additional checklists or offering more financial products. It’s about integration, pulling together threads that are often siloed across firms, advisors, or systems.

This could look like:

  • Collaborating with accountants and business advisors on succession planning

  • Using valuation tools to benchmark business performance alongside portfolios

  • Bringing the client’s spouse or children into wealth planning conversations earlier

  • Addressing emotional readiness and lifestyle impact in liquidity events

When done well, it transforms the client experience. Instead of feeling like they’re managing 5 different advisors for 5 different goals, they feel supported by a cohesive team who truly gets them.

More Than a Service…It’s a Mindset

Holistic planning isn’t a service you list on your website. It’s a mindset. It’s a commitment to meeting clients where they are, business, personal, and emotional, and helping them move forward with clarity and confidence.

And in a world where clients are craving relevance, empathy, and strategic value, that mindset might just be your greatest asset.

Tools like interVal help make that mindset actionable, by surfacing real-time insights into the business, enabling deeper conversations, and aligning planning with what matters most.

 

Author: Candice Besselaar