In a 2018 report, UBS outlined how a purpose-driven approach to wealth management could be achieved through the 3 L’s: Liquidity, Longevity, and Legacy. At its core, the 3L strategy is a blueprint for families who want to understand how they can better allocate all of their assets and liabilities to meet their objectives. But how might we turn these financial terms into something more visionary, so that the next-generation feel inspired to take charge of this future?
The answer could well be in framing through a paradigm of growth and legacy, borrowing metaphors from nature. We call this approach PPO – or planting pine nuts, pine trees, and oak trees. Pine nuts are the nutritional stock (savings) for immediate and near-term needs. Pine trees, are what you plant (invest) with the expectation of producing a revenue stream during your lifetime. Finally, the oak tree, what you plant (invest) for posterity, for the benefit of your children, grandchildren, further generations to come, and society at large.
Attuned with the family’s balance sheet and life goals, the pine nuts, pine trees, and oak trees approach – PPO for short – flips the typical financial decision-making journey. It is often the case that the mix of asset classes and investment products becomes the inescapable and obvious consequence of the family choices about lifestyle, tranquility, and legacy in different brackets of the future. This may be counterintuitive and unconventional, but proves right time and again.
