Being an asset owner is a sweet and sour experience. It’s hard to trust, yet you have to find people to rely on. You can enjoy the luxury and privileges, but setbacks would cost you great losses and headaches. That’s why some have chosen to manage their own assets and have chosen to struggle in understanding the ins-and-outs of asset management.
If you’re one of these people, here are 5 important things to know about managing your assets:
1. Never be afraid to consult for professional advice
You can never go wrong in consulting with a professional financial advisor or an asset management firm. If you own multiple assets, it would be advisable to consult specialists to handle them. For example, you can turn to Caple Royalty for your land, oil and mineral assets. The same goes for your trademarks and copyrights, and so on. Do your research in finding a reliable and experienced asset manager. You can ask your network for their recommendations and suggestions too.
Be sure to have background knowledge on what you’re trying to consult them with. It’s better that you understand what you have, what you want and what you’re going to do with it. The help and advice you get from professionals are your stepping stones, and it’s up to you to take it or not.
2. Identify and familiarize your owned assets
As an asset owner, you should keep count of how much and how many assets you have. It is important to identify which assets are under your name and which assets are within your rights. You may want to have an inventory for it so you can keep track of everything from a high-level point of view.
Your assets may be scattered everywhere, which poses trouble in the future. In your inventory, make sure to indicate the total count of your assets, where they are, how much their value is and when it was acquired. You can seek help from an accountant to create an inventory for you, or you can avail different accounting softwares and tools where you can customize your own sheets.
3. Research and understand your assets
In line with having an inventory, you can proceed in making summary reports for all of the transactions done according to your chosen periodicals. You can analyze the reports and see if the values are growing or depreciating. Ensure that you have accurate numbers to avoid discrepancies, mainly to avoid paying more taxes for those assets that could not undergo depreciation.
For legal matters, it is highly advisable to have a one-call business lawyer to consult and ask about the permits, licenses, and anything related that is necessary for your asset. Most likely, these assets come with taxes, rights, claims, contracts, etc. As the owner, it is your responsibility to take care of these and ensure that you don’t overlook any legal issues. You might end up with tax penalties for “missing” assets that were entitled under your name.
Suppose you’re into investments, stock trading and alike. In that case, it is highly advisable to consistently study and follow through the flow, progress and movement of the stock market-the industry in general. This is to help you predict or anticipate the effects of trends on your business.
4. Set plans and goals
You have to have a firm financial goal for your assets, most especially if you have real estate, business and other high-value assets. You can choose to sell, lease or rent out your real estate properties if you want to let them grow and have increasing profits over time. If you think you have assets that are better off if you sell them, then you might want to add it into your trust funds for emergency purposes.
Think about long-term and short-term goals. These two are interrelated with each other and can be tricky too. An example of long-term goals would be investing in digital and social media marketing for your business since it is the trend to adapt to the “new normal” policy worldwide. In order to achieve this long-term goal, setting up a website and creating social media pages would be your first step, hence your short term goal.
Other long term goals can be adding another stream of passive income or establishing a new business idea to gain more profits. Have multiple options in hand but be sure to keep track of your priorities. This can be hard to determine alone, so don’t be afraid to ask for advice to other asset owners like you.
Investing in stocks and trading are effective methods to grow your money and earn a passive income. You may want to trade in your tangible assets into financial assets to do so. However, the stock market possesses large gains and equally painful losses. It is vital to have an in-depth understanding of the methods and secrets of the stock market.
Make sure that you don’t skip on your will statement. You must have a fair liquidation and partition of your assets if you want it to pass on to your offsprings. You have to consider if your chosen heir is capable of managing his/her inheritance. Sometimes your heir could be a trusted friend rather than a relative. There would be possible conflicts, so make sure you discuss this with your lawyer.
5. Be aware and prepared of risks
In asset management, you have to be prepared for risks always. That’s why insurance and protection are needed for them. It might cost you quite a lot but look at it on a long-term basis so you can appreciate it. Take your time and carefully choose your insurance provider to avoid setbacks. There might be a time when discrepancies will happen. It would not hurt to have an investigating team composed of lawyers and private investigators to help you assess the issue. Secure your data, documents and inventory with a physical safe or a digital software. Might as well have an IT setup an anti-hacking system just to double the security. Lastly, be careful who you trust.
It can be hard at first, but you can see for yourself if you can handle them independently. Nevertheless, if you find it too hard, professionals are there to help you out.
