8 Tips for Navigating the Conversation: Outsourcing Bill Payment for HNW Parents

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Our Top 8 Tips for How to Talk to Your Parents About Outsourcing Their Bill Payment

When it comes to discussing financial matters with high-net-worth parents, the conversation can be more complex than with the average household. High-net-worth individuals often have multiple investments, assets, and financial complexities that require careful management. If you’re considering broaching the topic of outsourcing bill payment for your high-net-worth parents, it’s crucial to approach the conversation with sensitivity, respect, and a focus on their financial well-being.

  1. Understand Their Financial Landscape

Before initiating the conversation, take the time to thoroughly understand your parents’ financial situation. This includes their assets, investments, income sources, liabilities, and financial goals. High-net-worth individuals typically have diverse financial holdings, and it’s essential to grasp the big picture.

  1. Emphasize the Benefits

Highlight the advantages of outsourcing bill payment with an experienced and hands-on team like Plumb. Mention how it can optimize their financial management by ensuring that no payments are missed, preventing late fees, and streamlining record-keeping. Emphasize that not only can this free up their time for more strategic financial planning and investment decisions, but it will give them more time to enjoy their lives and do what they love – whether traveling, spending time with friends and family, or just relaxing.

  1. Address Their Concerns

Acknowledge that your parents may have concerns about relinquishing control over their financial affairs. Listen actively to their worries and address them one by one. Discuss how they can maintain oversight and retain decision-making authority while delegating routine tasks. At Plumb, we understand these concerns and hear them from prospective clients almost daily. In fact, we created our proprietary Bill Pay App specifically for our clients. Our app provides bill pay transparency and insights that we know our clients want. Read more about our app here.

  1. Present Professional Options

Research and present professional options for outsourcing bill payment, like Plumb. We have a proven outsourced bill pay solution, including a proprietary bill pay app, with high-touch customer support, and expert bill pay accountants who ensure bills are paid accurately and on time.

  1. Discuss Privacy and Security

Assure your parents that their privacy and financial security are paramount. Choose a service provider like Plumb with bank-level security and a strong track record of safeguarding sensitive financial information. Explain the robust security measures in place to protect their data – you can learn more about Plumb’s focus on confidentiality and security here.

  1. Transparency in Costs

Be transparent about the costs associated with outsourcing bill payment services or hiring financial advisors. At Plumb, we are very upfront with our fees and take the time needed to walk our clients through exactly what they can expect in return.

  1. Ensure a Comprehensive Approach

When discussing outsourcing, stress the importance of a comprehensive approach to financial management. Explain that the chosen service provider will work in tandem with your parents’ existing financial team, including accountants, attorneys, and investment advisors – just as we do here at Plumb.

  1. Offer Ongoing Support

After the decision is made, offer ongoing support to ensure a smooth transition, but work with a bill pay service provider who will make this an easy and pain-free change. You’ll also want to find a firm like Plumb who offers high-touch, full-access client support.

Broaching the subject of outsourcing bill payment for high-net-worth parents is a delicate but necessary conversation that can enhance their financial well-being and peace of mind. By approaching this topic with empathy, knowledge, and a focus on their specific needs, you can help your parents make informed decisions that optimize their financial management while respecting their autonomy and preferences. Ultimately, this can contribute to their financial security and their overall happiness.

Plumb delivers financial peace of mind by assisting high-net-worth individuals and family offices know where their money is going, so their trusted advisors can effectively manage it. We work in partnership with their team — including wealth, CPA, and other advisors — to provide the highest quality of data and financial reporting to establish a holistic view of their assets and financial holdings. We’d love to help answer any questions you may have. Feel free to schedule time to speak with Anneke Stender, our EVP, at your convenience.

Family Office Services | FAQ | Plumb Family Office Accounting

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Family Office Services from Plumb Family Office Accounting

Frequently Asked Questions…

The family office services of Plumb Family Office Accounting were developed to help clients navigate through their complex financial life.  By providing personal financial management with consolidated reports and timely bill pay, it gives a clear picture of our client’s wealth and the analysis needed to implement financial, estate and tax planning strategies.

Q:  Is there a minimum net-worth to become a Plumb Family Office Accounting client?

Answer: No. We believe that comprehensive, timely and accurate information gives our clients true control of their wealth, regardless of net-worth.  By getting into the habit of tracking income and expenses, it helps our clients in their wealth creation stage by following a financial plan to accumulate long-term savings and retirement goals.

A typical Plumb client has a net-worth ranging from $10 million to $150 million and sees the value in our service if they have a complex financial life, complete with multifaceted undertakings, such as alternative investments, corporate entities, private equity, international exposure, and collective properties.

Success Stories: Plumb Family Office Accounting Clients

Q:  What is the difference between Plumb Family Office Accounting and a single-family office?

Answer: Plumb Family Office Accounting creates a virtual family office by providing family office services to include personal accounting, bookkeeping and reporting with controller-level insight on a part-time basis or as-needed.

Single-family offices are typically set-up with full-time accounting staff, including a CFO, staff accountants, CPA and a team of attorneys.

By having a virtual or remote family office with Plumb, clients receive the financial data and organizational structure they need without having to hire a full team of advisors on their payroll.  Plumb Family Office Accounting works in conjunction with the trusted advisors of each client and provides financial data to the team to make better estate, tax and financial planning decisions.

Read: Top Ways that Plumb Family Office Accounting works with Trusted Advisors

 

Q:  Does Plumb Family Office Accounting manage their client’s wealth or recommend financial strategies?

Answer:  No. We do not advise or manage wealth, do taxes, or financial planning. We prepare comprehensive reports for clients and their advisors to see a holistic view of assets, including the performance of all investments, statement of cash flow, and net-worth statement.

View samples of personal financial reports created by Plumb

Q: What is the pricing structure of family office services by Plumb Family Office Accounting?

Answer: The price varies depending on the complexity of the family’s wealth and reporting needs.  For most clients, we charge a fixed-fee engagement on transaction-based pricing. In order to come up with a pricing structure, we calculate how many bills to be paid, accounts reconciled and the frequency of their reporting needs (monthly, quarterly or annually).

Typically, our clients pay between $2,000 and $4,000 per month for family office services with the minimum engagement being $1,000 per month.  Every client undergoes an annual fee review to see if there have been any changes in the scope of work throughout the year.

Family Bill Pay – Request a Quote

Download: New Client Questionnaire

Q:  Do you provide any other family office services besides personal reporting, accounting and bill pay?

Answer:  Since the majority of our clients lead busy lives, we’ve added outsourced concierge and personal assistant services.  These are customizable based on the family’s need and can range from property management services to booking travel and restaurant reservations, household employee payroll and basic mail pick-up and distribution.  Another example of outsourced concierge is relocation assistance, a project-based engagement in order to help manage and organize a personal move.

See list of outsourced personal assistant services

Q:  Does a client need to be located in Southern California to work with Plumb?

Answer: No, all the financial reporting and bill pay engagements are handled electronically with cloud-based assistance.  Plumb Family Office Accounting uses technology to facilitate bill pay and A/P work flow with a client login system to access reports and status updates.

We offer complete account protection and robust security measures to protect your information from unauthorized access. All confidential information is stored in a data center with multiple levels of security and can only be accessed by Plumb and you or your designated representative. All sensitive information is encrypted and uploaded to your private portal. Two-factor authentication to login to portal further safeguards your accounts and information

Plumb has staff located on both the west coast and east coast time zones to accommodate nationwide and international clients.

Q:  Who is handling the relationship with Plumb Family Office Accounting clients?

Answer:  Plumb takes a team approach for each engagement.  Every client has a main point of contact, a Client Relationship Manager, who oversees a team of junior and senior staff accountants.  The team approach is more cost-effective for the client, as each transaction is mapped in our task management software, and is broken down on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

There is a centralized client communication portal set up via email, so the team has access to client-specific information and requests.  This ensures dependability and consistency if an accountant is out of the office, needs approval or controller-level insight.

Q:  How can I be assured that my financial information is kept confidential and secure?

Answer: Plumb has been in business since 1996 and has a long history of continuity and confidentiality. We are fully bonded and all employees have to pass a background check before they are hired. With every engagement and task, it is handled with the utmost discretion and attention to detail.

We respect the privacy of our Plumb Family Office Accounting clients and take great measures to protect it.  We ensure compliance with best practices and internal control procedures, different levels of approval and password protection.  Our solid system of checks and balances gives our clients reassurance in the integrity and security of their private information and financial data.

Q:  I have a special project that requires assistance on a one-time basis.  Can Plumb Family Office Accounting help?

Answer:  Yes, we can accommodate short-term engagements and project work.  For example, Plumb Family Office Accounting works with divorce attorneys and their clients who are going through a divorce settlement and need help analyzing and tracking expenses to finalize child and alimony support.

Case Study: Divorce Client

Q:  How is the family bill pay set-up?

Answer: We have created a 4-step bill pay process with segregation of duties and different levels of approval.

  1. Client Associate pays bills
  2. Vice President reviews and signs checks
  3. Client Associate reconciles bank account
  4. Client Relationship Manager reviews bank statements

The family bill pay process is first established with the creation of a financial calendar of due dates and vendor information sheet.

View: Family Bill Pay Services: Organize your Financial Life.

Success Stories – Family Bill Pay 

How can you help with organizing for year-end and tax planning purposes?

Answer: We assist our clients to compile the annual tax organizer for their CPA.  Creating this comprehensive, audit-proof package allows to maximize standard deductions, as well as, allows for the CPA to be more cost effective.

Additionally, we provide the CPA with quarterly reports to adjust estimated tax payments as needed to avoid annual penalties and interest charges with the IRS or Franchise Tax Board.

Learn More: Plumb Family Office Accounting Annual Tax Organizer

Are you ready to simplify your financial life and take true control of your wealth?   



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Plumb Bill Pay Implements a Check Fraud Solution with Cheque-Guard

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The Cheque Guard Suite of Products is the Industry-Leading Answer to Combating Check Fraud.

Plumb Bill Pay, a premier back-office accounting, financial reporting and bill pay firm for family offices and the high-net-worth, is pleased to announce a partnership with Cheque Guard and their check fraud detection tools and software. The combination of Plumb Bill Pay’s secure cloud infrastructure with state-of-the-art Barracuda Spam Firewall and Cheque Guard’s top-rated check printing security creates a robust defense to protecting client’s financial data.

“As a preferred outsourced bill pay vendor for many top multi-family offices, financial institutions and high-net-worth families, our security concerns around check fraud are a high priority,’ said Anneke Stender, Executive Vice President of Plumb Bill Pay. “After evaluating numerous solutions, we are confident that Cheque Guard is the leader in the industry with their innovative suite of products,” she said.

The Cheque Guard system replaces the need for Plumb Bill Pay to purchase individual checks from financial institutions for clients. Instead, specific account information is imported onto blank checks made with an image-survivable seal that encrypts the data into a barcode. The product is ChequeSeal, a next generation of Positive Pay that requires no issue file or transmission. The ChequeSeal is decrypted and verified at the bank to ensure authenticity of the check.

“Check fraud is the biggest form of payment fraud in the world, and we fully understand the magnitude of the issue,” said Emil Ramzy, President of Cheque Guard. “There is great synergy with the Plumb Bill Pay team and we are happy to partner with them and provide peace of mind that their check writing solutions are safe and secure,” he said.

Plumb Bill Pay offers a range of services, including bill payment, recordkeeping, income and expense tracking, cash flow reporting, vendor management and mail services. These solutions are customizable for every client depending on the need and complexity of their personal financial life.

“Security is at the forefront of Plumb Bill Pay, and we take a proactive approach to ensuring that customer data is not compromised,” said Robert Scherer, President of Plumb. “Cheque Guard gives us the extra layer of protection against the potential vulnerabilities of check fraud,” he said.

Plumb Bill Pay uses a proprietary task management system to facilitate and track bill pay management.  It is hosted on a cloud infrastructure with bank-level security measures and VPN connection. Bills are paid on time, monitored for accuracy and reconciled by a dedicated team. This includes accounting experts who specialize in serving the needs of the high-net-worth.

About Plumb Bill Pay:

For over two decades, Plumb has been helping high-net-worth families, their businesses, and family offices achieve greater levels of personal freedom by handling their personal reporting and bill pay needs.

Plumb Bill Pay works with clients nationwide with office locations in Southern California: 1227 Prospect Street, Suite 200, La Jolla, CA 92037 and New York City: 747 Third Avenue, Suite 200, New York, NY 10017  

About Cheque-Guard:

Founded in 1991, Cheque Guard Inc. provides small to medium-size businesses and financial institutions with check fraud solutions, including ChequeSeal™ and ChequeSuite™. These software products allow businesses to integrate and deploy secure, controlled check printing and electronic payments for the Automated Clearing House (ACH), while creating a Positive Pay file for the bank as the checks are printed by the customer.

How to help eliminate check fraud with the protection of Cheque-Guard

This is the next generation of Positive Pay that requires no issue file and no file transmission.  The secure seal by ChequeSeal encrypts the check data into the barcode. When the check enters the banking system, an instant verification goes into action. Before it is paid, ChequeSeal references the encrypted information for comparison and determines the check’s authenticity.  For more information, click here.

 

Are you ready to gain financial peace of mind knowing that your bills are being paid on time, reviewed for accuracy and detected from check fraud?



5 Bill Pay & Accounting Tips for Family Offices

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Anneke Stender, Executive Vice President of Plumb and the Founder of the Family Office Accounting and Bill Pay Division of Plumb, discusses bill pay and bookkeeping solutions for family offices.

An overview of Anneke’s background and Plumb Bill Pay

Plumb was founded in 1996 as an outsourced accounting firm for small to medium-sized businesses.

As we developed close and trusted relationships with these privately held businesses, we realized how unorganized some of the business owners were in keeping track of their personal finances. Due to our expertise in accounting and financial reporting, we recognized that we could serve the owners and their families as their outsourced accounting department.

Our family accounting and bill pay services were developed by accounting professionals who have a deep understanding of the unique needs of high-net-worth individuals and family offices. The idea is that we serve as an extension to our client’s family office teams, providing accurate data to all of their advisors so they can make better tax, estate and financial planning decisions.

“By providing high-touch accounting services and technology solutions through our Plumb BillPay app, we act as financial stewards for our Family Office clients in their day to day financial lives. We make sure that their bills are paid on time and their accounting practices are in order, so that our clients can devote more energy to enjoying life and have peace of mind.” – Anneke Stender

1. What are the different ways in which families and family offices pay their bills & handle their finances?

There are three different ways that bills are currently processed within families and family offices:

  1. Dedicated staff such as personal assistants, CFO/Controller or an in house bookkeeper.
  2. CPA firm provides bill pay services in conjunction with their existing accounting services department.
  3. Third-party bill pay provider that specializes in bill pay services, cash management, as well as reporting for families and family offices. These firms typically work in conjunction with the various family office advisors such as their financial planners, CPAs and estate planning attorneys to provide reliable and accurate reporting.

2. What are the 3 advantages to outsourcing Family Office Bill Pay?

It boils down to three advantages to outsourcing the bill pay function within a family office setting:

  1. Families can take advantage of the segregation of duties, including the checks and balances around their bill pay function. What we see here is that most families have one dedicated person handling all steps in the bill pay process. The biggest pain-point third party providers solve here is to alleviate the lack of checks and balances in this process by having a second or even third set of eyes review the transaction before it is released.
  2. Outsourced service firms take advantage of the latest technology in their space which helps to automate the process. Frequently, this leads to increased efficiencies and transparencies in the bill pay and approval process for families. For Plumb, this includes a proprietary bill pay technology solution that we have developed in house. Our bill pay workflow process software is an efficient, secure and easy way for our clients to get the right approvals prior to issuing a check or electronic transfer without having to comb through various email communication.
  3. Service firms like Plumb take a white glove or high-touch service approach when working with high-net-worth families and their family offices. This leads to quick turnaround times and the ability to handle last-minute requests, like urgent wires or ACH transfer which can be a big stress relief for families and their advisors. We call this service stance stewardship.

Ultimately, what third-party service providers do for bill pay is to optimize control over the process, bring more scalability, redundancy, precision, and expert oversight into the bill pay and financial organization of families and family offices. As a result this really creates more financial clarity and peace of mind for their clients.

3. What are best practices to optimize Bill Pay for policies, controls and security?

  • The confirmation of wire instructions: Confirm instructions verbally and record these verbal confirmations. If wire instructions have changed, we verbally confirm revised instructions.
  • Centralization of bills: We set up a post office box and a dedicated email address for each client for all incoming invoices which streamlines communication and minimizes loss of bills. A billing tracker is then created to schedule out payments.
  • Billing tracker: allows us to proactively reach out if no invoice is received.
  • Segregation of duties: An effective workflow for bill pay should look like this:
    1. Individual receives and enters the vendor invoices.
    2. Second individual will review the transactions to ensure the appropriate
    approvals have been completed.
    3. Third individual will have the authority to sign off on the transaction.
  • Workflow approval application software: Applications provide you with the ability to set approval limits by vendor, dollar amount or entity, as well as integrate with the underlying accounting system to avoid double data entry.

4. How is Plumb Bill Pay integrated with capital calls?

Capital calls and alternatives are an administrative burden for most of our clients.

The Plumb team takes care of the following financial administration tasks:

  1. When a new investment is made, the bill pay system can book the overall commitment, and schedule capital calls.
  2. Team monitors and tracks the remaining commitment.
  3. Verbal confirmation of wire instructions.
  4. Categorization and reconciliation of capital calls and distributions.
  5. Monthly report to the family and its advisors to better manage any upcoming cash and tax planning needs.
  6. Collecting all of the year end K1 statements for the CPA to incorporate with their tax compliance work.

5. How does Plumb Bill Pay allow families to have more clarity over their wealth?

Financial clarity is achieved through integration with existing advisors. Integration with other service providers happens on the reporting side. We link into the various banking and investment portals to obtain the data and categorize them in the underlying accounting system.

Our recommendation around reporting is that:

  • Monthly cashflows should be provided to the family, as well as the financial advisors so they can appropriately plan for future cash reserve needs.
  • Quarterly consolidated financial report is generated which contains a balance sheet, profit and loss, as well as entity financials. The goal here is to provide accurate and reliable data so that other service providers around the family can be more effective from a financial, tax and estate planning perspective. This allows our clients a much clearer and more accurate financial picture.

“Again, the most important take away here is that high net worth families and family offices are looking for ways to simplify their bill pay and bookkeeping needs and doing this in a secure and transparent fashion. They are looking for experts that specialize in their respective area and work well with their existing family advisors. The integration with a third party service provider that is fully integrated with a family office group and their financial advisors can really streamline this process.” – Anneke Stender

Interested in learning more about our services? Contact Anneke today:

Ultra-High-Net-Worth Investor Gains Clarity with Plumb Family CFO Services

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Providing an Entrepreneur with Up-to-Date & Consolidated Financial Data for a Clear Picture of Wealth

Case Study: Ultra-High-Net-Worth Investor & Business Owner

Client:

Ultra-high-net-worth entrepreneur with multiple business investments, rental properties and luxury yacht.

Net-Worth:

$150 Million +

Background:

An entrepreneur who recently sold one of his businesses needed help with his personal accounting, tracking of income, cash flow reporting and bill pay. As he started to invest in additional businesses, he was also looking for an accounting team who could provide him with accurate GAAP compliant financial statements for his new investments.

A snapshot of his financial life included multiple operating businesses, existing holdings, and real estate assets.

Referencing an article in the New York Times, “Inside the Minds of the Ultrawealthy” by Eilene Zimmerman, she asked psychologist Brad Klontz about what it’s like to work with billionaires.

What can the rest of us learn from how the ultra-high-net-worth work through their problems?

The ultra-high-net-worth are not afraid to ask for help. They are more likely to have an internal locus of control, where they are quick to take credit for their successes and admit their failures, at least to themselves. In managing their very complex lives, they have had to rely on a variety of experts to help them along the way. When they run into problems, they are less hesitant than most of us to seek help from someone who is an expert.

Solution & Deliverables:

Plumb Family CFO delivers a customized approach for every client, depending on their needs and complexity of their financial lives.

This Client’s concerns revolved around the accuracy of the data his property management company was providing. He was also seeking accounting assistance for a newly acquired construction business that needed cleaned-up financials and advice moving forward with company performance and strategy.

Personal Reporting & Outsourced Accounting:

  • Create a consolidated trust balance sheet every month
  • Track all transactions and properly allocate
  • Implement calendar of financial due dates for all rental properties to ensure mortgages, property taxes, insurance and utilities are paid on time
  • Work in conjunction with property management firm to receive accurate data
  • Set-up internal controls and accounting procedures to track new business entities, trusts and partnerships
  • Track and consolidate investment funds
  • Reconcile all balance sheet accounts, including Cash, AR, AP and credit card liabilities
  • Project work for establishing up-to-date and accurate financial statements for newly acquired business
  • Maintain yacht slips and make sure invoices are paid on time
  • Ongoing strategic advice on company performance

Outsourced Bill Pay:

  • Forwarding bill statements to client-specific PO Box
  • Sending the Client a comprehensive list of bills for approval of payment
  • Paying bills out of a POA designated bank account
  • Processing checks that Plumb signs as Power of Attorney
  • Performing monthly bank and credit card statement reconciliations
  • Electronically filing invoices to a secured client-specific cloud folder
  • Setting up bill pay schedule with financial calendar of due dates
  • Integrating bill pay schedule into Plumb’s proprietary task management software
  • Implementing vendor management reporting
  • Creating weekly cash flow reports
  • Properly tracking income & expenses

Results – How We Help:

The Client was able to offload many personal accounting and bill pay tasks to Plumb Family CFO. He gained financial clarity and peace of mind knowing that his day-to-day transactions were being handled With consolidated reporting every month, he was able to see a clear picture of his net-worth and had more time to optimize his investment strategies.  With ongoing corporate outsourced accounting and strategic advice on a CFO-level, the Client receives recommendations on industry-specific trends with the companies that he has ownership in.

Ready for financial peace of mind?



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How to Prepare a Net Worth Statement and Track Your Wealth

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Track your Wealth with a Personal Net Worth Statement

Many of our clients turn to Plumb Bill Pay because they have a complicated financial life and need help preparing their net worth statement. By having a clear picture of their wealth, including assets and liabilities, they can make better decisions with their investments and long-term financial goals.

What is a Net Worth Statement?

Net Worth = Assets – Liabilities

Let’s start with the basics.  A net worth statement is a personal balance sheet.  It lists your assets and liabilities.  Assets are items listed that have cash value (or can be converted to cash).  These assets typically include any money that is in your bank account, retirement account, investment accounts, and major items such as real estate or automobiles and other valuable property.  Liabilities are the debts or expenses that you owe. These include: bills, loans, mortgages, etc.

Need help with bill pay? Top 5 signs that you should hire a personal bill payer

How to Prepare a Net Worth Statement

There is technology available to help you track your net worth, or you can start with a simple spreadsheet.  For people who have a high net worth, it is beneficial for them to use a professional accounting firm to help them track their income and expenses.  To calculate your net worth, you subtract your liabilities from your assets.

Need help with your personal accounting to better track your wealth?

With great wealth comes great responsibility. There is complexity that comes with wealth, including high volumes of bills and income and expenses to track. Setting up a net worth statement or bill pay schedule with the appropriate checks and balances is not an easy task.

At Plumb, we offer personal CFO and bill pay services to ensure that our client’s finances are efficiently tracked and bills are paid, so they can focus their time on enjoying life and have financial peace of mind.

Article: A Corporate Approach to High-Net-Worth Individuals 

Back-Office Accounting Services for High-Net-Worth include:

For more information on Plumb Family Office Accounting – or to receive a quote for bill pay and reporting services:



Why Use a Personal Bill Pay Service Firm?

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As a personal bill pay service firm, Plumb offers bill pay services that cater towards individuals and families who are dealing with complicated finances.  You may want to enlist the help of a personal bill pay service firm if you feel overwhelmed with the amount of bills and mail you receive each month and find it too time consuming to get your personal finances organized.

The Plumb personal bill pay service firm is not an online bill pay software, rather it is a team of accounting experts who have experience dealing with high-net-worth clients and their specific bill pay needs.  At Plumb, we provide high-touch services while also utilizing the latest bill pay software and technology to manage monthly expenses and produce cash flow reports.

Top 5 Reasons to Use a Personal Bill Pay Service Firm:

  1. Have your expenses tracked and bills paid on time so you can focus on your family and enjoy your wealth.
  2. Receive comprehensive cash flow reports, allowing you and your personal financial team to make better decisions about your wealth.
  3. Deliver accurate tax documents to your CPA by having organized recordkeeping throughout the year and electronically filing invoices.
  4. Pay household staff, prepare 1099s & 1096s, and streamline vendor management to centralize all household expenses.
  5. We monitor credit card and wire transactions for discrepancies, tracked and reconciled for accuracy, to give you peace of mind.

Who Uses a Personal Bill Pay Service Firm?

Plumb was established over 20 years ago to provide outsourced accounting services to entrepreneurs, their companies, foundations and personal family bookkeeping and bill pay needs. The typical client who requests personal bill pay service from Plumb has multiple properties, household staff, numerous bank, credit card and investment accounts to manage and track. Therefore, they want to reduce the overwhelm of paying multiple bills, reconciling accounts and staying on top of due dates.

Discover how Plumb, a personal bill pay service firm, can work for you.

Family Office Services: It’s more than Bill Pay

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This is an interview brought to you by Acclaim Magazine and Editor, Tom Burroughes for Family Wealth Report. 

Cutting the Bill Payment Burden Adds Big Value For Clients

An interview with Anneke Stender, EVP of Plumb Bill Pay and Robert Scherer, President of Plumb Bill Pay.

What do you think is the main reason you have received this award-winning stage?

Plumb Bill Pay has been laser-focused to deliver an accounting service that has been either overlooked or underserved in the private client community. By offering a stand-alone outsourced bill pay solution to family offices, wealth managers and the high-net-worth, we have capitalized on a gap in the marketplace.

The interest in our “Property & Household” service offering has grown significantly in the past 18 months as the trend of outsourcing continues to rise. As a result, Plumb Bill Pay has onboarded an average of three new clients every month, adding 12 new employees to the team and expanding into three office locations across the country.

“We believe that our firm has achieved this award-winning stage based on the combination of providing high-touch customer service that is built on a technology platform with bank-level security while operating with proven accounting systems and procedures,” said Robert Scherer, President of Plumb Bill Pay.

The financial teams who engage Plumb Bill Pay as their back-office to process and pay client bills gain a competitive edge with a wide range of benefits.  Our service improves their business processes, which frees up time for their team to focus on investment strategies and higher-level accounting functions. It enhances their service offering by having a trusted resource for their clients who are overwhelmed with the amount of bills to pay and expenses to track. With our established security protocols and checks and balances, the burdens of compliance, risk and cybersecurity that come with processing payments and potential fraud are diminished when outsourced to Plumb Bill Pay.

What sort of challenges did you have to take on?

Working as a vendor for some of the world’s largest financial institutions, the security of our platform and internal controls to protect confidential information was built on unique and stringent specifications. We believe it is imperative for clients and their financial managers or designees to be able to maintain access to the bill pay workflow, but without compromising security.

We took on the challenge to build a customized cloud network that is backed on a singular data center. It is certified and compliant for bank standards with two-factor authentication and VPN connection. We also setup procedures and role-based workflows for approval limits and constantly monitor accounts for suspicious activity.

What can you tell us about how your colleagues contributed to this success?

As our firm experience’s rapid growth, we shifted the structure of our bill pay teams for optimal customer service. Every bill pay client is supported by at least 3 accounting experts, ranging from a dedicated manager, to associates, an account supervisor and signors. This allows for the appropriate checks and balances, while also giving the client and their personal financial team access to Plumb when they need them.

Since we work with successful and fast-paced entrepreneurs and affluent families, they have a lot of moving parts to their financial structure. Our personal bill pay teams understand the unique needs of the high-net-worth and provide the white glove customer service they require and deserve. Clients gain financial peace of mind knowing their household expenses are being handled, while also having clear insights into their finances with cash flow reports and tracking.

How have you dealt with the changes taking place in the North American wealth management market and in what way did your award reflect that?

Many of the wealth managers and financial advisors who refer to our personal bill pay services are looking for a reliable resource to handle their client’s complex bill pay service needs. It’s a competitive marketplace in the North American wealth management market in order to attract and retain high-net-worth clients. By offering a solution that reduces the overwhelm of managing multiple bills and chasing due dates, wealth managers can turn to Plumb for support. We work alongside them and customize our accounting services, reporting and security measures depending on their current operations.

From whom do you take inspiration, either in terms of people or other organizations, inside or outside the North American wealth sector?

“Our inspiration to deliver a superior bill pay service comes from our experience with working with some of the country’s largest investment firms and family offices,” said Anneke Stender, Executive Vice President of Plumb Bill Pay. “We admire their far-reaching approach and ability to provide such massive resources and options for their clients.”

What sets you apart from your peers this year?

For over 20 years, Plumb has been providing back-office accounting and financial reporting to businesses and high-net-worth families.  It is this depth of knowledge and our corporate finance approach to handling bill pay and multi-entity bookkeeping for the private client community that stands out above the rest.

We understand the business-sized challenges of high-net-worth clients who have a complex financial life. The families we work with have an average of 100 – 200 bills to pay each month, plus 3-4 entities to track. By producing cash flow reports with an up-to-date general ledger system, clients and their advisors have clear insights into their wealth to make decisions based on their financial goals.

What will you do to keep the standard of an award-winner and push ahead in the future?

Prior to winning this award we started the development of our Bill Pay App. It is now complete, and we have begun staged roll outs. This workflow application will be used as a tool to automate the bill pay process and enhance the client experience. By applying this forward-thinking technology, it will give us another tool to push ahead in the future.

Contact Plumb for a demo of our Bill Pay app.

What do you hope will be the main consequence of achieving this accolade?

This award brings us incredible exposure to a community that may not be familiar with our outsourced solution for bill pay.  Our current clients, some of whom are the wealthiest people in the country, love Plumb Bill Pay. It is their confidence in our service that drives us forward.

We hope it will bring attention to a service that can help financial management teams spend less time handling administrative bill pay functions and more time working alongside their clients to help strengthen financial futures.

How will you use the award to raise your profile in the industry among clients?

As a first-time nominee, we have been following the FamilyWealth Report Awards and their community of contributors for years. It is an honor to be recognized and we will continue to publicize our award online and within our marketing collateral.

For a list of all the award winners and their interviews, view the Acclaim Magazine.

Interested in a quote for bill pay services?



How to Prepare a Net Worth Statement and Track Your Wealth

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Track your Wealth with a Personal Net Worth Statement

Many of our clients turn to Plumb Family CFO because they have a complicated financial life and need help preparing their net worth statement. By having a clear picture of their wealth, including assets and liabilities, they can make better decisions with their investments and long-term financial goals.

What is a Net Worth Statement?

Net Worth = Assets – Liabilities

Let’s start with the basics.  A net worth statement is a personal balance sheet.  It lists your assets and liabilities.  Assets are items listed that have cash value (or can be converted to cash).  These assets typically include any money that is in your bank account, retirement account, investment accounts, and major items such as real estate or automobiles and other valuable property.  Liabilities are the debts or expenses that you owe. These include: bills, loans, mortgages, etc.

Need help with bill pay? Top 5 signs that you should hire a personal bill payer

How to Prepare a Net Worth Statement

There is technology available to help you track your net worth, or you can start with a simple spreadsheet.  For people who have a high net worth, it is beneficial for them to use a professional accounting firm to help them track their income and expenses.  To calculate your net worth, you subtract your liabilities from your assets.

Need help with your personal accounting to better track your wealth?

With great wealth comes great responsibility. There is complexity that comes with wealth, including high volumes of bills and income and expenses to track. Setting up a net worth statement or bill pay schedule with the appropriate checks and balances is not an easy task.

At Plumb, we offer personal CFO and bill pay services to ensure that our client’s finances are efficiently tracked and bills are paid, so they can focus their time on enjoying life and have financial peace of mind.

Article: A Corporate Approach to High-Net-Worth Individuals 

Back-Office Accounting Services for High-Net-Worth include:

net worth statement

For more information on Plumb Family CFO – or to receive a quote for bill pay and reporting services

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