The Value of Knowing Where to Strike
About This Article
This article explores why experienced professional advice is priced for judgment and outcomes rather than time or activity. Using a well-known industrial anecdote as a metaphor, it highlights the distinction between execution and expertise, and explains why the true value of advisory work lies in knowing which decisions matter most—and which risks must be avoided altogether.
It is intended for high-net-worth families who recognize that complex financial, tax, and estate decisions function as interconnected systems, where a single informed adjustment can materially change long-term outcomes. The goal is not to justify fees, but to reframe how value, accountability, and alignment should be evaluated in sophisticated advisory relationships.
Why Experienced Advice Is Priced for Outcomes, Not Hours
There is a well-known story often attributed to Henry Ford.
A large industrial machine grinds to a halt. Production stops. Multiple attempts are made to fix it, but nothing works. Eventually, a seasoned specialist is called in. He studies the machine quietly, taps it once with a hammer, and it roars back to life.
The invoice totals $1,000.
When questioned, the explanation is simple:
$1 for the strike
$999 for knowing where to strike
While often told with humor, the lesson is particularly relevant for high-net-worth families navigating complex financial, tax, estate, and governance decisions.
Time Is Not the Scarce Resource. Judgment Is
In sophisticated wealth planning, outcomes are rarely driven by hours spent.
They are driven by:
Pattern recognition earned over decades
Understanding second- and third-order consequences
Knowing which risks matter—and which do not
Anticipating problems before they surface
Two advisors can spend the same amount of time on a problem. Only one may produce a durable outcome.
The difference is not effort.
It is judgment.
Why Experience Commands a Premium
Experienced advisors are not paid for activity.
They are paid for:
The mistakes they have already made—on someone else’s balance sheet
Knowing what not to do
Recognizing when a small adjustment materially changes the result
Understanding how decisions interact across tax, legal, investment, and family systems
In complex systems, most failures do not require more work.
They require the correct intervention.
Engineering Outcomes, Not Deliverables
High-net-worth families do not hire professionals simply to:
Produce reports
Execute transactions
Implement generic strategies
They hire professionals to:
Prevent irreversible errors
Reduce friction across advisors
Coordinate moving parts that do not naturally align
Engineer outcomes that endure through market cycles, tax changes, and generational transitions
This is engineering, not administration.
Engineering is not priced by the hour.
The Cost of “Cheaper” Advice
Advice that appears inexpensive is often priced for execution, not accountability.
Execution without judgment can lead to:
Structurally misaligned plans
Tax inefficiencies discovered too late
Liquidity issues created unintentionally
“Solutions” that work in isolation but fail in aggregate
In these cases, families often pay twice:
Once for the advice
Again to correct it
The most expensive fee is rarely the one paid upfront.
It is the one paid to fix what should never have been broken.
What Clients Are Really Paying For
When an experienced advisor charges a meaningful fee, the client is not paying for:
The meeting
The memo
The implementation
They are paying for:
Knowing where to apply pressure
Knowing when not to
Understanding how systems interact
Taking responsibility for outcomes, not activity
That responsibility—not time—is what commands the fee.
Key Takeaway: It’s a matter of Price vs. Value
In complex systems, precision matters more than effort.
One informed adjustment can outperform years of activity in the wrong direction.
Just as with Henry Ford’s machine, the value lies not in the strike—but in the knowledge behind it.
For families whose wealth, legacy, and optionality depend on getting it right, that knowledge is not an expense.
It is an investment.
Bonus: Evaluating a specialist advisor from an ordinary one
Questions Sophisticated Clients Should Be Asking
Cost-focused questions are easy.
Outcome-focused questions reveal whether an advisor truly knows where to strike.
High-net-worth families should consider asking:
Questions About Judgment & Experience
Where have you seen strategies like this fail—and why?
What are the second- and third-order consequences of this decision five or ten years out?
What would cause you to advise against this, even if it is technically sound?
Questions About Incentives & Alignment
How are you compensated across this entire relationship—not just this engagement?
Where do your incentives change depending on the solution selected?
What economics exist that are not visible on a fee schedule?
Questions About Risk & Irreversibility
What decisions in this plan are reversible, and which are not?
Where have you seen families lose flexibility by solving the wrong problem first?
If circumstances change materially, what breaks first?
Questions About Coordination
Who is accountable for ensuring the tax, legal, and investment pieces actually work together?
Where does responsibility end if something goes wrong?
What assumptions are being made about other advisors that should be validated?
Questions About Outcomes
What does success look like in five years—not just this year?
What risks are we intentionally accepting, and which are we explicitly eliminating?
If we do nothing, what deteriorates?
These are not transactional questions.
They are governance questions.
Take Action
What do you think? Does this fit with your views? Let’s have a conversation. Reach out to me directly by email at brett@senatuswealth.com.