In fact, amid the chill winds of the credit crisis, making the smart choice looks particularly daunting. Go to Top Financial advisors for more information.

Certainly, the wealth management industry as a whole needs to do a stronger job of helping actual and potential clients choose the advisory channels that suit their needs and ambitions best, argues David Poole, managing director and head of business development for Citi Private Bank in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Mr Poole can claim he speaks from deep experience – he has worked at Lazard Brothers, NM Rothschild, Singer & Friedlander and Merrill Lynch.

I dont think the industry has done a good job at explaining what the options are, Mr Poole told WealthBriefing during a recent conference call alongside John Rhodes, a consultant to the private client division of Stonehage, the UK-based multi-family office. A veteran of the private client industry, Mr Rhodes previously worked at the law firm Macfarlanes for 40 years.

As both men explained, it can be easy for wealthy families to make the mistake of recruiting too many advisors rather than too few, as all may offer similar but subtly different ideas, ending up in confusion, potential conflicts of interest and high fee bills.

Too often, big families get into a spiders web of advisors. It is very important to keep the structure simple, Mr Poole said.

Mr Rhodes, meanwhile, said that in response to such potential confusion, one route has been for families in the ultra high net worth space, for example, to go down the route of creating a single family office. There has certainly been growth in this sector but there can be problems, he said.

Investment advisors would tell you not to put all your eggs in one basket and you should not expect all wealth management advice to come from one basket either. There is an issue for those who go for a single family office model, said Mr Rhodes.

It single family office sounds like a great idea and probably will work all right for a while. But the situation can become ossified and if you go down a generation or two you can become comfortable and there is not sufficient access to different, cutting-edge advice, Mr Rhodes said.

The choices are wide – high-end independent financial advisors, accountants, lawyers, private banks, wealth managers, freelance consultants, single and multi-family offices.

Crucially, the would-be client needs to first hire an advisor who can take a broad view of a persons broad financial needs and who can be trusted with the powers to delegate to others to