The Well-being Number is a metric we use to take a snapshot of your current state of well-being. This metric gives us insight into your strengths and weakness, as well as, possible threats and opportunities for growth. The Well-being Number also allows us to track your progress and gauge the success of your Wealth Plan.

Our mission is to put money back in its place as a means to an end; not something to be valued in itself but significant insofar as it contributes to producing a meaningful (happy, healthy, fulfilled) life.⁶ A masterpiece is not created by simply buying paint and brushes, but through the creative and tactful use of those tools. The Well-being Number helps us see if the strategic ways we use your money are promoting your masterpiece of well-being.

First let’s understand the components that make up well-being. According to The New Economics Foundation (NEF):

“Well-being can be understood as how people feel and how they function, both on a personal and a social level, and how they evaluate their lives as a whole. To break this down, how people feel refers to emotions such as happiness or anxiety. How people function refers to things such as their sense of competence or their sense of being connected to those around them. How people evaluate their life as a whole is captured in their satisfaction with their lives, or how they rate their lives in comparison with the best possible life.^7″

In order to capture the ever evolving nature of well-being, NEF developed a dynamic model of well-being as part of the Government Office for Science’s Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Well-being. NEF explains the various components of the model as follows:

“The model describes how an individual’s external conditions (bottom left) – such as income, employment status and social networks – act together with their personal resources (bottom right) – such as their health, resilience and optimism – to allow them to function well (middle) in their interactions with the world and therefore experience positive emotions (top). When people function well and experience positive emotions day-to-day and overall, we can think of them as [having high well-being].”

It is also important to separate the concept of well-being from things that influence it. NEF further explains:

“‘Well-being’ refers to how people are in themselves – their emotions, judgments and experiences. The ‘potential drivers of well-being’ refers on the one hand to external things such as income, housing, education, and social networks, and to certain ‘internal’ things such as health, optimism, and self-esteem, all of which influence how people feel and function.^7″

We address the ‘potential drivers of well-being’ in your Human Centric Wealth Plan. We use tools such as estate planning, life insurance and investment portfolios that help facilitate their development.

By understanding what makes your life go well, see the positive things you bring to situations, and understand your emotional and social needs our Wealth Plans can be better designed to respond to the many aspects that make up your life.⁷