FOX Series

Building a Family Enterprise

Mar 13, 2014
Successful multi-generational families often have difficulty making the transition from a business-centric family to a family-centric enterprise as the scope of their activities expand, and the family grows across generations. The diversity inherent in the growing group of shareholders brings th...

Starting the Family Leadership Conversation

Mar 06, 2014
Carl Robinson has spent the last 25 years helping a wide range of businesses develop effective leadership strategies. Currently, as managing director of Vantage Leadership Consulting, he focuses on identifying and developing executive talent.Last October, we were fortunate to have him address our an...

Buy or D.I.Y.? Family Office Service Observations from the FOX Financial Executive Council

Feb 20, 2014
The FOX Financial Executive Council was first established in 2004 and it offers family office financial executives (CFOs, controllers, tax managers, etc.) an opportunity to share best practices on operational, compliance, and technical issues.On January 30-31, 15 of our members joined us in Orlando,...

Obamacare Update: Employer Mandate for Employers with Fewer than 100 Workers Delayed

Feb 12, 2014
On Monday, Feb. 10, 2014, the IRS announced it is delaying a portion of the employer mandate associated with the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. The delay applies to employers with 50-99 workers. These employers will have until 2016 before facing a penalty for failing to cover employees. Businesse...

Strategic Advantages to Taking the Long-Term View of the Family Enterprise

Feb 04, 2014
In spite of growing complexities, families around the world have managed to stay together for generations, and they reap significant benefits from the concentration of purchasing power and the preservation of family capital. The crisis of 2008 demonstrated clearly the advantages that families ...

Moving from a Business Enterprise to a Family Enterprise

Jan 23, 2014
How does a family know when they are evolving from a family business into a family enterprise? When the collective activities of the family grow beyond the boundaries of the original business, there is evidence of an emerging family enterprise. The evidence appears gradually over time - when a...

Feed the Acorn, but Don’t Forget the Oak: Finding a Meaningful Role for Family Leaders after Retirement

Dec 06, 2013
If you have you been invited to a family business conference recently or picked up an educational piece on family wealth, you will have noticed the focus placed on next generation development. In particular the 3 E’s of entrepreneurship, education, and engagement. These are important topics, around ...

Infographic: Family Office Compensation Trends

Nov 15, 2013
Eighty percent of family office employees received a salary increase in 2013, according to our latest benchmarking study, "Family Office Compensation & Benefits." The median reported increase was 4%, up from the 3% consistently seen since the 2008 onset of the great recession. A majority of...

Recommended Reading: Greg Curtis on How Not to Invest Your Family’s Money

Nov 15, 2013
If you’re familiar with Greycourt & Co. Founder Greg Curtis, you know that his blog is always a good read. His recent series on common mistakes families make investing after a liquidity event is especially compelling. Curtis notes that businesses tend to sell when the market is at its most overp...

More Notes from the 2013 FOX Fall Forum: The Principled Family

Nov 15, 2013
While process was at the forefront of this year’s Forum, the most poignant moments of the event dealt with why families stick together — the beliefs and values behind all of the how-to discussions. Bestselling author and Founder of Empower Wealth LLC Lee Brower touched on this issue on the firs...

Notes from the 2013 FOX Fall Forum: Family Enterprise Decision Making Processes

Nov 15, 2013
We recently held our annual Fall Forum in Chicago. This year’s theme was “The Butterfly Effect,” which reflects the theory that a change as subtle as the flap of tiny wings can profoundly change the world. The same can be said about the family enterprise. Every choice you make (or don’t ...

Seven Time-Tested Family Continuity Lessons

Oct 17, 2013
Many families have managed their wealth for generations and have healthy, productive and successful sixth- and seventh-generation family members to show for their efforts. What are the secrets of their success? One commonality we’ve seen in our more than 20 years of serving families is they’ve made ...

Infographic: The Top Technology Challenges in Today's Family Offices

Aug 20, 2013
Systems security and finding a software solution that integrates financial data across multiple functions rank as family offices’ top technology concerns, according to our latest study "2013 FOX Family Office Benchmarking: Technology in the Family Office." The respondents' sensitivity to security ap...

Disaster Recovery in the Family Office

Aug 08, 2013
There is a startling statistic in the recent FOX Benchmarking Report: Technology in the Family Office. Ninety-seven percent of family offices claim to have developed a disaster recovery plan. It is heartening to see that firms have adopted this best practice. It is only fitting, considering th...

Talent, Culture and Hiring the Right Fit

Jul 02, 2013
Businesses consistently cite the ability to attract and retain top talent as among the elements most critical to their success. This remains true today despite persistently high unemployment rates as many critical jobs go unfilled. But in many respects, hiring effectively is as much about bringing i...

Infographic: Family Office Oversight and Governance

Jul 01, 2013
A majority (56%) of family offices have a governing board, according to the 2012 FOX Family Office benchmarking Board Report. Fifty-five percent of those with a governing board include external advisors, though outside advisors make up only 17% of all board members. Most family offices lack a strate...

Starting Critical Wealth Management Conversations

Jun 19, 2013
The job of advising the wealthy necessarily veers into the realms of the personal. Wealth advisors are as much family counselors as they are portfolio managers or financial planners. Issues like leadership succession or engaging the younger generations touch on such sensitive topics as aging, mortal...

Investment Decision-Making and the Players

Jun 06, 2013
Managing investments remains a primary reponsibility of family offices. According to our 2013 FOX Investment Survey, investment professionals comprise nearly a third of the average family office staff. Meanwhile, they draw on a number of different actors in the planning and decision making process w...

The Role of Courage in Multigenerational Families of Wealth

May 13, 2013
At every conference, there is a concept or word that stands out and becomes the catalyst of discussion at breaks and meals. Other speakers pick up on the term to demonstrate how their topic ties to this theme of interest.At the Family Office Exchange (FOX) Wealth Advisor Forum in Miami this yea...

Announcement: New Approach for FOX Benchmarking

May 13, 2013
We are pleased to announce an improvement in the FOX Benchmarking Study for 2013.Since much of the data does not change from year to year, we are going to limit the study to those sections that do change annually and split it into smaller, single-topic modules that will be spaced throughout the year...

Dan Schawbel on First Impressions in the Internet Age

Apr 09, 2013
We are pleased to welcome Dan Schawbel as a keynote speaker at this year’s FOX Wealth Advisor Forum. Dan is the managing partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm that specializes in personal and corporate branding. He is the author of the bestselling Me 2.0: 4 Steps ...

Announcement: FOX Chicago Headquarters Moving

Apr 08, 2013
On Friday, April 19, we will be moving to the eighth floor within our current building into a more modern and cost-efficient office. Our office will officially close at noon that day to accomodate the movers. The servers will go offline in the afternoon, disrupting the following services until late ...

Howard Bragman on the New Media Challenges of Managing Your Reputation

Apr 02, 2013
We are pleased to welcome Howard Bragman as a keynote speaker at this year’s FOX Wealth Advisor Forum. Howard is the vice chairman of Reputation.com, an online reputation management organization, and founder of the public relations firm Fifteen Minutes. He is the author of Where's My Fifteen M...

Seven Strategies for Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture

Mar 26, 2013
It is the fate of almost every fourth-to-sixth generation family: the wealth dissipates as the family grows, unless their culture goes beyond wealth preservation to encourage wealth creation. That means taking informed risks (emphasis on informed). If some portion of the diversified asset pool is di...

Living in the Shadows: Age, the Economy, and Trends in Wealth Management

Feb 08, 2013
Wealthy families, single family offices, and wealth advisors continue to live in the long shadows of economic and political uncertainty, as well as generational transitions. If economic uncertainty has been a persistent concern since at least 2008, other macro trends are more dynamic in nature. Poli...

Europe’s Silver Lining

Jan 07, 2013
Amidst all the doom and gloom of European austerity and the general anxiety about the continent’s future, there is considerable evidence that Europe remains surprisingly well positioned to compete in the global market.For the past three decades, the World Economic Forum has performed a detailed annu...