FOX Series

Maarten de Groot, Enterprise Family Researcher at Vu Amsterdam University School of Business, and also the CEO of a single family office Eligius, explores why the rate of failure is so high when transferring wealth from one generation to the next.Over the last four years, de Groot conducted a number of research studies about wealth preservation and tested his findings by looking at over 1,000 global enterprise families, and working more closely with a few hundred of them. He studied multiple kinds of enterprise families – some with legacies going back over 300 years and spanning across 12 fami...

Preparing for leadership succession may be the single most important planning element for a family and family office. Ivan Lansberg, Co-Founder and Senior Partner, Lansberg-Gersick & Associates, describes the two different sides of the coin, so to speak, that define succession:The challenge of letting go, from the perspective of the current leader; andThe challenge of taking charge, from the perspective of the successor.First he explores the challenges facing the current leader in the process of letting go. These transitions are hard enough in a normal environment, but right now there is s...

As impact philanthropy becomes more important to families, they are further engaging in the issues facing their communities. Here Nadia Roumani, Co-Founder and Senior Designer for the Designing for Social Systems Program at Sanford University, and Wendy Steele, Founder and CEO at Impact 100 Global Advisor Council, address how philanthropy has changed over the years, as well as the central social and economic issues facing us today in the world of philanthropy and impact.Steele’s founded Impact 100 because she witnessed a lack of interest or aptitude toward philanthropy in her community as frie...

Taxable investors need to think differently. Here Stuart Lucas, Co-Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Wealth Strategist Partners, tells us why, and also how to extract value at the intersection of investing, estate planning and tax.So what makes a good investment? Lucas gives us four elements:An asymmetric risk profileHigh potential magnitudeFavorable probability of successReasonable profit retentionOne of Lucas’ key points is that – taxable investors and their advisors need to think differently. And by doing so, they can create tremendous value. You can build this symbiotic set ...

While families have a growing desire to participate in impact investing, return profiles have had the reputation for being lower to other asset classes. But this is changing quickly.FOX welcomes two experts and thought leaders in their fields, John C. Maxwell, III, CEO at SteepRock Advisors and Manish Nayar, Founder and CEO of OYA Solar to discuss.Maxwell begins by sharing that natural capital will have significant secular and structural implications on a global basis for the next few decades. What is meant by natural capital economy? Maxwell simply merges the natural resource piece, the capit...

One question facing families and family offices today is how to build a strategic long-term view of your family’s future. Scott Peppet, President at Chai Trust Company, says families and family systems tend to work on long-wave frequencies, and normal business works on a short-wave frequency, often monthly or quarterly.Peppet says that often, certain family members light up and resonate more with these long-term questions. are more human questions, and they can connect to it. Other family members push back and want to focus on short term, financials, quarterly statements, etc.To strike this ba...

FOX hosts a panel on “Rebuilding Economies,” and invites Ivo Daadler, President of Chicago Council on Global Affairs and John Dionne, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and Senior Advisor at The Blackstone Group, to walk us through their most current thinking and predictions.Daadler attempts to share what the geopolitical future looks like and addresses three important “known- unknowns” – e.g. these are things we know are going to be big issues, but we just don’t know how they’re going to play out.The U.S. relationship with ChinaWhat is going to happen in the developing world now and i...

How families talk about money is important. Although it often can feel awkward to get started, Nathan Dungan, Founder and President of Share, Save, Spend,® gives tips, tools and activities to make it a much easier to have these important ongoing conversations among families.Dungan recommends families establish an open landscape to have conversations about money, and have all different kinds of conversations with a money thread that runs through them. The goal is for persistent, rhythmic, frequent and intentional conversations with money at the center.One of the most dominant messages in our cu...

Successive generations want to leave a legacy, and are looking at future prospects and pathways for the family office to be a more diverse workplace. Why does diversity matter in the family office setting? Vincent Robinson, Founder and Managing Partner of the 360 Group, says diversity matters because family offices tend to be relatively hidden in the broader labor market, and competition can either be limited or be quite stiff.So how do you successfully promote diversity? Robinson highlights some areas for us to think about:Work with the family to help everyone understand how diversity can add...

FOX recently conducted a research project to study how family offices explain their value to clients, as well as to look at the complexity and cost allocation of family offices. The study participants included:The four key topics of the study included:The value propositionThe scope of servicesComplexity factors driving costFee allocation methodologies1. The value propositionKey value proposition messages to family members include sharing the importance of:Seeing the family in motion consistently instead of at a moment in time.Integrating wealth planning with execution.Providing scale and buyin...

The element of trust is perhaps one of the most crucial pieces within the family and the family office. Here Jeff Strese, Adjunct Faculty at SMU and Head of Leadership Curriculum, and Mindy Earley, Chief Learning Officer at FOX address the critical value of trust and provide us with important tips to achieve greater trust in the family and the family enterprise.An easy definition trust is this – trust is the currency for leaders to get things done through people.Strese asks, why is it worth our effort to assess the barometers of trust? Because the inside culture must match the outside culture,...

Responding Swiftly to the Pandemic ChallengeLeading up to 2020, family office technology providers made significant improvements with expanded offerings and new entrants. Nonetheless, adoption remained relatively low, as technology simply wasn’t at the top of most family office priority lists. But history has shown nothing is a more effective change accelerator than a crisis. The success so many offices and family members experienced after quickly adopting technology during the pandemic’s early stages has opened eyes to how effectively these solutions support families, and how easily they can ...

Nathan Dungan thinks frequently and deeply about who and what is shaping our money habits and values. In fact, that will be the focus of his breakout session—The Rising Generations’ Relationship With Money—at next week’s FOX Family Forum.This short video will give you a preview of how Nathan frames money issues in his work with the rising generation. Additionally, each participant who attends his breakout session will receive a practical tool-kit to help them immediately attend to their financial wellbeing.Nathan Dungan is the founder and president of Share Save Spend®. For over 25 years, Nath...

Bill Lyons is the Senior Director for the Institute for Family Culture at Abbot Downing. Here Lyons defines resiliency, shares six domains of resilience and recovery, and offers some best practices to foster resilience and recovery in these unprecedented times.Resilience is the capacity to recover, to bounce back, and truly to deal with more than we think we can.For many, becoming a steward of significant wealth involves grief and loss, such as when a family member dies. If you’re in the midst of grief and loss, that is not the ideal time to be learning about resiliency. Learn about it and pra...

Here Michael Hotz (Vice President at Asset Consulting Group) and Katherine Kroll (Senior Institutional Sustainable Investing Specialist at Brown Advisory) share current thinking and approaches to impact investing.In the last 5-7 years, families have shown a strong interest in these areas:Technology and Artificial IntelligenceCannabisCryptocurrencyESG InvestingAs a rising generation family member trying to communicate your interests to different generations, it’s helpful to understand what different generations think about various asset classes over the years. Let’s look at 1990 compared to 202...

Stockton Rush founded and leads OceanGate, as CEO of the company dedicated to opening the oceans for human observations and exploration through the development of state-of-the-art five person submersibles.With his family’s wealth behind him, Rush had the capacity to “meander” his way through various jobs and experiences that eventually led him to the ocean. The family funds originally came from his Grandfather, who Rush describes as a “dirt poor Irish immigrant,” who by age 33 became the youngest director of Standard Oil in America.Rush graduated early from high school, convinced his mom to bu...

One of the most important aspects of the family office today is delivering value through a trusted advisor ecosystem and advancing your partnerships. Here we explore three examples of how partnership is key to the success of the family office:Family LearningOne family office worked with their advisors to create a learning event for the purpose of increasing shared understanding and also to have a fun time together. The family had the opportunity to meet their actual advisors, learn what the advisors do for the family, and also to increase understanding around the overall family business. A din...

With the election coming up in November and year-end following – then couple that with a pandemic that has completely disrupted the economy and interest rates – we can be certain tax and estate planning changes are coming.Here Mark Harder (Partner at Warner Norcross & Judd LLP) and Jamie Sanders (Tax Partner at RSM), give us their Top 10 things that are (or should be!) on your family’s mind before year end:Top off existing gift trusts and create new gifts to use exemptions.Reserve your professional advisors. Make sure your advisors know you need their time to put a plan in place.Create SLA...

Kent Lawson, Director of Technology Integration Services at FOX, explains how we can drive efficiencies by employing technology.In short, efficiencies means doing things quickly and with productivity, in a way that makes sense and is user friendly. Lawson recommends looking at things very specifically, taking a micro view. And then as well, we must evaluate a higher prospective overall, as a macro view. Further, you must make sure technology is involved in the strategic decisions in your family office.Lawson walks us through a case study showing how technology efficiencies can be employed.Back...

Here Rob Mallernee, a long-time member of FOX and the CEO and System Designer at Eton Solutions, looks at how family offices can use a process driven approach to help determine core competencies, and to understand clearly what should be insourced and outsourced.Mallernee examines the family office “as a service” (XaaS). Essentially, XaaS means:You buy a solution to a problem through access to that product, rather than through full ownership;This is often accompanied by complimentary services; andYou pay for this on a “pay per use basis.”Basically, you buy the output from someone else’s systems...

The pandemic is especially overwhelming as we view of all the headlines in the news and on social media. We don’t yet know the full effect the pandemic – how long it’s going to last or the impact it will have on our health, our families, our businesses or our livelihood. All of this together is why we see anxiety at a much higher level now. We may feel anxiety ourselves, or see it in our family, friends and colleagues.So how can you help? For all of us, safety and security comes first. When you see people who can’t focus, don’t enjoy pleasure, can’t fulfill daily responsibilities, or can’t exe...

Every other year FOX sponsors a Family Office Compensation and Benefits Survey. The 2020 survey had a total of 201 participants from across the United States, and was based on data collected from June 11-August 7. 60% of participants own one more more operating businesses, and 42% have professional HR staff to oversee compensation and benefits decisions.When asked, what are your greatest human challenges, it’s no surprise that 46% of offices answered finding staff with the right experience, closely followed by managing workload for current staff, and then employee succession.59% of respondents...

Covid-19 has certainly changed the landscape and created a new normal, along with many decisions and points of challenge. Here Cassie Atteberry (Principal at Talent Outside the Lines) and Neil Kreuzberger (President and Founder of Kreuzberger, LLC) share wise counsel to family offices for managing talent in this new paradigm.A lot of things look very different to us now. For one, we have a much heavier reliance on technology, both at work and at home. And we’ve seen a shift from work/life balance, now to work/life integration.However, despite so many changes, a lot is still the same. The famil...

To be successful in our ever-changing world, family offices need to embrace new technology like never before. The question is, how can a family office technology leader incorporate change to meet family members’ needs. One aspect is by replacing manual processes and older legacy systems with new tech offerings, such as process automation, data and analytics, visualization capabilities, and AI (artificial intelligence).Further, with the massive digital expansion, and as technology permeates the entirety of the family office, tech leadership must be part of strategic planning. Tech leaders must ...

In our fast paced world, we see how client needs and expectations are changing the role of the family office. Here, Mindy Earley (Chief Learning Officer at FOX), and Gaby Griffin (Market Leader, Business Owners and Family Executives at FOX), share how the family office can meet these evolving client needs.Griffin explains that along with changing roles inside the family office, is the growing complexity and risk profile of the family office. Rather than then the tax and accounting background of executives in the traditional family office, we are now seeing a deeper legal or corporate backgroun...