FOX Series

At the inaugural FOX Global Owners Forum, I described the evolution that business-owning families experience—and the increased complexity they encounter—as they become family enterprises. Here is a short video that explains what I mean when I refer to Enterprise Families: [[{"fid":"21356","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","alignment":""},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"default","alignment":""}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]] The question family leaders need to address is how the family can manage the increased co...

I was recently chatting with longtime FOX member Richard Bakal about the upcoming FOX Family Enterprise Experience workshop. Over the course of our conversation, it became clear that Richard had a very clear grasp and understanding of the Family Enterprise concept, and so I asked him if he would write a few words describing it. To my great pleasure, he agreed.Here is what he wrote:Most “typical” high net worth families (and their associated family offices) are inherently and unavoidably only moderately complex. However, what starts out as a family with just a family business and/or an investme...

Pricing at multi-family office firms is under pressure.That is one of the key findings in the 2016 FOX Wealth Advisor Benchmarking Study. Advisors are losing pricing power with their family client prospects, and have been for several years—there has been a 15% drop in the pricing of wealth management-related services for ultra-high net worth clients since 2012.The question now, of course, is why?To figure this out, we asked a number of leading advisors at both our annual FOX MFO Council meeting, and at the spring gathering of our FOX Integrated Wealth Advisor Council.The problem for advisors i...

When I was heading up consulting for FOX, I had the pleasure of spending a morning with the staff of a large family office at their three-day retreat in the wilderness of northern Wisconsin. I was there to share some FOX wisdom and best practices, and found it invigorating to be with a group of engaged professionals. Not only did the family support the entire staff being away from the office for three days, but they invited them to use their family lodge for the experience.The family office leadership packed the retreat with nonstop activities, presentations, learning experiences, meals and sp...

On May 18, 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) updated the Fair Labor Standards Act and expanded overtime eligibility for millions of American workers by increasing the minimum salary employers must pay workers to maintain their exempt status. The new minimum salary level outlined in the DOL's Final Rule equates to roughly $913 per week, or $47,476 per year—more than double the previous exemption threshold of $23,660.The new rules will take effect December 1, 2016. How will they impact your family office?According to the DOL, this will effectively distinguish between employees who may meet the...

Family businesses in America generate 50% of the jobs, 64% of GDP and account for 61% of all privately owned businesses. While family businesses are very important to the economic growth of our country, they are not given proper consideration when new laws, regulations and restrictions are imposed by legislators and other government bodies. While most family businesses belong to an industry or trade association that advocates for that industry, the only organization that educates legislators and others who need to know about the issues that family businesses face—and that are different from pu...

The more I learn from working with families, the more I realize that the relationships they have with their advisors are just like dating. One of the most important commonalities is the need to build trust, and letting someone in on all your secrets and vulnerabilities is scary. But if you don’t, the relationship won’t last and you’ll possibly miss out on an opportunity to grow.New relationships are scary. They can be especially scary for wealthy families, where social media poses a threat to their privacy and rampant litigation threatens their wealth. But there are undeniable benefits in almo...

In putting together the FOX Guide to Family Education, we were able to identify a number of innovative strategies to enhance owner engagement and foster an ongoing education program for family members: 1. Central Website for Family CommunicationSuccessful families recognize the importance of keeping the family connected. Many rely on a family website as their communications hub for the family. This is where family members go to learn about the family history and the family tree, find out what their cousins are working on, access financial and trust documents and more. The FOX public...

We all hear how cybercrime is a fast-growing crime, one of the fastest growing crimes and that the financial services sector is a target. There is no single solution to the problem, and unfortunately technology is unlikely to provide one in the near future.Threat protection technology typically lags behind the latest cybercrime tactics. However, there is one underutilized defense against cybercrime that family offices need to consider: educating their clients and employees so that they themselves can be the first layer of defense.Without this approach, research has shown, the easiest way to br...

I recently participated in a roundtable session at a CFA Society of Chicago career event with 12 moderators each leading a table discussion on careers in various investment specialties. My session was on family office careers. Almost everyone at my three consecutive table discussions started with the question: What is a family office?I appreciated the interest of the participants who wanted a quick snapshot, and found it challenging to explain what types of jobs may be available to investment professionals looking to enter this industry. By the third table group I was admitting that it is almo...

As impact investing is maturing, we’re seeing an evolution of that very definition.In an earlier FOX Insights blog post, FOX Thought Leaders Council™ member Mark Harder of Warner Norcross & Judd defined impact investing as “making investment with the intention of generating positive environmental or social impacts, as well as financial returns.” But even as this definitely has come to be widely accepted as the industry standard, the process of implementing such a strategy is far from universal.Gretchen Postula, Head of Investor Relations for North Sky and a speaker at the recent 2016 FOX W...

Across all industries, client expectations are changing. Wealth management for the ultra-wealthy is no exception.With the advent of technological disruptors and on-demand everything, consumers now expect high-quality services that don’t just meet, but defy their expectations. This challenge is clearly a lofty one, especially for advisors servicing the ultra-wealthy community, whose members have (rightfully) come to expect world-class quality and service from luxury brands such as Mercedes Benz and Ritz Carlton.But with the right analysis and planning, any company can improve its client experie...

When former First Lady Nancy Reagan passed away in March, millions of Americans mourned the loss. On the day of her funeral, people across the country watched the ceremony live on TV, while hundreds of others—including former President George W. Bush and First Lady Michelle Obama, and the Reagan family—attended the service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.While the events honoring Mrs. Reagan unfurled seamlessly, a dedicated team was hard at work behind the scenes to ensure the funeral was being conducted to Mrs. Reagan’s expressed desires.“We have been working for a lon...

FOX's comprehensive criteria measure whether a firm is providing an integrated wealth management solution. The LWA screening criteria is based on over 20 years studying the industry, and what wealth owners want and need at a level of liquid assets greater than $20 million.Each firm in the LWA Directory was evaluated based on each of the following 10 criteria. Firms also were evaluated in totality, with consideration given in situations where specific metrics may not be applicable.Financial Strength – Financial strength means the firm will have an increased chance of surviving through econ...

The Circular Economy, William McDonough explains, is an economic system that provides continuous benefit for generation after generation through design that allows for regular—if not endless—reuse of materials. It’s a system that embodies a particular philosophy: that by looking toward the future, businesses can increase profits today. “This is the largest business opportunity ever seen by our species, and the leaders of the economic future will be people who understand that by design, we can create perpetual assets and optimize them to create businesses that thrive and are enjoyed ...

A family office is more often than not founded around the concerns about the family’s privacy and data security. So the current news around the FBI request for Apple to unlock the password of the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino terrorists does have a passing interest. If you go beyond this specific case and look at the potential precedents it might set, then forward thinking is needed around its impact on our connected world—not to mention the future with the Internet of Things (IoT). The crux of the Apple/FBI wrangle is around a process that happens frequently to all ...

For our FOX Thought Leaders Council Report “Creating Memorable Client Experiences: Differentiation in the Ultra-Wealth Market,” we looked at 30 of the best client experience brands in the world, including Apple, Ritz-Carleton, Disney, and Tesla. We identified the following seven activation strategies to help organizations get on the road to improving their client experiences: 1) Construct a Client Experience Definition – Bring together your leadership team or family to contribute to and agree upon the desired client experience. 2) Appoint a Client Experience Leader – Inspiratio...

Now, more than ever, the business of managing private wealth is exceedingly complex. Most family offices are doing the work of sophisticated financial institutions with limited staff, while relying on a patchwork quilt of software solutions that are hosted internally with little integration, security, or disaster recovery protection but considerable ongoing expense (e.g., hardware costs, annual software maintenance, personnel). Meanwhile, clients of the office increasingly want secure access to their financial information 24/7 on their computers, phones, tablets and other devices. In the ...

I was recently speaking with the general counsel for a private family trust company (PFTC), and they told me a compelling story about their recent PFTC state situs evaluation that I believe many in the PFTC world will find both informative and relatable. With their permission, I have shared it below (the names have been removed to respect the family’s privacy): We first formed our PFTC just over a decade ago. It’s based in Wyoming and is unregulated, but over the years we’d had a multitude of family members complaining to us about how inconvenient it was to travel there. So ab...

For several years now, wealth advisors have been concerned about the rise of robo-advisors and the potential impact on the wealth management industry. There is a strong potential disruption from the new financial technology (or FinTech) start-ups, each with goals of becoming the “Uber” of peer-to-peer lending or the “Airbnb” of robo-advising. When I talk to people in the industry about this movement, some are truly excited about it, others are quite worried, and others still have no idea what to do. When reading about FinTech, you start to get the idea that these new companies ...

Jonah Wittkamper wants to start a conversation about wealth—and help rising generation family leaders find their life purpose in the process. “I think many people think that the meaning of life is to simply accumulate as much material wealth as you can,” says Wittkamper, Co-Founder and Global Director of Nexus, a global network of more than 2000 next generation wealth leaders. “I want to create a conversation and suggest that the narrative surrounding wealth should move away from materialism and other trappings of wealth, and more towards humility and responsibility. I think t...

Is the real estate market overheated? In October 2014, PwC published a report based on interviews of dozens of leading real estate professionals across a number of sectors and disciplines. The report, “Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2015,” predicted that the momentum of the last five years would continue but cautioned investors to take nothing for granted. “It is possible to stretch for opportunities—you just have to be aware of how much runway you have left in the current cycle.” Experts also observed that the private equity sector held some advantages in finding opportunities for...

He may be one of the most visible figures in the emerging movement, but Charly Kleissner realizes that there is still a lot of healthy skepticism surrounding about impact investing.“I know there are a lot of questions,” Kleissner says.If anyone is in a position to answer some of those questions, however, it’s Kleissner—particularly given how he has embraced the strategy in his own investment approach. It all began for Kleissner back in 2004, when he and his wife, Lisa, began to think more seriously about how to manage and invest their wealth, and challenged their advisors to align their wealth...

FOX has been working to determine what makes for a great experience for the client of a family office.Throughout 2015, FOX studied more than 30 businesses across a variety of industries—including notable brands such as Apple and Ritz-Carlton Hotels—in pursuit of determining what constitutes an optimal client experience and understanding how it can apply to the family office. Our research on this topic began as a FOX Thought Leaders Council™ initiative related to a family client’s relationship with their advisors, but as we have delved deeper into the realm of family client experience, we have ...

There is a big change just starting to impact the way the Internet, and its related apps, are used: they are moving away from a silo approach to one of interoperability.Essentially, instead of having to go to one particular website or application to make use of the functionality and service it offers, you will instead be able “call” the functionality or service you need from another website or application. For instance, you will be able to book an Uber ride from other applications—such as, say, Google Maps—without ever opening the Uber app itself. This new capability is sometimes called the “p...