Family Office Best Practices

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Ensuring Personal Security in a New Decade
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In an age of increased travel, easy access to information and global economic instability, personal security is a major concern for all wealth-owning families. In this 2010 FOX Financial Executives Forum presentation, a family office executive shares her experience in coordinating a security audit with a professional risk consultant to determine areas of family vulnerability, outline potential risk mitigation strategies and establish a process for evaluating potential security threats on an ongoing basis.

Best Practice Reporting
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Family office executives are always looking for ways to improve their financial reporting packages and their client relationships. In response to member requests, FOX organized a Best Practice Reporting Workshop in April 2010. Twenty members of FOX’s Financial Executives Network gathered in Chicago to learn about how one’s learning style impacts the creation and delivery of financial information and to develop a “best in class” reporting package.

The New Family Website: Communication Without Worry
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A growing number of families use social networking sites to stay connected and share personal and business information. For ultra-wealthy families, however, the risks involved with public websites can be significant. In this 2010 FOX Financial Executives Forum session, Mr. Thijssen reviews how advancements in technology make the creation of a family website easier and provide greater security and confidentiality for data sharing.

Income Tax Rates to Soar by 2013
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After 17 years of declining or fairly constant tax rates, investors face a changing environment of much higher tax rates on investment income starting in 2013. This brief from BNY Mellon Wealth Management details the coming changes in taxation and offers strategies for greater tax efficiency for business owners, investors and corporate executives.

Best Practices in Reporting
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Mariann Mihailidis

Family office executives are always looking for ways to improve their financial reporting packages and their client relationships. This best practices document reflects the work of 20 members of the FOX Financial Executive Council™ who gathered to learn about how one’s learning style impacts the creation and delivery of financial information and to develop a "best in class" reporting package. This comprehensive document includes a client meeting checklist as well as exemplary quarterly, annual, and supplemental reports that can serve as models for other family offices.

Hiring Domestic Help: An Overview for Family Office Executives
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When a family needs to add to their domestic staff, they often call upon their family office for assistance in overseeing the process. This paper from Mahler Private Staffing provides an overview of the steps involved in hiring domestic staff, as well as questions to ask when assessing search firms.

House Passes Senate Health Reform Bill; Additional Changes Coming
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A short article from HUB International highlights changes in the new federal health reform law, with a focus on issues affecting employer health plans (An individual mandate also applies.) The firm has detailed information available, including effective date discussions, that it plans to post to its website (www.hubinternational.com/reform).

Paying for The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
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The 2010 health care legislation imposes numerous new taxes and mandates. This summary from Glenmede highlights key tax changes to which individuals and businesses may become subject. It combines the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act enacted in March.

Short Selling: Important Business in Need of Globally Consistent Rules
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Deutsche Bank details the benefits, rationale and structures for short selling in making the case for the United States and European Union arriving at an equivalent regulatory framework for short selling. Currently, varied rules raise the cost of compliance, complicate assessment of market conditions and increase legal risks, the authors say.

For the Record
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In this set of short articles, WTAS addresses topics ranging from the tax impact of employee bonuses to factors to consider in assessing the fair market value of alternative investments. The authors also discuss changes in state personal and corporate tax rates, the impact of widening state budget gaps on state taxes, and complications of the current estate and gift tax law.