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We are excited to bring you FOX’s 2024 Foresight. As FOX turns 35, join us in exploring a range of highly consequential themes shaping the next 35 years and beyond. It is our hope the topics, which originated from families, thought leaders, practitioners, and the FOX team, will stimulate your thinking and inform your decisions and actions over the coming months. 2024 FOX Foresight is presented in 9 chapters:

In our first two quarterly write-ups this year, we explored on two familiar forms of family capital. Miguel López de Silanes Gómez addressed areas of focus for the financial capital of family enterprises in our Q1 Summary entitled From “Polycrisis” to “Polyopportunities”: Investment Highlights from FOX Members.

For the second quarter, we turn our attention to the topic of human capital and the level of attention it is receiving among our members, and across the industry at large. You may recall during our January 18 webcast on “The Rise of Human Capital” we stated that the “New Era of Family Wealth” has arrived.

FROM “POLYCRISIS” to “POLYOPPORTUNITIES”: In October 2022, in an article in the Financial Times 1, historian Adam Toze brought back into popular use the term “polycrisis” to describe the situation the world was in, with several crises building each other to create an intertwined web of complex disruptions.

The dramatic growth of the family office industry in the 1980s was sparked by new liquidity running through hundreds of business-owning families. In an effort to preserve and expand their wealth, they needed a professional financial office so they could focus on broadening their business endeavors or living unencumbered lives.

Discover different learning approaches taken by three families who partnered with a FOX consultant to develop their human capital, engage the next generation, and create a culture of learning at an early age. These three vignettes exemplify best practices and trends in family education, including the formalization of family learning.

From a global crisis triggering a family’s restructuring, to an entrepreneur-turned-global-investor’s commitment to change the world, six case studies demonstrate how some international champion enterprise families are assessing their threats and opportunities, reinventing themselves, and delivering the full potential of family capital to realize their desired vision and positively impact the world.

Some trends move slowly until they reach a point of inflection, at which time they seem to accelerate at almost blinding speed. So it has been for the rapid emergence of The New Era of Family Wealth. The departure from the past has been driven by four trends (transitions, talent, technology, and time) introduced by FOX in January of 2022. As these four trends have continued to persist, they have now become the transformative force behind this New Era.

Investing in direct opportunities has become increasingly mainstream, and the evolution of family portfolios over the past 30 years supports that. While direct investing is not new, well-funded and focused competitors are increasingly changing the investing landscape. Families entering into direct opportunities can encounter unfamiliar and even unsettling ground. This article explores the competitive landscape of direct investing, how families can compete in the challenging landscape, and which asset class might be best for them.

The past year challenged families to react to adverse trends to protect their enterprise and build capabilities to achieve their vision. The journey from uncertainty to impact requires an elevated enterprise mindset and determination to persevere throughout the four-stage evolution to position the family enterprise for long-term success and positive community impact.