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In a more challenging investment environment, families are more frequently seeking to partner with investment advisors that manage the entire relationship, leading to a dramatic increase in demand for family office providers. Multifamily offices have emerged as an attractive structure because of their solutions-driven approach and capacity for shared resources.

GenSpring reports that despite increased market volatility and instability on global markets, threats of inflation and recession, the age of affluence is upon us. It further argues that men play a central role in decision-making of most affluent families. Understanding their attitudes, views and practices may therefore help us to understand their future intentions with regard to their wealth.

This IBM report argues that many client relationship managers do not actively sell their firm. IBM also contends that there is a tremendous opportunity for wealth management firms to strategically use client attitudinal information to target and improve high-impact service interactions. Firms that get it right can strengthen their ability to improve client loyalty, increase wallet share and refine business performance.

This research brief reports on declining UHNW client satisfaction levels among their wealth advisors and private banks.

Trust is not only crucial to success among the owners of substantial wealth but also the sine qua non for successful teamwork among professionals who work with them. There can be dangers, however, in too much trust and too little healthy confrontation, just as there are in mistrust and chronic conflict.

In our 1st Quarter 1991 newsletter, FOX interviewed the Laird Norton family office, which at that time had become a Private Trust Company and had been serving outside clients for several years. Now a firmly established Multifamily Office, Larid Norton discusses how their firm has evolved.

In a competitive global marketplace, employers across the United States spend countless resources attempting to set themselves apart and claim their share of available business opportunities. Against that backdrop, it is easy to understand why employers will do everything possible to protect the confidential information they have created and the goodwill they have built with their customers. Employees are a critical element in building that success, but they can also be well-positioned to undermine such efforts when a relationship turns sour or where they are courted by a competitor.

When a family member is diagnosed with a memory disorder like Alzheimer's, it can be confusing and frustrating. With the right preparation and care, family offices and household staff can provide invaluable assistance and information to the families on what to expect and how to cope from the early stages to the end stages of dementia.

While laws in the United States generally allow trust property to be protected from the creditors of beneficiaries, there has traditionally been an exception to these protections where property in a trust is derived from a beneficiary’s own contributions to the trust. In rejecting this traditional rule, some states have modernized their laws, via statute, to allow creditor-protected self-settled trusts under certain circumstances. Some key provisions of these laws are summarized for comparison.