RECAP: FOX 30th Anniversary Forum

Looking Forward to New Challenges

Presenter:
Sara Hamilton, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Family Office Exchange  

Session Description: 

Sara Hamilton kicked off the 30th Anniversary Forum by reflecting on the profiles and priorities of wealth owners over the last three decades, emphasizing how they evolved in each period. Focusing on the decade ahead, she explored how different it will be from any other. Continued innovation and technological disruption will expose all to dramatic change at a disorienting pace.

 

“FOX will continue to add value by helping members see what’s ahead; sharing knowledge, lessons learned, and best practices; and helping members identify closest peers and strategic industry partners.”
– Sara Hamilton
Key Takeaways:  

Sara identified seven key areas of change and transformative impact for the next decade:

  • Changes in the family are evident already. More blended families with complex dynamics. More social responsibility mandates. More owner involvement. More complexity to manage. Combined, these evolving characteristics will create a radically different family landscape.
     
  • Wider geographic footprints will make family engagement more challenging. For younger generations conditioned to seeing a “big picture” view, more thoughtful education around complex and diverse choices will be needed. Increased transparency will be critical to build trust across generations and engender family commitment.
     
  • Cousins will have to work across distances to craft a shared family vision and strategy. Putting private capital to work will drive the enterprise strategy. The pace of change will add an urgency to decision-making. And having a governance structure that encompasses all of this will grow in importance.
     
  • The shift from single-business families to enterprise-centric families will continue, with more confidence placed in private investments than the stock market. Multiple direct investments will provide industry diversification. Co-investment partnering will be more common. Delivering holistic enterprise education will improve the chances the family wants to stay together.
     
  • Risk assessment and management will no longer be based on historic data. Instead, it will have to account for the unknown and unforeseen, requiring a level of comfort with ambiguity in higher-risk alternatives. Formal processes to evaluate opportunities and risks will be table stakes.
     
  • Achieving philanthropic impact in family members’ own lifetimes will be the order of the day, instead of perpetual family foundations. A redefined sense of social responsibility will lead to global mandates. Local impact in the founders’ hometown will become only a portion of the equation.
     
  • Engaged owners will value tech-savvy, strategic advisor relationships to help with scenario planning. The advisors who come out on top will be those leveraging leading-edge technology (such as predictive analytics) in managing opportunities and risks, helping more-involved owners better evaluate alternatives.
 

The next decade presents many opportunities; successful owners will be those who capitalize on them. Sara shared the ways FOX will continue to add value by helping members see what’s ahead; sharing knowledge, lessons learned, and best practices; and helping members identify closest peers and strategic industry partners.

Sara also introduced FOX’s new leadership team - Bill Sullivan, President, and Glen W. Johnson, Chief Operating Officer. During this decade of disruption, members will benefit from their:

  • Deep industry experience and ability to identify areas of change;
  • Understanding of disruption’s implications and effects on families;
  • Ability to translate stages of change into manageable strategies; and
  • Commitment to help find solutions for problems never seen before.

Attendee Quotes:  
“High caliber content and attendees - excellent environment for learning and sharing ideas.”
- 2019 Attendee