Search Results

At the start of a family enterprise journey, there is often a patriarch (or matriarch) who was both an entrepreneur and a leader who overcame uncertainty or adversity to create something very special with the potential to last for many generations. For the families seeking to sustain their legacies, there will come a time for the patriarchs to move...

Like many families, you may be involved in running businesses or other types of investments together with other family members, but is this necessarily the right choice? Should you consider breaking away and creating your own path. The decision on whether to stick together or unbundle collective assets into separate ownership and investment structu...

The death of a loved one is a difficult and emotional time for a family. There is often additional stress if you are appointed as the executor of the will and trustee of your family’s trusts, especially if the deceased had been the sole manager of substantial family assets and wealth. For an untrained person, it can be a daunting role. For these re...

Poorly structured family meetings that lack a clear purpose and agenda can do more harm than good. Failing to get buy-in from all family members can cause irreparable damage to relationships, despite the best of intentions. There are five key tips for holding a successful family meeting, which is an essential ingredient for managing wealth across g...

Investing strategies encompassing responsible investing are expanding rapidly amid greater interest from asset managers, pension plans, endowments and foundations, and plan participants. The primary challenge remains educating market participants on the different types of approaches and products. At the same time, there is rising demand among inves...

The nascent market for green bonds saw a growth spurt in 2014 with issuance tripling from a year earlier, surpassing $38 billion. The growth in green bonds comes amid greater awareness of climate change and expanding investor appetite for environmentally-aware investment products. The prevalence of these securities is likely to rise as they allow i...

A family constitution—the rule book that defines the vision and principles of a family’s wealth strategy and acts as an operating model—should be as unique as the family itself. The key to developing an appropriate family constitution is not in the ultimate output, but in the collaborative process of developing it. In working together, families oft...

The United Kingdom's Brexit vote was shocking but not surprising. Polling prior to the vote consistently showed a close contest, with "Leave" often in the lead. The Brexit outcome created uncertainty for the financial outlook and markets. Some broad themes have emerged since the vote and may carry over to other markets. Learn more abo...

At times of high uncertainty, the dissemination of information can create more confusion than clarity. The downside of today’s media model has been on prominent display in the days since voters in the United Kingdom cast their Brexit vote, expressing a wish to depart the European Union. In the aftermath, analysts began to project a wide range...

Avoiding the issue of succession planning is much easier than starting a conversation about handing over the reins to other family members. But avoidance does not defer the inevitable, and it puts family harmony and wealth at risk. As patriarchs and matriarchs of wealth families confront the issue of succession planning, there are seven questions f...

Based on a FOX Research, the average family office spends about 32 percent of its time on financial administration and reporting. That’s almost 17 weeks a year spent on collecting, verifying, analyzing, and consolidating financial information. For some family offices, these jobs took up as much as 75 percent of their time, which left them with litt...

Families are often overwhelmed by the complexity and sense of burden that comes with managing all the component parts of wealth across generations. More concerning, though, is the lost opportunities and the loss of capital that results from not getting it right. But owning and managing significant wealth does not have to be difficult, and learning ...

Corporate America is doing it, so why shouldn’t individual and institutional investors do it too? In this case, it refers to creating a so-called “fortress balance sheet” that provides protection and downside risk management by holding excess cash and cash alternatives to retain liquidity. The king of this conjectural fortress is ...

A growing trend among healthcare organizations is to evaluate and/or invest in private equity funds or directly in companies focusing on opportunities in the healthcare industry. This trend stems from the necessity of healthcare organizations to adapt to the changes within their industry in order to maintain key advantages and stay relevant. Each o...

Impact investing has gone mainstream. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which regulates single-employer and multi-employer private pension plans, now officially agrees. Recent regulatory guidance clarifies that ERISA fiduciaries may now consider ESG, impact, and other factors in their investment decisions.