Here are some numbers to grab your attention and ponder: The U.S. dollar has rallied almost 25% percent in the past nine months and 35% over the past four years. In light of these substantial and notable gains by the bullish greenback, it’s hard not to ask: What is propelling the dollar’s surge? What should investors do going forward? Will the big ...
For many family offices—especially the smaller ones—the thought of spending tens of thousands of dollars on one key element of cybersecurity, penetration testing, is a daunting prospect.Though certainly helpful, penetration testing is often overkill for many offices. A better approach may be to start with a vulnerability scan.The terms “vulnerabili...
A client of mine once characterized Wealth Integration as a “fiscal physical.”Initially, I wasn’t all that flattered by the comparison. However, the more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that this unfortunate-but-fair description accurately recognizes that, like a medical physical, a fiscal physical is something that one knows should ...
One of the hardest things for any family to accomplish, but especially a family of wealth, is to engage multiple generations in a meaningful way. I’m convinced that one of the best ways to do that is through shared philanthropy.In the summer of 1999 my cousins and I ranged in age from 12-27. At 19 years old, I fell somewhere in the middle. Those of...
I have been traveling in the US and abroad lately, meeting successful business owning families who feel that they have “become bigger than their business”. They realize that, in addition to the family business, they need to start to focus on the “business of family.” Many are pondering how to evolve to a family enterprise mindset and whet...
When I attended a recent FOX Executive Council meeting, one common theme I kept hearing from members was how difficult it is, in this or any business environment, to keep the right talent on staff and not face flight risks. The most obvious answer is “cash compensation,” but sadly there’s not an infinite salary budget, so what else can we do to kee...
There seems to be at least one new concept that lingers in the memory and creates a buzz among the attendees at each FOX event. At this year’s FOX Wealth Advisor Forum, it was the observation by Glen W. Johnson, Managing Director of Mirador Family Wealth Advisors, on the significant impact that increasing life expectancy is going to have on the dyn...
Families with significant wealth often tell us they wish to deploy a portion of their resources to make some kind of positive impact—broadly defined as doing good for people and the planet. We know that for many clients, the pursuit of impact is fundamental to their efforts to define their family or foundation legacy. While one way to achieve impac...
It used to be very difficult for beneficiary’s to change the terms of previously-established trusts, and if they were able to make the changes at all, it could be quite costly. But through a process known as “trust decanting,” trustees can “pour” the assets from an older, less-desirable trust into a new one. This essentially allows beneficiaries to...
Raise your hand if your family has ever had a cousins group that was somehow engaged in investing together. Keep your hand up if after a year or two, or even three, those Next Gens were no longer interested in their group. My hand is up. Is yours? Now, raise your hand if you decided to find a way to work past that blip in time, and have a thriving ...
CFOs are increasingly using Accounts Receivable (A/R) Insurance as a strategic tool to support business growth.A/R Insurance, also known as Trade Credit Insurance, has long been a standard corporate operating procedure in Europe, where complex cross-border trade makes managing receivables a significant challenge. In the United States, A/R insurance...
Family wealth is notoriously difficult to maintain across generations. Without a powerful strategic vision, statistics show that family wealth is bound to dissipate. One useful strategy for nurturing a legacy is to foster an entrepreneurial culture within the family.Most families of wealth began their stories generations ago with an entrepreneur—a ...
Recently, more than 60 FOX members took part in a survey of family offices by the Private Investor Coalition (PIC). PIC is an authority on legislative and regulatory issues affecting single family offices, and serves as a resource for disseminating information on legislative, regulatory and compliance issues impacting single family offices.PIC was ...
In the not too distant past, if you were in IT and had virtualization skills, you probably thought your future as an IT admin was secure.Today, that is no longer the case.In "The Big Switch" by Nicholas Carr, the author explains how the use of electricity in larger businesses shifted from on-premises systems (companies had electricity departments, ...