Family meeting season is here, and FOX members are gearing up to create learning experiences and memories that will last a lifetime. Of course, the planning likely began long ago with committee meetings and conversations to decide where to host, what to cover, and how to top last year. Making learning a key ingredient of the annual family meeting is an important investment in the future of your family. Finding ways to make this learning experiential and fun is a terrific way to embed a love of learning in your family’s culture.In recent discussion board posts members were trading retreat locat...

In the midst of a growth economy, risk factors are sometimes pushed to the periphery of a company’s focus. It’s no different for family offices. When those risks eventually come crashing into the forefront, they’re often unexpected and can be costly. Incorporating risk planning into your short-term and long-term strategy can be extremely valuable.Recently at the FOX Family Office Forum, I discussed risk in my presentation, “A World of Increasing Risk – Are We Whistling in the Dark?” While many organizations are taking action, the realities of the risks may be greater than is commonly unde...

It’s natural to want to choose a family member or someone you know well to serve as your trustee. However, it sometimes also makes sense to choose a professional trustee like a bank or trust company as the trustee or co-trustee. The Pros of Using an Institution to Be Your TrusteeSelecting an institution to serve as your trustee may help you avoid some of the problems that can occur when a family member, friend or business associate is selected as a trustee, because institutional trustees:Have the skills and experience, along with the resources and systems, to effectively administer the tr...

A perfect storm of market appreciation and demographics points to a progressive and sustained growth opportunity in the ultra-wealth business. Now that the time of great opportunity has arrived, how prepared are advisors to assume an evolving role based on the rapidly changing needs of family businesses and families of wealth in transition? Private Business Transitions – Why are private business owners ready to make a transition?The reasons why include:Age of the Business Owner - Mid to large private businesses are still run by owners who have, up until recently, done their best to avoid ...

Increasing demands for data and the up and coming younger generation are impacting the technology needs of family offices. Many family offices are challenged to meet the growing reporting needs of family and board members. The modern conveniences of the mobile digital age are impacting businesses everywhere, especially as the younger generation is becoming more engaged.Many family members are seeking different investment approaches that integrate personal values, sustainability, creativity and networked communities together with standard and alternative investment strategies. They also expect ...

Investing directly and operating in real estate and operating businesses is an increasingly important focus for many family offices. For the past decade, FOX has been tracking family office interest in direct investing, through FOX studies and our highly-engaged FOX Direct Investing Network.The following are excerpts from an article on direct investing from the 2018 FOX Foresight publication which provides an overview on trends and FOX research surrounding the direct investing space. While specific mandates vary from family to family, we have identified several common traits direct investing f...

Overall Family Offices are satisfied with recent performance, but beginning to move away from the traditional approach to asset allocation.

Beyond the Family BusinessA business-owning family with intertwined holdings and joint assets across generations must invest in planning to ensure continued success as a family and as a business. It is by virtue of having a big picture plan, or even just expressing the need to have a plan, that a family becomes an “enterprise family.” The underlying reason for a business-owning family to become an enterprise family comes with the answer to the question “why are we staying together?” If the answer is only financial, the enterprise doesn’t last. Successful family enterprise planning involve...

All aspects of our daily lives will be impacted, as will our understanding of self and the meaning of privacy, ownership, and citizenship due to dramatic changes resulting from the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Innovation is rapidly transforming how the ultra-wealthy live and work. What are some ways families of wealth can navigate the new world of possibilities? ImpactThe ability to adapt will increasingly determine survival for all players – whether they are businesses or laborers, governments, or citizens. The impacts will be significant for human, intellectual, social, and financial c...

Legislators must know what is important to family businesses; what helps or hurts them when it comes to operating their business and creating more jobs. For that reason, it is critical that legislators hear from family businesses more than any other years in the past.To determine what issues family businesses are concerned about, Family Enterprise USA conducts a survey of family businesses each year and delivers that information to legislators, educators and others who must be informed. Without this information, legislators will pass laws that could penalize family businesses, making it costli...

You can’t evaluate what you can’t measure- and when assessing the success of any trust, proper metrics are vital. Beneficiaries should hold their trustees accountable, but so should anyone with a stake in the success of the trust, be it a grantor or a family review board.There are four standard accountability measures that should be considered when evaluating trustee performance: Loyalty Identifies potential sources of conflict Avoids situations in which there is potential for a conflict of interests Wears only one hat Hasn’t hired any related agents/advisors to provid...

Serving as a trustee is a huge responsibility and can be fraught with peril in terms of potential liability. Trustees owe fiduciary duties to the trust beneficiaries and often must juggle competing interests. It would behoove any individual who is serving (or contemplating serving) as a trustee to invest the time to educate himself or herself on what the role of trustee involves. The Primary Role of a TrusteeWhen creating a trust and selecting an individual trustee, most grantors carefully consider naming individuals whom they trust to have the intelligence and good judgment to handle the...

Most people feel honored when they are tapped to serve as trustee of a family trust. It’s an important leadership position as well as a powerful role in managing a family’s wealth. The trustee also has significant influence over the long-term well-being of the beneficiaries. It is a role that is not to be taken lightly. The responsibility is significant, and there’s a lot more to the job than meets the eye. Here are eight things every trustee must know:Be prepared to take legal ownership of all assets of the trustThe trustee is recognized as the legal owner and protector of the assets even tho...

The goals of family education include understanding the family’s values, legacy, and sources of wealth, increased engagement in the family enterprise, and basic financial literacy. Here’s how family offices prepare the next generation of family leaders. .blog-banner{ display:none; }

In March, Warner attorneys Jon Kok and DeAndre' Harris presented a webinar for the FOX Human Capital Network. The topic was common mistakes that managers, including family office managers, can make that could leave the office or families open to employment liability.Employment mistakes have been big in the media lately, and family offices are also at risk for these mistakes, as their staff members often wear many hats for the office and are not always specifically trained on employment issues. Because the repercussions from employment mistakes can be damaging, we have posted the webinar t...

What does a business succession plan look like?The term “succession planning” can sound daunting to business owners, even when they know it needs to be made a priority. Starting your plan doesn’t have to be so overwhelming though, if it’s taken one step at a time. A succession plan should not be thought of as a document to be finalized, but as a series of questions, answers, thoughts, and ideas that will continue to evolve. It’s important to remember that a succession plan is part of a living, breathing family enterprise, and it will change over time.That being said, it can’t just exist i...

What a difference a year makes. Trade war predictions, Facebook data scandals, inflation concerns and Federal Reserve comments have been whipsawing markets in the first few months of 2018. As a testament to the increased turbulence, through mid-April we had already notched 28 trading days that resulted in a greater than 1% move from the previous S&P 500 close. Compare this to the 8 such instances seen in all of 2017, and the regime change becomes clear (see Exhibit #1). "We should be about half way through the volatility" Exhibit #1In the context of history, extended periods of v...

Our minds are on constant information overload from article headlines, tweets, and even conspicuous eavesdropping in coffee shops and subways, often causing us to get stuck in conversations on topics that we must bluff our way through. I remember being at a family philanthropy conference several years ago and ended up in the middle of a conversation about Bitcoin. The conversation seemed relevant to many of the topics covered that weekend, but I had pushed cryptocurrency to the side as something that wouldn’t affect me. Not wanting to be totally silent, I chimed in about how “chainlink” techno...

Author: Rena Greifinger, Senior Lead MaverickNext, Population Services International Empathy. Child-like curiosity. Trust. Failure. These traits are what should guide the next evolution in philanthropy.I think often about the future of the social sector, not just because it is what my current job entails, but because it has been my life-long professional path and purpose.I’ve worked in non-profits my entire career—big ones, small ones, international ones and local ones. I’ve attended thousands of meetings and conferences, designed dozens of programs and strategies, and written countless g...

I am the oldest son of a successful business owner and have been actively involved in the business for 14 years. I have two siblings who are not currently active in the family business but may be in the future. As my father’s level of involvement in the business naturally slows, my responsibilities have increased with anticipated acceleration in the next 3 to 5 years. My father joined FOX when he heard about it through a business associate. He was initially the only member of the family involved in FOX, and I have increased my involvement over the past several years which has been very re...

"How do you prepare younger family members to manage their wealth well and flourish in their own lives and in their families?"Every family is challenged to find creative ways to engage family members in the process of learning – about the family and what it values and owns, as well as what it takes to care for these human and financial assets.While every family’s learning and development program will be unique and reflect the needs of its students, there are several best practices to which all can aspire. This list is culled from conversations with family leaders, industry educators, family me...

Two events in December 2017 presented new tax challenges for family offices and provide a reason to evaluate the structure of the office and the current classification of family office expenses. One is the US Tax Court’s decision in Lender Management v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2017-246 (“Lender”), and the other is the 2017 Tax Act (“Act”). Everyone is focusing on and planning for the provisions of the Act, but the Lender decision is also something you should pay attention to for your family office. The decision is important in that it provides a sort of “road-map” for family offices to foll...

Every wealth creation event has a story behind it, and it is in those stories we find the seeds that have germinated and blossomed into a family history and culture. The stories mean nothing, however, if they are lost in the mists of time. They must be preserved, revisited, and kept alive through family sharing if they are to inform successive generations.Storytelling itself is as old as human language. Even today, both ancient and modern cultures pass on knowledge through oral traditions. In the stories told from generation to generation, listeners learn and absorb the history, values, custom...

A family 'like ours'My siblings and I agree that we are fortunate to come from a family like ours. When I say, ‘like ours,’ I mean very close, sort of ‘in each other’s business,’ and with a sense of responsibility for preserving our family dynamic and the opportunities that we have been afforded. I know that, while we are not common, there are other families like ours out there. It would be extremely beneficial for me to know how those families organize themselves. I am especially interested in how families approach integrating new members into the family.When asked to clarify what generation ...

How are families adapting to changing market dynamics?While investing has never been straightforward, investing today in the face of current uncertainty feels overwhelming to many long-term investors.Faced with today’s starting valuations and current yields, many investors have little confidence that the traditional equity/bond portfolio that has generated meaningful returns over the past 30 years will be able to produce the investment returns expected and likely needed by a family to maintain wealth for generations.Amidst the current uncertainly lies opportunity; many families are materi...