Every time you communicate, you’re doing one of two things:You’re adding valueYou’re taking up spaceWhen you add value, you’re contributing to the conversation. Clients are more likely to listen to you, remember you, and take action on what you say. They’ll pay more for your time, and respect your opinions. Your listener will give you their most precious resource: their full attention.You add value when you are communicating using your own high-performing traits.On the other hand, the more space you take up, the more difnancult it becomes to continuously earn your spot, and the more likely you...

The industry discussion of advisor fees realistically is not really an issue with fees. The issue is with the communication of the value associated with the fees. Most advisors provide value beyond the assets under management fee structure. But in many cases, the fees are presented only in relationship to assets under management.When fees are presented only as AUM-related then the only value really is the investment process that drives the investments. There are many problems with presenting your fees this way as the industry changes and new low cost options continue to infiltrate the investme...

Writing down what’s worrying you releases energy and frees up brainpower to be used more productively. Researchers have found that students with test anxiety who spend 10 minutes journaling before an exam score better than those who carry their worry into the exam. Similarly, studies have shown that writing down your concerns before going to bed can lead to a better night’s sleep. Bottom line: articulating what is keeping you awake at night is the first and most important step to mitigating your concerns.I have had the chance to participate in many of our 10 FOX Councils, small groups of...

When performing an analysis of a client’s unique personal risk profile, we often find that their assets relate to their special interests. Whether it is a passion for fine art, fine wine, or exotic cars, a hobby can often grow into a valuable asset. For those who have an interest in new technology, bitcoin could be a very exciting possibility. While some may view bitcoins as an investment, it is more generally defined as virtual currency. As early adaptors dive in and experience this still relatively new concept of regulation-free spending, they are discovering the limitations and risks a...

You can’t have a conversation about the future of the global economy these days without the subject of US presidential politics coming up. From trade to immigration to tax reform, the policies that Donald Trump implements could drastically impact markets all over the world – and that impact is already being felt. The challenge is that forecasting what the President might do during his time in office is nearly impossible. Trump prides himself on his unpredictability, but that’s not the only reason it will be difficult to figure out what he’s going to do. In order to enact any of his policies, h...

While investing has never been straightforward, investing today in the face of current uncertainty may seem overwhelming.Traditional approaches to constructing a portfolio — those that investors have relied on for decades — appear outdated. From today’s vantage point, one might say that the “arc of alpha” suggests the following:Given today’s starting valuations and current yields, many investors have little confidence that the same equity/bond portfolio that has generated meaningful returns over the past 30 years will be able to produce the investment returns expected and likely ne...

One of the fascinating things about philanthropy is its variety. Every philanthropist’s approach is unique based on a number of variables, including resources, talent, interests, and intentions. Some philanthropists follow complex strategies, others may be laser-focused on a single charity or solution.Many philanthropists want to make an impact, no matter their level of wealth. This could mean devoting time, talent, and treasure to a cherished cause. It could also involve various charitable vehicles or selected investments that yield financial returns as well as achieve an altruistic goal. The...

As I was preparing for the recent FOX Global Owners Forum, I was thinking about the importance of partnerships for family enterprises and why trust is the essential element in building strong partnerships. I thought it was worth defining trust and illustrating how it influences the different relationships in the family eco-system.The issue of Trust is a complex concept, and trusting others is not something that comes easily to many entrepreneurs and enterprise families. Because success attracts many untrustworthy suitors, it is natural for successful people to distrust the motives of anyo...

Discussing the impact of wealth on your family can be a difficult conversation to initiate and daunting to guide. Everyone wants the relationship with money to be positive with the expectation that the wealth nourish the interests and entrepreneurial desires of the next generation and that patterns of dysfunction or entitlement are avoided.One of the experts in this field is Lynn Twist, a well-known author and speaker about a family’s relationship with their wealth. She will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming FOX Global Owners Forum. Her session will provide the opportunity to th...

According to the FOX 2016 Family Office Compensation and Benefits Study, nearly 50% of offices surveyed said that finding and keeping competent, experienced talent was their biggest challenge.

The Family Enterprise is a way of thinking about the true scope of your family. It goes beyond the family business. It is more than the invested wealth. It includes all the family members, the philanthropy, the history, the values, and the future of the family. If you are the leader of a Family Enterprise, you need to plan, or engage your family members in a planning process, to map out reasons for staying together, how to make decisions together, how to establish roles for everyone in the family, and how to best engage the family’s capital for the future benefit of the family and the co...

Not to be a total Scrooge, but I would be remiss if I didn't raise a cautionary holiday season human capital reminder that your family office holiday party can expose you to increased employer liability. You should begin planning now regarding the policy and communication efforts that will ensure a safe and productive holiday season for your family office.Office Parties Gone WrongWhile the intent of hosting a holiday party for your family office is to revel in good cheer together, you should be aware that your celebration poses several liability risks. I recommend you simply plan ahead to mini...

When the family friend of Dustin Hoffman’s character in the 1960s film The Graduate took the young man aside to offer him career advice, he had just one word of advice for the young man: “Plastics.” If there were to be one word I’d offer leaders of family businesses today, it would be “Neuroplastics,” for the discovery of the plasticity of the human brain has revolutionized not only modern neuroscience, but also leadership science.Breakthroughs in understanding the plasticity, or changeability, of our brains shed new light on how the human brain functions and how our minds actually influ...

This is the missing piece and, I hope, the next big thing in technology for financial services and the family office: using automation to create value in the back office.When you look at current trends in financial services, client experience is (quite rightly) seen as the place on which to focus resources. What I would caution, however, is that good client experience has to be backed by operational excellence. Where are the tools to ensure this? Today, financial services companies rely on people to do this—but why?Take an example I have talked about before: there is new software/service in Eu...

How important is cybersecurity to you?If you’re like many family offices, it’s up there as a top priority: in the latest FOX benchmarking survey on family office technology, data security was cited as the top technology concern of FOX members. But what is your office doing about it?FOX benchmarking has found that family offices’ focus on cybersecurity has come a long way, with families and executives taking note of high-profile hacking stories and heeding the warnings of industry experts and taking action to address their own cyber-based risks.In this video from The Chertoff Group, Fall Forum ...

While I was working as a consultant for FOX, the topic of leadership succession was often on my mind—particularly whenever I was working with a multi-generational family to facilitate the process for the family’s leadership transition.So for those of you thinking about leadership succession, here are five things to know before embarking on the journey:1) Knowing that succession is an ongoing process, and not an event, will help the family – Most families are going through some sort of transition at any given time, be it in the family business, the family foundation, the family council, the fam...

There are few speakers more compelling than Mellody Hobson.Hobson (president of Ariel Investments, chairman of the board for DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc., director of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and Starbucks Corporation) is one of the most innovative thinkers and prominent leaders in the business world today. She is a young, dynamic, accomplished investment professional who has strong credentials in philanthropy, serves on several aforementioned corporate boards, and has a keen eye for what’s going on in the investment markets. Hobson is working every day with people that most of ...

In my previous blog post, “Is the Multi-Family Office Pricing Model Broken?”, I noted that there has been a 15% drop in the pricing of wealth management-related services for ultra-high net worth client prospects since 2012. Since then, I heard back from several of you asking about how advisors plan to respond to these changes in the market.Their response to the changing dynamics of price and value actually involves two steps: things they have already done, and the things they are in the process of doing.What they have done alreadyMany advisor firms have established pricing committees or ...

When considering an allocation to emerging markets, investors are almost universally seeking growth.Emerging economies have, indeed, significantly outperformed developed economies, with a GDP growth differential of over 4% per year during the decade from 2006 to 2015, based upon IMF data. For the past few years, however, emerging markets have been subject to deep skepticism over the sustainability of their growth potential, leading many to curtail or even abandon allocations to markets that represent well over half of annual global GDP growth.This incongruity leads us to two critical questions...

At the inaugural FOX Global Owners Forum, I described the evolution that business-owning families experience—and the increased complexity they encounter—as they become family enterprises. Here is a short video that explains what I mean when I refer to Enterprise Families: [[{"fid":"21356","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","alignment":""},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"default","alignment":""}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]] The question family leaders need to address is how the family can manage the increased co...

I was recently chatting with longtime FOX member Richard Bakal about the upcoming FOX Family Enterprise Experience workshop. Over the course of our conversation, it became clear that Richard had a very clear grasp and understanding of the Family Enterprise concept, and so I asked him if he would write a few words describing it. To my great pleasure, he agreed.Here is what he wrote:Most “typical” high net worth families (and their associated family offices) are inherently and unavoidably only moderately complex. However, what starts out as a family with just a family business and/or an investme...

Pricing at multi-family office firms is under pressure.That is one of the key findings in the 2016 FOX Wealth Advisor Benchmarking Study. Advisors are losing pricing power with their family client prospects, and have been for several years—there has been a 15% drop in the pricing of wealth management-related services for ultra-high net worth clients since 2012.The question now, of course, is why?To figure this out, we asked a number of leading advisors at both our annual FOX MFO Council meeting, and at the spring gathering of our FOX Integrated Wealth Advisor Council.The problem for advisors i...

When I was heading up consulting for FOX, I had the pleasure of spending a morning with the staff of a large family office at their three-day retreat in the wilderness of northern Wisconsin. I was there to share some FOX wisdom and best practices, and found it invigorating to be with a group of engaged professionals. Not only did the family support the entire staff being away from the office for three days, but they invited them to use their family lodge for the experience.The family office leadership packed the retreat with nonstop activities, presentations, learning experiences, meals and sp...

On May 18, 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) updated the Fair Labor Standards Act and expanded overtime eligibility for millions of American workers by increasing the minimum salary employers must pay workers to maintain their exempt status. The new minimum salary level outlined in the DOL's Final Rule equates to roughly $913 per week, or $47,476 per year—more than double the previous exemption threshold of $23,660.The new rules will take effect December 1, 2016. How will they impact your family office?According to the DOL, this will effectively distinguish between employees who may meet the...

Family businesses in America generate 50% of the jobs, 64% of GDP and account for 61% of all privately owned businesses. While family businesses are very important to the economic growth of our country, they are not given proper consideration when new laws, regulations and restrictions are imposed by legislators and other government bodies. While most family businesses belong to an industry or trade association that advocates for that industry, the only organization that educates legislators and others who need to know about the issues that family businesses face—and that are different from pu...