At first glance, the clothing company Patagonia, the cleaning products manufacturer Method, and the funding platform Kickstarter might seem radically different. After all, they come from vastly different industries.However, they are all benefit corporations, which means they belong to a new cl...

According to the 2016 FOX Family Office Compensation and Benefits survey, only 30 % of offices offered long-term incentive plans.Family offices are often looking for talent with specific expertise and understanding of a family office environment. Long-term incentives can be pivotal in attracting and...

David Lough’s wonderful, engrossing, nightmarish study of Winston Churchill’s reverse Midas touch (Picador, 2015) inspires our old friend Michael Harkins, chief of Levy, Harkins & Co., to draw a monetary and investment lesson.No More Champagne, written by a former banker who knows his money, chr...

While many principals sense that their current investment programs aren’t likely to produce satisfactory risk-adjusted net returns in coming years and beyond, most have difficulty pinpointing with actionable precision the root causes of their discontent. We’ve assembled a list of the defects we enco...

“What is your family office’s number one threat? If it happened today, could you function tomorrow?”These are the questions that one family office executive asked her peers as she finished sharing the story of her office’s move to the cloud. If you can answer, “Yes” to the last question, you’r...

After an unsolicited offer from a competitor, a family reflects on what they’ve built and the uncertain road ahead.The majority of family-owned businesses have no formal succession plan or successor leaders in the wings. Equally troubling are the studies showing only 30% of family businesses survivi...

Interest in Direct Investing Increases: The 2017 FOX Global Investment Survey reveals a growing focus on direct private equity investments for family offices, reflected in asset-allocation and staffing trends.

Social impact bonds, sometimes known as “Pay for Success” projects, are contracts with the public sector in which commitment is made to pay for improved social outcomes, which may result in public sector savings. Despite their name, social impact bonds are not bonds; they are public or private partn...

Based on financial news articles and television shows, everyone should be aware that money is being constantly withdrawn from active managers and placed into ETFs and other index funds. Undoubtedly, active managers are striving with even greater urgency to beat the indexes against which they are jud...

The adage “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” became a well-known prophecy because it is, unfortunately, true. And it appears to be true in virtually every culture. In Ireland, the saying is, “Clogs to clogs in three generations.” In Italy, it’s, “Stable to stars to stable” in the sa...