FOX Blog

Timely insights from FOX experts, members and industry authorities.

Family Office Holiday Parties: What You Should Know

Dec 05, 2016
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 ...

Tips on Smart Family Leadership

Dec 05, 2016
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 “Neuropl...

The Next Big Thing in Family Office Technology

Nov 04, 2016
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 re...

The Evolution of Cybersecurity

Oct 07, 2016
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 ...

5 Things You Need to Know Before Executing a Family Leadership Transition

Sep 14, 2016
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 ar...

Meet Mellody Hobson

Sep 09, 2016
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 th...

How are Wealth Advisors Evolving?

Sep 01, 2016
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 ...

Finding Growth in Emerging Markets

Aug 29, 2016
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 pa...

When Does a Family Become a Family Enterprise?

Aug 19, 2016
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...

What is an Enterprise Family?

Aug 08, 2016
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 wri...