Family Office Best Practices

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2024 FOX Foresight
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We are excited to bring you FOX’s 2024 Foresight. As FOX turns 35, join us in exploring a range of highly consequential themes shaping the next 35 years and beyond. It is our hope the topics, which originated from families, thought leaders, practitioners, and the FOX team, will stimulate your thinking and inform your decisions and actions over the coming months. 2024 FOX Foresight is presented in 9 chapters:

When Family Office Meets Family Business: Best Practices and Top Trends
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Many successful family-owned businesses are managing embedded family offices within their existing operations to maximize the benefits and opportunities gained from the unique structure. But in time, the needs of both the business and the family shift for various reasons that include the family growing and earlier generations transitioning out of the business. If you aim to run a best-in-class, well-functioning family office while also operating a family-owned business, consider these best practices and related emerging trends.

Highlights from the 2023 Family Office Benchmarking and Complexity Study
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Navigating increasing complexity and changing needs while demonstrating the value of a family office is no small feat. The day-to-day work of running an office often leaves little room to fully grasp the impact of the work being done to fulfill the family’s vision. This 2023 FOX Family Office Study explored several key components of family office operations such as complexity, cost, governance structure, education, and advisors and outsourcing.

Presentation of the Glen W. Johnson Award | 2023 FOX Family Forum
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FOX honored Shannon Kennedy, Head, BMO Wealth Management - U.S., with the Glen W. Johnson Legacy Award. The award is presented to a distinguished individual with extraordinary business achievements and who demonstrates Glen’s values and characteristics. Glen was a great admirer of Shannon and we can’t think of a more deserving inaugural recipient given Shannon’s accomplishments and continued influence within the family office industry.

Industry Founders Panel: The Evolution of Family Wealth, Part 1 | 2023 FOX Family Forum
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For nearly 40 years, the pioneers of the family wealth profession have been working with family leaders and family office executives to help their families manage and grow their enterprises, strengthen their family systems and well-being, and deliver a positive impact on their communities and the world. For the first time ever, FOX will gather on the same stage the five most prominent and iconic founders of the family wealth field.

Maximizing the Strategic Impact of Your Single-Family Office | 2023 FOX Family Forum
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Family offices may take on a variety of roles in service to the family, so it is essential that there is a strategy that helps frame the office’s purpose and an overarching plan to help align and execute against diverse interests. The panel will cover three key areas during this session: 1) Share critical questions to ask and answer when designing or refining a family office’s purpose, 2) Provide examples and stories of how family offices evolved and progressed and, 3) Explore the latest findings from FOX’s Family Office 2023 Study for a fresh look at the state of the family office.

Amplifying Rising Gen Voices: Translating Challenges into Opportunities | 2023 FOX Family Forum
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In April of 2023, FOX released the Rising Gen Research Brief, the findings from rising gen focus groups, and a survey, conducted in 2022. This session will dive into the data through the lens of our rising gen panelists. We will learn how they experience, work through, and address the rising gen challenges in their lives and families. By discussing common challenges and goals of this segment, we will understand how to better serve this group, and leave with ideas for how other families have turned challenges into opportunities.

Cultivating Transformational Human Capital | 2023 FOX Family Forum
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FOX has identified the cultivation of Human Capital as a key element of multi-generational success for business-owning families and other Family Offices that are focused on continuity, succession, and continual growth of family assets. The Frisbie Group in Palm Beach was originally founded by three brothers investing in a single rental property in Boston, Massachusetts while in college. It has since grown to involve nearly a dozen family members working side by side with external employees to focus on transformational residential and community development projects.

People as the Driving Force Behind Family Office Operational Excellence
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People are critical to a family office’s long-term success. However, recruiting top talent can be a hurdle when there’s a shortage of top talent in a tight labor market. Compounding the problem, many family offices lack robust training and development plans to prepare next-generation family members and existing employees to step into key roles. As capability needs evolve, updating role descriptions for employee recruitment is key. Intentional skill development, career pathing, and creative compensation can help retain top talent.