When evaluating possible estate planning counsel, there are many variables to consider such as educational background and professional experience, skills, and review process. To help you determine if the prospective attorney is truly qualified to help you, there are ten key questions to ask and guidelines to follow.
Wealth Management
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The revolution of the “information age” has created tremendous advantages and helped accelerate innovation, but it has also brought with it new risks—namely cyber attacks. While the corporate attacks get most of the media attention, do not forget that individuals—especially the high net worth—need to be vigilant about cyber security. The good news is that there are ways for individuals to protect against cyber risks. This paper touches on the key threats to the high net worth and provides advice to help reduce the associated risks.
Protecting Your Business Against Data Breaches
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Data breaches have become an accepted fact of modern business. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, twenty-nine businesses reported data breaches in August of 2016 alone. No industry was safe. For many organizations, the question now is not “if,” but “when.” This year appears to be on pace to surpass the number of breaches reported last year. With that in mind, there are concrete steps an organization can take to mitigate the cost of a breach that could occur later.
QuickBooks and Excel are a common software pairing for family offices that seemingly has cost, flexibility and familiarity on its side. However, the disadvantages of this approach soon begin to outweigh the benefits. The fact that close to 90% of spreadsheets contain errors in at least 1% of all formula cells means considerable hidden risk. Plus, family office demands on QuickBooks tend to quickly exceed its functionality and the spreadsheet as de-facto reporting tool can only work for so long.
Technology Disruptors and the Internet of Things
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How will the Internet of Things (IoT) change the family office industry and how we serve our clients? This session will identify key triggers for change in terms of client engagement, delivery of services and advice, communications, integration, and access to a variety of products. The goal is a thought provoking discussion of how the world is changing, and how family offices must prepare to change over the next decade.
Family offices are looking for a secure way to interact with their families with increased flexibility, improved levels of communication and tight process integration across their business. What developments should you be aware of? Steven Draper will update us on the state of play in this area and focus on solutions and strategies that provide increased security and functionality.
Breakout Session 1C: Family Office Portal
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A family office portal is a secure electronic gateway to the information that you want to share with your family—files, photos, services, and information—accessible over the Internet through a web browser. It can be a powerful means of connection for the family. Come to this session to learn about one family's experience creating their family office portal.
Steven Draper will set out for discussion the idea of using Office 365 as the core platform in a family office and synthesize some of latest developments around this platform. This will be followed by an open Q&A.
Ten Most Common Mistakes of Family Office Investors
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Families are often overwhelmed by the complexity and sense of burden that comes with managing all the component parts of wealth across generations. More concerning, though, is the lost opportunities and the loss of capital that results from not getting it right. But owning and managing significant wealth does not have to be difficult, and learning from the ten most common mistakes that a family office investor makes can help the process become easier.
Family office activities are complex, and families can unintentionally put themselves at risk if they don’t proactively identify and address the potential impact of external factors. One solution: conduct a full diagnostic risk assessment and review of your internal controls to ensure that potential problems have been identified and proper mitigation strategies have been implemented.