The family office integrates many diverse components – taxes, philanthropic giving, trusts, personal services, property management and legal matters. A carefully chosen document management system can streamline these many pieces and reduce the overall cost of doing business.
Private investment firms that can differentiate themselves by demonstrating an infrastructure that includes complete partnership and portfolio accounting, system-enforced controls and full transparency while being able to manage complex portfolio strategies, ownership structures and allocations have a significant advantage in growing their business...
The recent economic crisis resulted not only in a significant loss of wealth, but also in a loss of trust. This article addresses the psychology of that loss of trust and presents a constructive response to it for family offices and their clients: Create standards for investing that can help avoid a re-occurrence of recent events.
The differences between the belief systems and practices of stewards and inheritors within single Asian families and the confusion they create.
The current financial crisis has caused many individuals to re-evaluate the role that money plays in their lives and has given families the perfect incentive to have realistic conversations about money. Noting that family advisors and mental health professionals long have advocated "financial parenting," this paper offers guidance for raising finan...
From planning an agenda and obtaining family buy-in to selecting the right venue and leading an event, this short article is replete with practical ideas for organizing family meetings and making them both fun and productive for participants.
Independence, freedom, the ability to choose their own destiny and focus on giving back to their community are the things that motivate extremely affluent women. The ability to pursue work they are passionate about, develop their personal strengths and be of service to those less fortunate make today's wealthiest women happy and fulfilled.
This paper defines a relatively new measure of active management; discusses how it might be used alone and in combination with tracking error to better characterize and compare active managers; discusses how it might help to identify managers most likely to outperform their benchmarks; and promotes further discussion and research of active share as...
Long-term care insurance, a meaningful solution to the long-term care risk exposure facing the ultra-wealthy, also can be a flexible and economical employee benefit, particularly in light of its statutory classification and tax treatment.
While it is always a good practice to be prepared for possible future transitions, the current economic climate makes succession planning imperative. A well designed succession plan will help protect client relationships, ensure business continuity, promote economies of scale and provide procedures for dealing with the eventual retirement of adviso...
As the management and control of a family office passes to a younger generation, it is common for new leadership to reassess many of the organization's strategic elements against a new measurement criteria, a necessary process that can lead to difficult and transformational decisions. For many, the single-family offices that remain will bear little...
Active managers and alternative investment strategies offer the opportunity to add value over passive investments and can offer capital protection. However, as recent cases of financial wrongdoing have shown, it is critically important for investors to adhere to best practices in evaluating a manager's claims and demanding both transparency and an ...
As the current economic crisis continues to unfold, financial institutions must focus not only on the immediate situation but also on the likely long-term effects. If history is any guide, Kroll says, they will see a substantial increase in fraud claims, legal disputes and regulatory actions.
A new paper from Global Superyacht Club makes the case for fractional ownership of luxury yachts, noting savings of time and money on maintenance, crewing, management, safety and security procedures, planning, provisioning and relocation delivery.
Look for new drivers of economic growth in China once the current stimulus package loses steam in two to three years, say analysts for Trusted Sources. They predict an accelerated transfer of rural labor into the cities, driving development of service industries and new investments in all types of urban infrastructure.