FOXcast

Join Amjed Saffarini, co-founder and CEO of Trove, as he shares insights from his diverse career, moving from medicine to innovative family office solutions. He challenges the adage 'if you've seen one family office, you've seen one family office,' arguing for more commonality than often recognized. Amjed discusses the delicate balance between customization and standardization in family offices, providing practical strategies for families navigating complexity. He emphasizes the value of adaptability and community learning in optimizing family capital for long-term impact.

Today, I am pleased to welcome Matt Tobin, President and Chief Operating Officer for South Dakota Trust Company (SDTC) and President of SDTC Services. SDTC Services provides consulting and corporate services to the non-depository trust company industry, and as President, Matt is primarily responsible for managing the Company’s Private and Public Trust Company client relationships. He serves as a board director and committee member for several private and public trust companies, is member of the Board of Managers for SDTC, and Board of Directors member for the South Dakota Trust Association. Matt is the author of many influential publications on Private Trust Companies and has delivered numerous speeches and presentations on the topic, including at the Purposeful Planning Symposium, the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, Georgetown Law Center, and the Jackson Hole Financial Professionals’ Symposium, to mention just a few. He is also a frequent speaker at FOX forums, webcasts, and workshops, and is guest faculty at the highly popular FOX Private Trust Company Workshop. The focus of today’s conversation is on Private Trust Companies (PTCs) as a legal construct to organize and administer multigenerational family assets and professionalize the governance of complex enterprise families. Matt covers basics, including what is a PTC; why were PTCs created; and how they function? He then describes how enterprise families are using PTCs today and explains why they are becoming more and more popular. He goes over the use cases and challenges PTCs can help address for multigenerational families. For families who are exploring the topic and thinking about utilizing a PTC, Matt offers some valuable practical tips and suggestions that can help them avoid common pitfalls and make the process of researching or establishing a PTC a smooth one. He also provides many pointers and tips for families who already have a PTC to help them ensure they are making the most of this investment and the structures and tools it provides. Do not miss this rich and informative conversation with one of the foremost experts on Private Trust Companies in our industry.

I am delighted to welcome Buddy Thomas, Founder and President of Superior Planning | Family Office, a Southern California firm serving HNW and UHNW families since 1982. Buddy has created more than 50 individual virtual family offices, providing family fiduciaries, family members, and their most trusted advisors with what they need to collaborate and make decisions together. He is the author of four books, over fifty published articles, and the producer of more than 200 videos including, the “Fifty-Five Second Family Fiduciary” and “Secrets of a Family Fiduciary” series. In his work with enterprising families, Buddy team developed a concept he calls “the three essential elements”. He describes this concept and how he puts it to work when he advises wealthy families. As with any creative conceptual framework, the key question and the real test is how it gets applied in real-life situations. Buddy paints a detailed picture of how he and his team do wealth planning with families that encompasses all three essential elements and talks about the planning process they have created that achieves the appropriate balance between left- and right-brain topics and priorities. Buddy and his firm are known for at least one practical tool they apply successfully with families – a tool that they even named their firm after, the Superplan. Buddy defines what the Superplan is and outlines how it works and how families can benefit from it. Taking his methodology to the next level, Buddy and his firm have now developed a Family Wealth Game as a modern tool to help families engage in the planning process together and are even building this game into a software application. He shares the vision and workings of this game, describes what it adds to the wealth advisory process, and illustrates the experience it delivers to enterprising families. Please enjoy this insightful conversation with a thoughtful and creative veteran of the family wealth advisory profession and a member of a multigenerational enterprising family.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Jamie McLaughlin, Founder and CEO of J. H. McLaughlin & Co., a management consulting firm focused on strategy and practice management for wealth management and investment advisory firms, private banks, trust companies, single- and multi-family offices. Previously, he was CEO of Geller Family Office Services, a partner at Convergent Wealth Advisors where he built the firm’s New York office, the regional president of Mellon Private Wealth Management’s New York region, and a financial advisor at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Jamie is a Co-Founder of the UHNW Institute, an independent “think tank” serving firms that serve the ultra-high-net-worth client segment and their advisors. Jamie has enjoyed a long and decorated career in the wealth management and family office space, and being a history major, he has also written many excellent works on the history of the family wealth and family office industry. He tells the story, as he witnessed it, of how we the industry evolved over the past 30-40 years and paints an elaborate picture of our current industry landscape. The family office field is enjoying unprecedented growth, and with that growth come different business and service models and a variety of advisory frameworks and practices. Jamie describes the different types of firms that exist today in the UHNW wealth management and family office space, comparing their origins and unique characteristics and analyzing the pros and cons of each model. Given the spectrum of wealth management models that have emerged in the UHNW segment of our industry, Jamie offers his advice for firms who are looking to establish their place in the space or to solidify their position and ensure the long-term sustainability and profitability of their wealth management and family office business. He also provides valuable practical tips for UHNW clients and enterprise families looking to make sense of the fast-evolving wealth management landscape that serves them and to choose among the different kinds of wealth advisors and family office service providers out there. Don’t miss this in-depth conversation with one of the most experienced and respected thought leaders in the UHNW wealth management field.

Today, I am delighted to welcome Joe Reilly, CEO and Founder of Circulus Group. Joe is the host of two popular and influential podcasts in the family office and family wealth space: the Private Capital Podcast and the Inheritance Podcast. He is a longtime strategy consultant and family office expert, specializing in advising asset and wealth managers on their allocations, technology, and operations. Joe was the co-founder and founding president of the Family Office Association, and he is currently a director of The Inheritance Project, a non-profit that shares stories of inheritors. As one of the leaders of The Inheritance Project, which is dedicated to telling the stories of wealth inheritors and exploring the emotional and social impact of wealth, Joe talks about the purpose and motivations behind this undertaking. Based on conversations with inheritors and his work with families of wealth, he provides a glimpse into the most dominant themes he encounters – the top issues, challenges, or opportunities that emerge from speaking with these wealth owners. Joe offers a set of practical suggestions and advice for wealth owners and family members extracted from the different family stories he has encountered over the years, listing some useful tools and frameworks he has seen being successfully utilized by family leaders and family members. He also delves into the role of the advisors serving the family and shares some of the success stories and highly effective methods, tools, and tactics best-in-class family wealth advisors apply in their work with multigenerational families and wealth inheritors. Please enjoy this highly informative conversation with one of the long-time thought leaders and practitioners in the private capital and family wealth space.

Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Ryan Harding and Jennifer Allen. Ryan is the President of Garden Trust Company and the Managing Director of the IFO Group, the family office of the Ilitch family of Detroit, MI, founders of Little Caesar’s Pizza, one of the world's largest pizza chains. Jennifer is the Director of Insurance & Risk Solutions for the IFO and is responsible for Tenda, a captive insurance company established by the Ilitch Family Office. The insurance industry is experiencing significant disruptions and undergoing a fundamental transformation, and Ryan and Jennifer share their observations on the current insurance landscape and how the industry and the solutions it provides have evolved in recent years. Most family enterprises are complex systems of people and entities that have unique, and often esoteric, risk management and insurance needs. Ryan and Jennifer shed light on the unique needs of enterprise families and their family offices and offer their views on how well the insurance industry is currently able to cater to these needs. For the unique needs of their family, the IFO Group concluded that establishing a captive insurance company is the right solution that best serves the family and its enterprise and provides the best protection and benefits to the family members and other constituents within the enterprise. As a result, they created Tenda, their insurance captive, that provides a range of insurance products, including best-in-class, accessible, and affordable health insurance to family members and family office employees. Ryan and Jennifer provide a quick “Insurance Captives 101,” covering some of the basics, such as what are captives, how do they work, and why are they an attractive option for family enterprises. They also describe how other enterprise families or family offices can take advantage of the unique solutions provided by Tenda or pursue other similar offerings in the marketplace. Do not miss this highly relevant and in-depth conversation with two of the most sophisticated risk management thought leaders and practitioners in the family enterprise and family office space.

Today, I am delighted to welcome Raul Serebrenik, Founder of Family Enterprise Consulting International Group. Raul is an adviser, researcher, speaker, and author with extensive expertise in family businesses, entrepreneurial family dynasties, family legacy, continuity, and wealth. Raul is also a good friend and collaborator of FOX, and he is a team member of the FOX Caricol Local Chapter serving families in Colombia and the Caribbean. Raul’s work with families often involves the topic of longevity of the family enterprise, focusing on the learnings from and characteristics of families that last and flourish for generations, and sometimes centuries. He shares his observations of what it means – and what it takes – to achieve longevity of the family, the family business, and the family’s broader enterprise activities. Raul then defines the role of the family office in this journey (assuming the family has one) and shares his views on how families should leverage their family office and other enterprise resources in their journey to success and longevity. On the practical side, Raul offers some of the tools (such as diagnostics and roadmaps) families can utilize to chart their course to achieving long-term success and longevity as a family enterprise. Finally, he emphasizes the importance of implementation – there is no long-term success without implementation, even if there is a compelling shared vision. Raul provides some useful tips and suggestions for families on how to successfully implement their multigenerational enterprise vision and plan. This is a must-hear conversation with one of the most decorated and recognized international experts in the field of family wealth, family business, and family enterprise continuity and sustainability.

This week, I am pleased to welcome Doug Macauley, Partner at Cambridge Associates and member of the firm’s Private Client Practice. Doug works with both G1 entrepreneurs and multi-generational families and specializes in developing asset allocation strategies and investment manager structures for families with a broad range of investment objectives and risk tolerances. Doug is a CFA charter holder with over 25 years of investment industry experience in performing due diligence for clients on managers across public and private asset classes and advises families on a range of issues, such as structuring pooled investment vehicles, managing concentrated stock holdings, integrating estate planning within the investment portfolio, and establishing investment governance. A big and recurring topic in Doug’s work with families, both newly liquid ones and multigenerational enterprise families, is asset allocation. He tells us how families are thinking (or should be thinking) about asset allocation and lists some of the important considerations surrounding this topic, such as liquidity needs, risk tolerance, and distribution policies. Another important theme that comes into Doug’s conversations with his client families is active vs. passive investments. He shares his views on how families should be making these tradeoffs and offers his suggestions for families to consider as they look to juggle the sometimes-competing priorities of returns, control, risk, and complexity. One important practical piece of advice Doug has for families and family offices is to make sure they fully understand their exposure within their investment portfolio. He offers some valuable tips and suggestions for family leaders and family office executives on the various methods and tools to do that. Another critical best practice Doug recommends is stress-testing the family’s portfolio. He talks about how families and their enterprise offices should be doing that and unveils a number of resources they can lean on to accomplish this objective. Don’t miss this instructive and insightful conversation with an expert practitioner and thought leader representing one of the most thoughtful and respected investment advisory firms in the private wealth and family office space.

Stephan Heller, a next-gen owner and VC expert, discusses the evolution of venture capital, family office investments, and the integration of VC in family portfolios. He explores the impact of family influence on business ventures, the role of impact in family investments, and the significance of family enterprises in investment decisions. Heller offers practical suggestions for families looking to navigate the venture capital landscape efficiently.

Today, I am pleased to welcome Peter Vogel, Professor of Family Business and Entrepreneurship and holder of the Debiopharm Chair for Family Philanthropy at IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is also the Director of the Global Family Business Center and the Global Family Business Award and founder and Chairman of Delta Venture Partners and an Associate Partner of the Cambridge Family Enterprise Group. Peter works with families, owners, boards, and executives of family enterprises and family offices around the world, focusing on transformations, governance, ownership and leadership succession, entrepreneurship, wealth management, and establishing professional boards and leadership teams. Peter has dedicated his distinguished career to serving multigenerational enterprise families and he shares some of the major themes and most common challenges that families are facing, both historically and right now. Peter is the author of two celebrated books: Family Philanthropy Navigator and the recently published Family Office Navigator. He describes the purpose behind these books and how they are addressing the challenges confronting enterprising families today. For multigenerational families focused on either creating or operating their family office, Peter offers some of the practical tools and frameworks detailed in his new book. He unpacks the “Five Stone Model,” which is introduced early in the book, and explains the concept behind this model and how families should think about or apply it to their family enterprises. He also outlines the “Family Office Strategy House” framework, which serves as the backbone of several highly instructive chapters of his book, and delves into the practical aspects of this framework, covering what its uses are and how families and family office executives can utilize it to organize their thinking, design, and planning related to their family office. This is a must-hear conversation with one of the world's most renowned academics, practitioners, and thought leaders in the family business and family office space.