FOXcast

This week, it is my pleasure to speak with Dr. Jesse Viner, CEO & Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Bryn Jessup, Director of Family Services & Systems at Yellowbrick, a leading resource and national referral center serving enterprise families and providing mental health services and psychiatric treatment of troubled emerging adults. Jesse and Bryn, and their firm Yellowbrick, have been a resource partner and now specialty advisor member of the FOX community, bringing their unique expertise and thought leadership to our members. Mental health as a topic has not traditionally been part of the professional family wealth management discourse, and in fact has often been shrouded in stigma, swept under the rug, and left to families to deal with on their own. As mental health professionals for nearly 4 decades, Jesse and Bryn have witnessed the transformation of the field firsthand, and they share their views on the relevance of mental health to enterprising families of wealth. Mental health issues are challenging for everyone, but UHNW families are presented with a unique set of challenges and pain points when it comes to the mental wellbeing of their family members. Jesse and Bryn talk about the unique mental health burdens and challenges faced by UHNW families and offer some practical considerations and best practices pertaining to how families can approach the mental health and wellbeing of their family members in a proactive and positive way that builds a safe and supportive family culture. Jesse and Bryn also offer their advice for families who are facing a mental health concern, challenge, or even a crisis, and recommend a number of practical tips, resources, and steps for families struggling with a mental health issue. You would not want to miss this unique and deeply relevant conversation on a highly consequential, yet often neglected, topic with two of the foremost mental health thought leaders and practitioners working with UHNW families.

This week, I have the pleasure of speaking with Meg Pagani, a Forbes 30under30 and Fortune 40under40 founder, serial TEDx speaker, and an executive trainer. Meg teaches about Power and Leadership at the Politecnico di Milano executive programs, and helps investors, family offices and founders understand the hidden dimensions of wealth management and what that has to do with power and purpose. Meg delves into her work and research into the concept of ‘power’ – how people perceive it and use it, and how power is connected to relationships, purpose, and impact. She talks about the existence of both positive and negative power and how these are manifested in the world and needs of UHNW families and wealth management. Meg discusses the strong connection between power and the role it plays in the realm of individual purpose and impact and shares her views on how power is linked to purpose and self-actualization, and how that connects with major issues we, and especially rising generation members, increasingly care about, such as climate change, environmental degradation, and geopolitical unrest. Meg suggests some practical tips and tools for family members, both parents and rising-gen members, who want to gain an understanding of power and how it impacts their family and their community. She discusses what families can do to explore their relationship with power and how can they apply that knowledge to strengthen their family, resolve conflicts, and discover their shared purpose. Finally, Meg provides her insights into how families can apply power to their impact aspirations and strategy, and how they can connect power and agency to their impact agenda, their philanthropies, their investments, and their family enterprise overall. Enjoy this insightful conversation with one of our industry’s young stars of rising-gen engagement and empowerment.

Guglielmo Notarbartolo di Villarosa, Head of Private Equity & Venture Capital at PFC, discusses the intergenerational transition within his family branch and the importance of drafting a family constitution. They explore topics such as reshaping the family enterprise, defining value creation, supporting the next generation, selecting advisors, and the significance of family capital in creating local impact.

Tom McCullough, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Northwood Family Office, discusses the role of integrated wealth advisors and shares practical tips on finding the right advisor for wealthy families. He introduces the 'Four Markers' framework and highlights the importance of collaboration in developing infrastructure for integrated wealth advising.

This week, I welcome to FOXCast Michelle Jezycki, President of Trifecta Consulting, a US-based human resources management company. Michelle is the former Director of Human Resources for the United States Senate, and a Visiting Associate Professor at the American University in Bulgaria teaching Leadership in their EMBA program. Michelle shares insights from her work with families and family offices, which focuses on their human capital and often centers around change. She describes the challenges many people face with change, especially when different people have differing expectations and visions. She offers her views on how best to handle communications and expectations during a change-management process, such as family succession or family vision and values or rising-gen engagement and education. She also covers another hallmark of the human-capital advisory work she does, which is that it often wades into topics and relationships that are difficult and emotionally charged. She emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence during these family and family office change-management projects and offers suggestions on how best to navigate the complexities that arise. Michelle talks about one practical implement she frequently deploys in her work with families – a family retreat or facilitated family meeting. She shares her thinking on how family retreats can be used to facilitate change and effective communications among family members and puts forth practical tips for conducting successful family meetings and retreats. Finally, Michelle delves into the importance of the individual development of family members and even key staff of the family office. She outlines her philosophy on IDPs (individual development plans) and how to apply them with family members, especially younger members of the rising gen, and provides tips on how families can employ this important human-capital tool effectively. Enjoy this instructive and practical conversation with a uniquely experienced professional in the field of human capital management and key talent development.

I am pleased to welcome John Coyle, CEO and Founder of Speaking Design Thinking, to FOXCast. John is a sought-after keynote speaker, best-selling author, and former Olympic medalist in speedskating. Known as #TheTimeGuy, he is a thought leader in the field of chronoception – the study of how humans process time. John talks about the brain science of chronoception, unpacking the intricacies of how we perceive and interact with time. He argues that “there is no such thing as chronological time”, shattering some commonly held beliefs about time as a concept and introducing a lot more complexity and nuance to our relationship with time. Jonh has formulated the Three Laws of Experiential Time, and he discusses how they work and what their implications are for those of us seeking to maximize our return on this most precious and finite asset. He shares a number of practical applications of his Three Laws and offers suggestions to leaders of families and enterprises for how they can better manage their time capital and achieve better return on time invested by understanding and applying these fundamental laws. John also introduces the concept of the Time Investment Portfolio that helps families and family office professionals understand and manage the interplay between quantity and quality of time spent and thus maximize what he refers to as the “memory value of time”. Don’t miss this fascinating, mind-bending, and yet, highly practical conversation with #TheTimeGuy – one of the world’s foremost thought leaders on time capital.

This week, I’m speaking with Vincent Kavanagh, Executive Vice President and Head of Sales at Four Corners Aviation. Vincent has nearly 20 years of experience serving the aviation needs of UHNW clients in Europe and the US. Vincent and his firm, Four Corners Aviation, are a Specialist Advisor member at FOX and an active and generous contributor to the FOX community. Vincent offers an overview of the macro trends and developments that have been shaping the private aviation space in the past couple of decades. He describes how products and offerings have evolved, and explains how technology and business model innovations, as well as changing client needs and behaviors, have advanced the private aviation industry. Vincent offers practical tips for clients who fly private, starting with those who are experienced with private aviation, including families or enterprise leaders who already own and operate aircraft or are active users of fractional and other shared solutions. He also provides many invaluable suggestions for those who are just starting out in this complex and technical space – especially families, family offices, and business owners who are considering or evaluating private aviation solutions. Enjoy this conversation with one of the leading private aviation experts in the FOX community and the very helpful insights he shares relating to this niche and specialized UHNW service sector.

This week, I have the pleasure of speaking with Kristin Keffeler, Chief Learning Officer at the Johnson Financial Group. Kristin is a celebrated author of such influential books in our industry as the recently published Wealth 3.0: The Future of Family Wealth Advising, and The Myth of the Silver Spoon: Navigating Family Wealth & Creating an Impactful Life. She is also the Dean of Family Positive Psychology at the Purposeful Planning Institute. Kristin is passionate about the challenges and opportunities facing the rising-gen members of enterprising families, a subject she covers in depth in her influential book, The Myth of the Silver Spoon. She delves into the topic here, especially focusing on how the strengths-based approach can unlock the rising gen’s potential for success, happiness, and impact. She also describes the challenges that are potentially holding back rising-gen members and their parents – the things she calls “clutter” in her book – and offers suggestions on how to overcome them. Kristin also talks about the core theses of her other recently released book, Wealth 3.0, which she co-authored with Jim Grubman and Dennis Jaffee. This visionary book has been widely seen as primarily focused on or aimed at the family wealth advisor profession and its impending evolution, however, Kristin talks here about the clients, the families who are served by the advisor community, and the role they too play in the Wealth 3.0 evolution. She describes how family member education, awareness, and expectations of what Wealth 3.0 is and how it should serve them are critical drivers of the coming change. Kristin also offers some practical tips and tools for family members, including parents and the younger generations. She indicates what parents can do to enable a positive strengths-based engagement and to catalyze the evolution of their family and advisor interactions and processes toward the Wealth 3.0 model. She also outlines the opportunities for the younger generation and the role they can play to bring about and drive the positive, strengths-driven Wealth 3.0 approach of engaging with their family, the family enterprise, and the advisor ecosystem that surrounds them. Don’t miss this engaging conversation with one of our industry’s foremost thinkers and practitioners specializing in the rising gen and their success and well-being.

This week, I am thrilled to be speaking with Cassindy Chao and Shannon Lundgren, co-founders of Boutique Matchmaking, a high-end personal advisory practice that provides curated matchmaking, date coaching, and strategic consulting for multigenerational families of wealth. The fact that we are talking about high-end professional matchmaking, date coaching, and curated singles education for UHNW clients, shows just how far our field is progressing toward embracing the full spectrum of qualitative, human-capital needs, and wellbeing of our UHNW clients. Cassindy and Shannon provide an overview of how the professional matchmaking field has evolved over the past 10-20 years, and how this highly consequential service is gradually maturing from being shrouded in stigma and mystery to being professionalized, supported by research and best practices, and provided by professionally trained and sophisticated advisors and consultants. Many of the qualitative wellbeing topics in our field are still considered somewhat sensitive, controversial, or even taboo for families and advisors to engage in openly and professionally, and romantic coaching and matchmaking services are right up there on the list of difficult or hush-hush topics. Cassindy and Shannon shed some light on the challenges and risk these stigmas create for single UHNW clients, their families, and their family enterprises. The co-founders of Boutique Matchmaking dip into their rich experience and share some of the most common client situations they face. They also offer many practical tips and suggestions for UHNW clients who are either starting for the first time to look for a life partner or are thinking of reentering the dating scene later in their life. Nowadays, it is increasingly likely for wealth advisors, family office executives, and other trusted professionals who surround and serve the family to be exposed to the personal and even romantic aspects of their clients’ lives. We have had instances within the FOX community where family office professionals have had to deal with challenging situations involving romantic fraud, dating-app etiquette, and other “non-traditional” family wellbeing topics. Cassindy and Shannon offer some advice for professional advisors and family office employees who find themselves involved in and have to navigate well these sensitive areas and moments in their principals’ lives. Please enjoy this unique and eye-opening conversation with two of the trailblazers of professional matchmaking, date coaching, and romantic consulting. Cassindy and Shannon, and their firm Boutique Matchmaking, have just recently joined the FOX community as official marketing partners, and we are proud to offer their expertise and thought leadership to our members.

Paul Westall and Tayyab Mohamed, co-founders of Agreus group, discuss the unique needs of family offices in talent recruitment. They highlight the increased professionalization of family office operations and governance as a significant trend. They offer practical tips for family offices to attract and retain topnotch professionals. The chapter also explores the challenges of compensation and incentives, as well as the importance of family capital and enterprises in the economy.