CLIENT FAMILY #1
Elaine Black and John Green are second generation sister and brother with their respective households living in North Carolina, and part of a $75 million net worth family. They gained their wealth via their family business that their father had created (now deceased). They are on the board of this business, but have hired outside managers to operate it.
How They Found Us: Read more… They were referred to us by their CFO for the family business, who had heard about us via their firm’s CPA, who in turn knew about us.
Challenge: Read more… They came to the realization that they had outgrown their financial advisor, and as their own children were coming of age, they were seeking some family education.
Solution: Read more… They hired us to undergo our proprietary three-step process, which allowed us to get to know them well, and to recommend a short list of best-in-class family wealth firms. We narrowed down our search to two firms, both of which led to onsite visits conducted by our team.
Results: Read more… We placed both the brother and the sister with a West Coast-based Multifamily Office firm in 2007, and they remain a satisfied client today.
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“From the minute we heard about this process and talked with this team, we knew this made all kinds of sense. The choices they had presented to us made our decision a tough one at first, but once we visited with the two finalist firms onsite, it became clear and we had comfort in our choice.”
CLIENT FAMILY #2
Bobby Johnson made his wealth by developing and owning several medium-sized businesses, but a major part of his good fortune (and thus his $300 million in wealth) came from real estate that he owned in Texas, that later was discovered to have major natural gas deposits. His wife and grown children were not involved in his businesses, which by then had been partially liquefied.
How They Found Us: Read more… We were approached in 2013 by a senior member of Bobby’s trust senior staff member who acted as the holding company’s CFO, who had heard one of our team members speak at a family office conference in Atlanta.
Challenge: Read more… Bobby was quite healthy and only 55 years old, so he knew that he wasn’t going to quit operating his companies, as he enjoyed this and was hoping to bring two of his children onboard someday. He had very capable staff, but none of them admitted to knowing much about investments and running a family office.
Solution: Read more… We collaborated with Bobby and his senior staff to put together a small, nimble family office that was built upon the premise of largely outsourcing a great deal of the investment management, client reporting, and other key functions to outside expert firms. This family office was to be managed by his loyal staff, which he thoroughly trusted.
Results: Read more… We worked to understand Bobby and his staff’s style, then helped them source, interview and hire several key outsource provider firms, including a top-notch External CIO firm, a leading Client Reporting firm, and a boutique Private Banking organization that had Trust Company powers. Bobby could be unencumbered running, buying, and selling his other companies, and his staff could stay in their own comfort zone, while drawing upon the expertise of these newly-found family wealth outsource firms.
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“Once we understood what they could bring to the table, it was a no-brainer hiring this team. They worked within our framework and had no pre-conceived notions of a solution until they heard and fully understood what we were trying to accomplish. They put us in front of top notch firms to choose from, and they never steered us wrong. They saved us a ton of time and they did it right. We are very thankful that we found out about them before we tried to do this ourselves.”
CLIENT FAMILY #3
Sally McHenry is a highly successful Chicago-based C-Suite executive of a Fortune 1000 company who was recently divorced. Since her former husband made his own fortune as a hedge fund manager, he had handled all of their finances. Now that she was back on her own and with a net worth exceeding $60 million and growing, she realized that she needed her own advisor, but didn’t know where to turn.
How They Found Us: Read more… Sally found us through her divorce counselor, who knew us via the family wealth community.
Challenge: Read more… Sally was quite busy as the CMO of her firm. With her recent divorce and being a single parent of two teenage children, the last thing on her list was managing her own finances. Yet with her growing net worth, she fully realized she need to get ahold and be in charge of her own fate and that of her children.
Solution: Read more… Sally met with us and realized that we could manage the selection process of finding a suitable, best-in-class family wealth firm. Location wasn’t an issue – but being progressive and offering financial education and coaching for her two teenagers was a priority.
Results: Read more… We were able to find her a New York based multifamily office that met all of our agree-to criteria.
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“At such a confusing and busy juncture in my life, this organization was really on top of things. They understood me and my needs. The family wealth firm I hired already had in place the educational and coaching tools to shepherd me and my children through many of the choices we need to make, now and going forward. I was so pleased that we hired them!”
CLIENT FAMILY #4
The Bernstein Family has a $250 million dollar private/single family office located in the Northeast. They are third and fourth generation family members – ten households in all - served by this family office.
How They Found Us: Read more… We were approached by the non-family head of the family office and the head of the family council (a fourth generation family member), as they already knew us from the family office community.
Challenge: Read more… The founder of the original family business created the family fortune in the mid-1800s. While the family office has served the family well, the increased costs and the challenge of an aging staff gave rise to the family questioning whether to continue the family office and thus, to seek out alternatives.
Solution: Read more… They hired us complete a strategic scan of their existing operations, including their costs, salary structures of the staff, services provided, and what the family wanted to accomplish. Paramount was keeping something in place that would keep the family together.
Results: Read more… The family was quite loyal to its existing staff. We worked out a five-year succession plan in 2011 that included the family office hiring a multifamily office to act as a strategic outsource provider to the family office. This plan also accounted for the planned retirements of three of the staff, with the other two as liaisons to the Multifamily Office firm. Today, the family has significantly lowered its cost and received more/improved services and offerings. Most importantly, the family has increased its chances of keeping their family together.
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“This was one of the best decisions we ever made. This process took a great deal of buy-in from our family council, and it took some time to work through all of our concerns and issues. Our greatest fears of not keeping the family together, as well as having to let go our staff, were put to ease. We couldn’t have done it without their help!”