Family Office Review

Family Office Review was founded in 2011 to serve a gap in the family office community for relevant, organized news and information. Knowledge is power – but only if you can get the right information at the right time from the right place. Wealth isolates, and wealth amplifies. This publication aims to be the most useful tool available for navigating around potential pitfalls and the unifying point for the celebration of success.

Articles:

May 2014, So What do you do for an Encore?
For so many family offices and those in the world of family enterprise, 2013 was a “banner year” with record revenues and profits, reinvestment, distributions, and bonuses.  For sure, we’ve all had prior “best years ever,” but this time it seemed to have special meaning on heels of the “Great Recession.”

February 18, 2014 Is There a Crack in the Glass Ceiling?
For several months, we’ve been working on putting together a forum for Women in Family Business.  We already have 3 other forum groups for men and women that are up and running with great success, so why a “Women’s Forum” and why not a “Men’s Forum?”   Do the interests of women in their family enterprises differ from those of their male counterparts?  And does asking that question date us?

October 31, 2013, Perspectives of the Younger Generation
I recently attended a conference for enterprising families – those in family businesses and others who had significant assets in common. At that conference there was a panel of members of the “next” generation. These were the heirs apparent, the chosen ones who are challenged with the opportunity and responsibility to take their families’ enterprises to the next generation. Theirs is a role of stewardship for not only the tangible assets traditionally associated with wealth, but for the intangible ones – the values that can sustain and even propel the family forward. The key talking points of these stewards is worth noting and can serve as a guide to members of the senior generation on topics they need to address.

September 10, 2013, Email Protocol and the Family Business: When and How To Best Use Email
Irwin and Mark are father and son who work closely together in their family enterprise. Their relationship is very open with one another. One evening Irwin wanted to speak with Mark about an important matter that involved a meeting on the following day, so he sent his son a crisp email with nothing in the subject field and in the body of the email simply typed, “Call me.”

July 2, 2013, The Burden of Wealth: An Insurmountable Opportunity
Several years ago, I met Sara who had just turned 21 years old. She told me that she had the most startling event of her life when her father told her that she had a trust fund with assets in excess of $20 million. We met because she was seeking guidance on how to handle it- the “it” being not simply the money, but the concept of wealth which she was struggling to understand.

April 15, 2013, Helping Family Businesses: The Founding of Transition Consulting Group
This story of my own journey through transition illustrates how drawing from life’s passions can help give birth to a new career.