Category: Review
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Beyond the 5% Hurdle: How Wealthy Families Can Benchmark More Effectively
Benchmarking is one of the trickiest parts of portfolio reporting for wealthy families. While it might seem straightforward at first to compare performance against a benchmark. Some benchmarks are obvious such as the S&P 500 for US stocks. Other simple hurdles like CPI plus 4% or a fixed 5% return don’t offer a fair comparison…
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Beyond Returns: Aligning Wealth With Values
When families think about their investments, they often focus on financial returns alone. But for many families today, that isn’t enough. They want their wealth to reflect their values, to become a force for good in the world. Not just a way to grow capital. Recently, we thought about a family in this situation, and…
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Income That’s Built to Last
Step 4 – Why Selling Assets Shouldn’t Be Your Income Plan When a portfolio needs to fund a lifestyle, many investors fall into a quiet trap: generating cash by selling off assets. On the surface, it seems harmless. And, it might even align with “total return investing”. But over time, drawing on your capital base can…
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Restructuring Fees and Aligning Incentives
Step 3 – The Real Cost of Complexity When we conducted a full audit of the family’s portfolio, the most jaw-dropping figure wasn’t performance-related. It was the fees: $330,000 per year. And they weren’t even getting full value for it—until we began restructuring fees to reflect the actual value being delivered. That amount was spread…
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Bringing the Portfolio Into Focus
Step 2 – If You Can’t See It, You Can’t Manage It After setting a clear investment strategy with the family, the next question was straightforward, but daunting: What exactly are we working with? The family’s assets were spread across three different investment advisors, each using their own custodians, platforms, and reporting systems. There was…
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Step 2: Evaluate the Portfolio and Create Clarity
Once a family’s financial records are organized and flowing smoothly, we shift our focus to what matters most: to evaluate the portfolio and ensure the investments are doing their job. Often, the issue isn’t a lack of effort—it’s a lack of visibility. Holdings are spread across institutions, account types, and asset classes, with no unified…
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What Role Does Technology Play in Your Wealth Management?
Technology is reshaping the way family offices operate, streamlining financial management, enhancing security, and improving decision-making. But what role does technology play in your wealth management? Not everyone embraces digital transformation at the same pace. And, some family members may express concerns about the complexity of new platforms and whether they’ll need to adjust to…
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How Do I Stay Involved While Stepping Back?
Transitioning wealth to the next generation is key to your financial legacy. But, staying involved in your family wealth while “stepping back” doesn’t mean losing control—it means having a more strategic role. Reducing administrative burden allows you to focus your time on fostering the success of the next generation. And, helping your kids understand your…
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How Often Should Investors Review Their Portfolio?
How often should investors review their portfolio? And, when does it become too much or too little? Researchers have discovered that acting on a schedule with surprisingly long intervals is more sensible, even when transaction costs are low. In other words, excessively fussing over your portfolio is counterproductive, regardless of its affordability. Before we begin,…
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Family Meetings for Wealth Management Success
Within wealth management, family meetings have emerged as a valuable tool for generational wealth transfer. Through our family office, we’ve seen a growing number of clients harness the power of family meetings to prepare their next generation for the responsibilities and opportunities that lie ahead. Here’s how and why these gatherings are transforming the wealth…