Podcasts about uhnw

What does it really take to build a career as a traditional Butler at the highest levels of luxury hospitality and private service?In this episode of Recruitment Diaries: Life in Private Staffing, Philippa is joined by Tony Jazz, an experienced Butler whose career has taken him through some of London's most prestigious five-star hotels, including The Connaught, Claridge's and The Savoy, before moving further into private service, events and consultancy. Tony's career has been built on hard work, adaptability and a willingness to step into situations he had never experienced before. From arriving at the office at 6am to master a completely unfamiliar role, to luxury procurement, managing Butler teams and creating memorable experiences for high-profile guests, his story is a brilliant example of where saying yes to opportunities can take you. Together, Philippa and Tony discuss the evolution of traditional Butlering, moving between five-star hotels and private service, and why formal training can teach you the fundamentals — but experience, intuition and understanding your Principal are what truly make an exceptional Butler. In this episode, Philippa and Tony cover:

Today, I am delighted to speak with Cory Klippsten, Founder and CEO of Swan, a financial services company that focuses exclusively on Bitcoin. Cory is an investor or advisor in more than 50 technology startups and was named to the Top 500 Most Influential list by LA Business Journal in 2024 and 2025. He is a partner in Bitcoiner Ventures, El Zonte Capital, and The Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, and as an angel has funded more than 60 early-stage tech companies. Before startups, Cory worked for Google, McKinsey, and Morgan Stanley, and earned an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a frequent guest and contributor to tech, financial and Bitcoin media. Recent appearances include CNBC, Bloomberg, Barrons, The New York Times, and Yahoo! Finance. Cory explains how Bitcoin features in the asset portfolios of UHNW families and family offices today and how their attitudes and exposure to this foundational digital asset have evolved over the past few years. He also comments on how Bitcoin compares to or stands out from other digital assets families are considering or investing in. In the grand scheme of things, Bitcoin is still a relatively new asset, and many investors are still coming up the learning curve on how to invest in it. Cory talks about where Bitcoin is today in its maturity curve and its progression from a frontier digital alternative to an established, mainstream asset class. Cory offers his views on the best tools and platforms for families and family offices to become educated on Bitcoin and to keep up with the latest trends and development in this avant-garde space. He describes the products and providers family offices should consider when investing in Bitcoin and participating in the continued ascendance of this and other major digital assets. Don't miss this fascinating conversation with a prominent Bitcoin pioneer, innovator, and entrepreneur. Episode Resources from Cory Klippsten "The Bullish Case for Bitcoin" article Vigil Protocol family financial orchestration (complimentary trial for FOX listeners) "Welcome to Bitcoin video" series "Inventing Bitcoin" book Stephan Livera "Intro to Bitcoin Austrian Economic Thought" "Broken Money" book by Lyn Alden

What does it really take to build a career as a Butler at the very highest level of private service?In this episode of Recruitment Diaries: Life in Private Staffing, Philippa is joined by Andrii Oliinyk, an experienced Head Butler whose career has taken him from an engineering degree and supermarket job to superyachts, a Royal residence in the Middle East and a UHNW private household in London.Andrii's route into private service was anything but traditional. Rather than starting at a prestigious Butler Academy, he learned on the job, continually upskilled and built an international career through hands-on experience.Together, Philippa and Andrii discuss the realities of working at the highest levels of private service, why no two households are ever the same, adapting between Royal and UHNW environments, and why even the most experienced Butlers never stop learning.In this episode, Philippa and Andrii cover:✨ Breaking into private service without the traditional Butler Academy route

Fire the Whole Investment Team: Meb Faber on 250 Years of American Compounding and Why CalPERS Can’t Beat a 60/40 allocation https://youtu.be/9lBYkG4J2sY A dollar invested in the U.S. stock market in 1800 is worth roughly $200 million today, and Meb Faber says the giant pension funds paid to beat that kind of compounding usually can’t. In this episode of Wealth Actually, Frazer Rice talks with Meb Faber, co-founder and CIO of Cambria Investment Management and host of The Meb Faber Show, about his new coffee-table book Investing in America: The Rise of a 250-Year Bull Market, the shareholder yield thesis behind Cambria’s ETF lineup, and his long-running public campaign arguing that CalPERS and other giant institutional pools routinely fail to beat a simple, low-cost buy-and-hold portfolio. https://open.spotify.com/episode/4WmnPm3GN8jwQtJuCVV9XG?si=nLLcz8y8RSuydORA5_ZHGQ Key Takeaways America is, in Faber’s words, the greatest compounding machine in history. He puts a dollar invested in U.S. stocks in 1800 at roughly $200 million today — a number he uses to reframe how clients should think about staying invested through wars, depressions, and pandemics. The book’s origin story starts with meme stocks. Faber says COVID pulled a new generation of retail investors into the market through gamified trading apps, and he wanted to hand them a historically grounded alternative to day-trading and zero-day options. Diversification is older than the country itself. Faber traces the concept back to 15th- and 16th-century joint-stock voyages — the Mayflower and the Virginia Company among them — where spreading capital across many risky expeditions let “merchant adventurers” survive when any single ship was lost. Shareholder yield, not dividend yield, is Cambria’s core factor. Since the S&P 500’s dividend yield now sits near an all-time low of 1.04%, Faber argues the real signal is cash dividends plus net buybacks — net of the dilution from stock-based compensation that quietly erodes shareholders’ ownership every year. Faber’s CalPERS critique boils down to one line: “the returns are not bad, they’re just not good.” He’s built an entire body of work, including Cambria’s ENDW endowment-style ETF, arguing that giant pools with virtually unlimited access to managers still can’t consistently beat a disciplined global 60/40. Complexity is often the enemy, not the edge. Faber contrasts investing with almost every other field of expertise: hiring the best doctor or coach nearly always helps, but hiring the most sophisticated (and expensive) money manager frequently doesn’t. Illiquidity has a way of showing up at the worst possible time. Faber points to endowments getting caught upside down in 2008–2009 and to more recent leveraged blowups as the same lesson repeating: over-lever a portfolio and you’re out of chips at the poker table. The real accountability gap is career incentives, not investment theory. Faber contrasts Yale, which gets a pass for strong long-term results, with Harvard’s endowment, which he says has underperformed for two decades without anyone losing their job over it — a dynamic he says maps directly onto UHNW family governance. Timestamps [00:00] Cold open — CalPERS CIOs vs. UK prime ministers [00:29] Show open and disclaimer [00:54] Welcome: Meb Faber, Cambria, and the new book [02:07] The $76 price tag and the 1776 joke [03:13] Genesis of Investing in America: COVID, meme stocks, and joint-stock voyages [06:33] The most surprising find: Ben Franklin’s “Mind Your Business” motto [09:09] Argentina vs. the U.S. — what actually drove American exceptionalism [12:47] Cambria today: the shareholder yield thesis [17:46] Why politicians target buybacks instead of stock-based comp [20:54] The CalPERS critique begins [21:34] The Ivy Portfolio, the ENDW endowment ETF, and year-one results [25:45] The Nevada pension comparison and the liquidity-complexity pushback [26:56] Institutional blowups, Harvard’s endowment dysfunction, and misaligned incentives [29:36] The “anti-Switzerland of asset management” bit [31:16] Close: where to find Meb, Cambria, and the book Pull Quotes “No, no, no, no, Frazer — it is $76, in honor of 1776.” — Meb Faber “A dollar would be worth roughly $200 million today… despite wars and depressions and pandemics and everything else terrible that’s happened in the history of the world, this relentless compounding is such a fun story.” — Meb Faber “There are dividend funds in the U.S. today… whose actual dividend yield is lower than their management fee. A negative net dividend yield — an astonishing statistic in 2026.” — Meb Faber “Who’s had more turnover in the past 10 years — CalPERS CIOs or UK prime ministers? Both totally dysfunctional. I think CalPERS has a slight edge, but it’s close.” — Meb Faber “I’m the anti-Switzerland of asset management.” — Meb Faber About the Guest Meb Faber is co-founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of Cambria Investment Management, an independent, privately owned advisory firm built around quantitative asset management and alternative investment strategies (BusinessWire). He hosts The Meb Faber Show, one of the most widely followed investing podcasts, and is the author of eight books, including The Ivy Portfolio, Global Asset Allocation, Global Value, Shareholder Yield, and now Investing in America: The Rise of a 250-Year Bull Market — his first coffee-table book, released to coincide with the U.S. semiquincentennial (Curzio Research). Proceeds from the book go to charities that fund investment accounts for Americans born in the country. A ninth book, The Awesome Portfolio, is slated for release on September 8, 2026 (Meb Faber on X). Contact Meb Faber & Cambria Cambria Investment Management: cambriainvestments.com Cambria Funds: cambriafunds.com Meb’s blog, podcast & research: mebfaber.com The Meb Faber Show: themebfabershow.com Twitter/X: @MebFaber Book — Investing in America: available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and signed via Pages bookstore in Manhattan Beach, CA (Acquirer’s Multiple) Cambria Funds Mentioned Shareholder Yield suite (SYLD, FYLD, EYLD, plus small-cap and large-cap variants) — cash dividends plus net buybacks plus net debt reduction, divided by market cap (MarketWatch) GVAL — Global Value ETF screening the cheapest quartile of roughly 45 country markets by long-term valuation (Cambria — GVAL) TAIL / FAIL — U.S. and global ex-U.S. tail-risk ETFs pairing short-term Treasuries with a rolling ladder of out-of-the-money S&P 500 puts (Cambria — TAIL) Trinity Portfolio (TRTY) — roughly half buy-and-hold, half trend-following across a basket of other Cambria funds (Cambria — Trinity Portfolio) ENDW — Cambria’s endowment-style ETF, discussed on the show as roughly $150–180 million at launch and referenced later in conversation as having grown toward roughly $5 billion in assets with more than 100,000 investors (MebFaber.com) The CalPERS Critique — Further Reading 9 Institutions Can’t Beat a Basic Buy-and-Hold Allocation — MebFaber.com How California’s $450B Pension Fund Misses the Basics of Investing — YouTube Should a Robot Be Managing CalPERS’ Portfolio? — MebFaber.com, 2015 Index Funds vs. Ivy League — MarketWatch/Barron’s Streetwise CalPERS: America’s Misled and Misleading Pension Leader — Retired Public Employees Association CalPERS Section II Performance Tables (2026) — CalPERS.ca.gov Reducing the Noise of AI Investing – FrazerRice.com Frequently Asked Questions How much would a dollar invested in the U.S. stock market in 1800 be worth today?Meb Faber says roughly $200 million, using the figure to illustrate how relentless compounding has powered through wars, depressions, and pandemics over the country’s history. It’s an illustrative, back-of-envelope estimate rather than a precise index calculation, since standardized stock indexes didn’t exist in 1800. Why is Meb Faber’s new book priced at $76?It’s a nod to 1776 and the country’s founding, timed to the U.S. semiquincentennial. All proceeds go to charities that fund investment accounts for Americans born in the country. What is shareholder yield, and how is it different from dividend yield?Shareholder yield is cash dividends plus net stock buybacks (net of new share issuance, particularly from stock-based compensation), divided by market cap. Faber argues it captures real capital return to shareholders better than dividend yield alone, especially now that the S&P 500’s dividend yield sits near an all-time low of about 1.04% and share buybacks have outpaced dividends every year since the late 1990s. What is Meb Faber’s argument against CalPERS and other large pension funds?Faber’s recurring claim is “the returns are not bad, they’re just not good” — that giant institutional pools with access to virtually any manager on the planet still fail to consistently beat a simple, low-cost, diversified buy-and-hold portfolio, once fees and complexity are accounted for. Cambria launched an endowment-style ETF (ENDW) partly to make this a live, ongoing comparison rather than a hypothetical one. What is Cambria’s endowment-style ETF and how does it compare to institutions like CalPERS?ENDW replicates a Yale/Swensen-style endowment allocation — global stocks, global bonds, and real assets like gold, TIPS, and REITs — in a low-cost ETF with an all-in expense under 25 basis points. Faber uses it as a running, real-time benchmark against actual endowment and pension performance reported each fiscal year. Why does Meb Faber say complexity is often the enemy in investing?Unlike most fields, where more resources and the best available experts reliably produce better outcomes, Faber argues that in investing, more complexity and more access to exotic managers frequently doesn’t translate into better returns net of fees — and often just adds cost and illiquidity risk. What lesson does Meb Faber draw from institutional blowups and the 2008–2009 crisis?Endowments that mark their portfolios only once a year got caught badly offsides in 2008–2009, with illiquid positions falling even further than public markets. Faber sees the same pattern recur whenever a fund over-levers and gets forced out of the game — a basic failure of position sizing and situational awareness that keeps repeating at the highest levels of finance. Full Transcript [00:00] Cold Open (produced VO): I said, who’s had more turnover in the past 10 years — CalPERS CIOs or UK Prime Ministers? Both totally dysfunctional. And I think CalPERS has a slight edge, but it’s close. Meb Faber suggested that CalPERS should fire its entire investment team, and that complexity has become a major headwind to their ability to generate returns. Find out more on this episode of Wealth Actually. We’re also going to talk about Meb’s new book, which argues that America is one of the greatest compounding machines in the history of capitalism. [00:29] Show Open (produced VO): Welcome back to the Wealth Actually podcast — the show that features experts, entrepreneurs, and commentators who give you the right knowledge, planning, and guidance so you can preserve your assets and enjoy your wealth. Learn more and subscribe today at WealthActually.com. This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice. It does not represent the opinions of the employers of the host or guest. [00:54] Frazer Rice: Welcome back. Meb Faber is on the show. He founded Cambria Investment Management, which is a $4 billion ETF group. He also has The Meb Faber Show and does a lot of different writing. He’s famous for being on Twitter and taking on CalPERS. But most importantly, he has a new book out talking about America as a great compounding machine. It’s a lot of fun to have him on. Welcome aboard, Meb. [01:16] Meb Faber: My man, great to be here. Frazer Rice: Oh, thank you for being on. I thank you beforehand for including a piece of my writing in one of your old compendiums on best investment writing. I’ve never forgotten that, so thank you again. Meb Faber: Well, good job making the cut. Frazer Rice: Yeah, right, exactly. I passed the audition. Seen you a few times on The Idea Farm here and there over the years. Meb Faber: Yep. As I tell people with my girlfriend, I met expectations in my recent review, so we’re onto the next year. Look, key to life, Frazer — investors, we’re in a bull market, everyone expects 15% returns forever. Key to investing in life: just low expectations. That’s it. Set your expectations low, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised every day. Don’t lose principal over time — that’ll get you pretty far in life. [02:07] Frazer Rice: So anyway, you’ve got a new book out too, which I thought was pretty cool. I love the fact that you priced it at $17.76 and really focused on the— Meb Faber: No, no, no, no, Frazer — it is $76, in honor of 1776. Now to be clear, we don’t make any money on this book. We’re donating all the proceeds to the Invest America charities that fund accounts for Americans born in this country — a wonderful charity, big supporters of it. Frazer Rice: But yes, in honor of the country’s founding. This is why we have you all to make sure I get that stuff right. But the concept of America as the best compounding machine ever — I think that’s really interesting. First of all, what prompted you to get involved with putting this book together? You’ve written before — seems like you’ve been busy with other stuff, of course — but then you came back and decided this was a good topic to take on. What was the genesis of the book? [03:13] Meb Faber: Yeah, so this is my eighth book, and the first coffee-table book we’ve ever done. People were saying, “What the hell, $76? Are you guys crazy?” Look — this is a beautiful 200-page book. There’s probably 70 pictures, charts, tables. And the concept is in the subtitle: Investing in America: The Rise of a 250-Year Bull Market. And the origin story goes back to COVID. Nobody had anything to do — sports stopped, you couldn’t go to the beach. So people were sitting around, and Americans — look, they’re gamblers, they’re risk-takers, we know that. And I said, we can’t do anything about that. So this entire generation of young people turned their attention to the stock market, and we got meme stocks. Today that’s evolved into prediction markets and zero-day options and all sorts of other nonsense. We wanted to grab those young people and say, “No, you don’t understand — the real story is better than any of this. You don’t have to day-trade. You don’t have to bet against the casino and lose.” So we said, let’s do this history since the founding of our republic — what it would have looked like if you could invest from 1800. And the compounding math is so fantastical it seems wrong. A dollar invested in 1800 — and yes, I know there were no indexes back then, chill out, people — but just to be instructive, a dollar would be worth roughly $200 million today. The point is you get on this train despite wars and depressions and pandemics and everything else terrible that’s happened in the history of the world — despite all that, this relentless compounding is such a fun story. On top of that — the founding of our country, and a lot of people don’t know this: when you learn the history of America in elementary school, you learn about the immigration, particularly from Europe, people escaping religious persecution, seeking a better life through freedom — the Mayflower, all that. All true. But what they leave out is that most of these explorations and voyages were funded by companies. Back then they called them joint-stock companies; today we call them companies, LPs, C-corporations — corps, right, partnerships. Because the reality, going back to the 15th century, is that if you’re sending a ship to the New World to find gold, that ship could sink, or there were pirates — you’d lose all your money. So this brilliant invention we call diversification today has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. These companies said, it’s risky to invest in one voyage, but you can own part of a company that invests in 10 or 20 or 30 of these, and maybe one of them will hit. That sounds like venture capital. They used to call these people “adventurers” or merchant adventurers. Hudson’s Bay, the Mayflower voyage, the Virginia Company — many of them failed, many didn’t make money, but some made spectacular profits. It’s a fun origin story that hasn’t really been told about these early entrepreneurs and risk-takers, who honestly still permeate our culture to this day. [06:33] Frazer Rice: In putting the book together, what was the most surprising chart you found that you ended up including? [06:41] Meb Faber: There’s a lot of fun historical statistics in the book. One of my favorite parts of writing it was buying — I don’t know, 50 or 100 financial history books I’d never heard of, books on financial crises globally from various markets. We just had an author on the podcast talking about the global financial crisis of 1873, and on and on — you learn so much. One I love telling people, especially young people — my son or his friends — is: look at a dollar bill or a quarter, and I ask, what’s the motto on there? Well, that used to not be the motto. Ben Franklin, back in the day, the motto on the Fugio cent used to say “Mind Your Business” — which I thought was amazing. And it’s not “mind your business, kid” in the nosy sense — it’s more like, mind your (own) business. It had a sundial on it, too: time is short, mind your business. I thought, let’s go back to that — such a great motto. A bunch of little fun stories, but to me one of the big takeaways of the book is: as a public stock investor, the news is always negative. You turn on CNBC, Bloomberg, pull up your phone, social media — negative, negative, negative, negative. It’s hard to sustain conviction. Look, we haven’t been through a big bear market in 17 years, but when you’re down 30%, 40%, 50%, and you’re reading “Lehman’s going under” and all these crazy headlines — the book lets you zoom out. Each chapter zooms into a decade and then zooms back out and says, okay, 1930s, Great Depression, you lost 80% in stocks — but guess what, here’s your return over the next 50 years. Even over a 20-year period, large-cap stocks become less volatile than bonds, which is an amazing takeaway. Being able to zoom out and say, “I’m a long-term investor, why am I even concerning myself with day-to-day negativity” — that shift in mindset is really important, because when you zoom out, you can barely even see 1987 on a long-term chart of the stock market. I think it’s a useful thing to send to clients, particularly at year-end if you’re a financial advisor. We’ve got big discounts if you buy 50 books online — send it to clients and say, hey, stop going crazy, this too shall pass. [09:09] Frazer Rice: One thing I always have in my mind — I don’t remember if this is exactly true, but Argentina and the US were on roughly equal economic footing back around 1900. When you were putting this together, did you see anything in the US’s political climate or structure — the things that gave it tailwinds to go from 1900 through to now with this rocket-ship growth — versus a country like Argentina, similarly situated, that just muddled along economically? Was there anything in particular that you saw that codified American exceptionalism? [09:51] Meb Faber: Yeah, you’ve got to remember, the US was an emerging market too, for a long period. We didn’t always hold the crown as the largest economy or the largest stock market in the world. The US is two-thirds of world market cap today — astonishing. But if you and I were sipping tea back in 1800 or 1900 and betting on what country would dominate the next century, you’d have gotten a whole host of different answers. That’s part of the fun of this book — you realize, when things got started in Amsterdam in the 1600s, they held the crown, but not forever. It shifted to London, then eventually to New York. And in our own lifetimes, the US wasn’t always the largest stock market — Japan was, in the 1980s. It’s a useful construct: look how much things change. Not even just on a country level — sectors too. Go back 100 years and you’re like, wait, where are the tech stocks? It was railroads. Go back another 100 years and it’s, wait, where are the railroads? There weren’t any — it was banks and insurance. The constant is always change and creative destruction. The big takeaway is you have to be an owner. This ownership mentality is particularly pervasive in the US. Talk to people in Sweden, Europe, Asia, Latin America — they own far fewer stocks than Americans do. Ask what they invest in, and it’s cash in the bank, real estate, maybe. There’s something in the water here. Same thing with entrepreneurship — talk to Americans about failure, and there’s no shame in it here. It’s almost celebrated; we cheer for it. The only thing we like seeing more than someone fail is their eventual rise after failure — the phoenix. There’s a lot of big takeaways in that. It feels like the last 17 years, the US is just going to dominate forever. We wrote a paper called The Bear Market and Diversification a few years back about how special this period has been for US stocks, crushing everything else — but it’s not totally without precedent. In the last hundred years it’s happened three other times where 10-year rolling stock returns hit 15%: the 1920s (the Roaring Twenties), the Nifty Fifty period in the mid-20th century, and my favorite bull market, the late 1990s. And now again today — COVID, meme stocks, the AI boom, whatever you want to call it. Eventually the good times don’t last forever; you probably shouldn’t expect 15% returns to the moon. But pat yourself on the back and celebrate it — it’s been a very special run. [12:47] Frazer Rice: Day-job-wise, at Cambria you’ve got a whole host of different investment theses that you build vehicles around. One that’s gotten my attention, and that I really like the idea of, is the shareholder yield concept — especially the global shareholder yield concept, for the reasons you just described, coming off a very long cycle of US exceptionalism in the stock market. I like the idea of cash flow as an indicator of good investment performance, and diversifying both within and outside the US. With an asterisk here that this is not investment advice, everyone — take us through what you’re thinking on that front, and what else you’re up to at Cambria that’s interesting in the investment ecosystem right now. [13:35] Meb Faber: Sure. It’s kind of crazy, Frazer, but we hit our 20-year anniversary this year, which feels like just yesterday when I started the company. Some of the shareholder yield funds — we now have three with over a 10-year track record, and our oldest, SYLD, is a pesky teenager now. What do you expect out of teenagers? More volatility — hopefully up volatility, not down. We wrote a book on this topic 10, 15 years ago, and a new second edition is out — it’s free online as an ebook, listeners, you can get it from the blog. The subtitle of the book is Shareholder Yield: A Better Approach to Dividend Investing — a pretty bold claim, given there are hundreds of dividend-type funds out there: dividend income, dividend growth, equity income, on and on. Our thesis was that there’s something the entire marketplace hadn’t noticed or appreciated: the rise of share buybacks. Starting in the late ’90s, share buybacks have outpaced dividend distributions in the United States every year. In fact, the US dividend yield on the S&P 500 is at an all-time low of 1.04% — it may cross below 1% for the first time ever, which is astonishing. Our thesis was that a shareholder yield approach — simply cash dividends plus net stock buybacks — outperforms, historically, any dividend strategy you can construct. The “net” matters because it accounts for share issuance, particularly stock-based compensation to the C-suite, which is everywhere in the US — my home state of California’s tech companies love to “make it rain” with stock-based comp. The problem is the average US stock is a diluter: your ownership share goes down every year because they keep issuing more shares. We’ve since demonstrated this in real time across SYLD, FYLD, EYLD (the emerging-market version), and now small-cap and large-cap variants — they’ve done exceptionally well. These funds effectively target a Buffett-like, value-and-quality approach: the average stock coming into the portfolios has roughly a double-digit shareholder yield. Let that sink in — there are dividend funds in the US today, ETFs and mutual funds, that claim to be high-yield or dividend-income funds whose actual dividend yield is lower than their management fee. A negative net dividend yield — an astonishing statistic in 2026. In the US, that shareholder yield is mostly driven by buybacks. In foreign developed and emerging markets, it’s closer to 50-50 — those markets still have more of a culture of cash dividends, so you’ll see yields there closer to 5-6%. But that’s changing, and changing fast. We did a blog post recently calling the UK the “buyback capital of the world” — the UK, China, Japan, and a bunch of other countries have hockey-sticked higher on this. It’s spreading globally, this idea of corporate responsibility: “my stock’s at half of book value, maybe we should consider buybacks.” There’s so much mythology around stock buybacks — we could do a whole podcast on it — and we try to tackle it in the book. Hopefully it’s like a red pill: once you take it, it’s hard to look at investing the same way again, because it feels like you were missing a major piece of the puzzle. [17:46] Frazer Rice: How infuriating is it when the Warrens of the world take aim at buybacks? It feels like an economically illiterate, and certainly politically driven, approach to legislating. To put the clamps on a genuinely useful capital allocation tool — I just don’t understand it. You must look at that and want to shake people and say, you’re missing the point, and you’re not even really targeting the abuses that exist. [18:20] Meb Faber: Well, I try not to be too dismissive of our lovely politicians — the joke I always make is, don’t look down on them, they weren’t taught finance and investing in school either. We don’t teach money and investing in school, and that’s sort of my white whale — I think we should be teaching it as early as elementary school, just basic classes on money. The good news is, roughly a quarter to a third of high schools are now requiring at least one class on the topic. What they’re actually targeting, I think somewhat thoughtfully underneath it, is executive compensation and stock issuance — which is the crazy part, because buybacks are the flip side of that. If a company is consistently loading up its CEO with options and diluting shareholders, and using buybacks to mop that dilution up — that’s what they’re really targeting, but it’s not the buyback itself. It’s the stock-based comp. Buybacks are the exhaust; that happens down the road. The cool part about our methodology is we’re only targeting companies trading at something like 80 cents on the dollar. Buffett is my favorite example here — Berkshire has never paid a dividend, and you might think that’s crazy, but he understands this better than anyone. He’s been writing about buybacks since the 1980s. There’s a great quote from an old Berkshire annual report where he says there’s no better use of cash than buying back your own shares when they’re trading below intrinsic value. Berkshire has bought back a ton of stock over the past several years — smart — they say they’ll buy back at 1.2 times book or below and run a valuation screen. There’s a great, somewhat surprising, takeaway in the book: there’s a myth that CEOs are megalomaniacs who just buy back stock whenever they think it’s expensive or cheap, but if you model it out historically, companies doing big buybacks (say, to retire 5% of market cap) tend to trade at a valuation discount to the market, and companies doing share issuance tend to trade at a valuation premium. There’s a real valuation arbitrage going on — CEOs aren’t dummies. That’s part of what you’re capturing with a shareholder yield approach, as long as it’s consistently recycled. And remember, a buyback is optional — there has to be someone willing to sell into it, so there are always two sides. [20:54] Frazer Rice: Let’s talk about one of my favorite parts of your persona, honestly — your fun critique of CalPERS and what large institutions do (and don’t do well) in managing money, and the inefficiencies that creep in with these big pools of capital as implementation and asset allocation get very complicated and very expensive. Walk me through your thinking when you first noticed the CalPERS phenomenon, and a bit of the history there. [21:34] Meb Faber: My very first book was called The Ivy Portfolio, and we looked at how top endowments manage their assets — Yale, the late David Swensen. One of the strange things about our world in asset management — almost unique among industries — is the assumption that more resources, more money, more access automatically equals better results. That’s true in almost every other endeavor: get the best doctor, you’re probably better off than with your local doctor; best trainer, best nutritionist, best coach, on and on. Not necessarily true in investing. The longer I’ve been in this business, the more I see complexity as often an enemy. So we love to pick on CalPERS — we’ve written a dozen articles: should CalPERS be run by a robot, should they just fire everyone and buy ETFs? We’ve run the simulations, and in many cases these giant institutions — with $500 billion, hundreds of employees, access to literally any fund on the planet — should be able to beat everyone, but they can’t. A very basic buy-and-hold portfolio can mimic what a lot of these top institutions actually deliver. Eventually I got tired of just talking about it. I’ve applied for the CalPERS CIO job at least half a dozen times — they have an opening every other year, listeners, it’s the most dysfunctional organization. I joked on Twitter the other day: who’s had more turnover in the past 10 years, CalPERS CIOs or UK prime ministers? Both totally dysfunctional — I think CalPERS has a slight edge, but it’s close. I said I’d do the job for free — I’d fire almost everyone and get rid of all the illiquid, high-fee investments. But there’s this entire ecosystem of people incentivized to keep the engine running: private equity consultants and the rest of the “two-and-20” crowd. So eventually we said, let’s make this a real, live contest. We launched an endowment-style ETF, ENDW — roughly $150-180 million in it now — and said every June 30th, once we’re through a fiscal year, we’re going to compare results head-to-head. This ETF has no management fee to speak of, all-in under 25 basis points. Can you beat a low-cost ETF like that? Let’s find out. Sure enough, year one — CalPERS has already reported, and they didn’t do badly, but it was basically like a 60/40 portfolio; you’d have been just as well off doing 60/40 and moving on. Our endowment-style allocation actually replicates the average endowment quite well — a nice global mix of global stocks, global bonds, and global real assets (gold, TIPS, REITs, and so on — that real-assets sleeve is one a lot of people leave out). To get closer to a Swensen-level result, you need a couple more ingredients, in my view: you can approximate something like private equity with small-cap value, and approximate the broader endowment risk profile with a bit of leverage, plus tilts to value, global exposure, and trend-following. We’ll see how year one shakes out once all the endowments report — UNC might actually beat us because they had a huge stake in SpaceX, so congrats to Chapel Hill. But I think year one goes to me, sorry to say, CalPERS. I’m going to be a giant irritant on this for years to come. The cool thing is you now have a genuinely investable benchmark. Every endowment investment committee suddenly has to ask, with real fiduciary teeth: can we beat this low-cost ETF? And if we can’t, what are we even doing — why are we studying all these crazy illiquid partnerships instead of just buying a basket of ETFs and calling it a day? That’s going to be an awkward conversation in a lot of boardrooms. [25:45] Frazer Rice: Two comments on that. First — isn’t there someone in the state of Nevada doing something similar, basically running one of the state pension pools with a team of about three people? [25:51] Meb Faber: Yes — we had him on the podcast. I told him, look, you’re putting your money where your mouth is on this. I won’t do his story justice here, I’ll tell you about it off-air — but it’s a great example that this doesn’t have to be as hard as people make it out to be. Frazer Rice: The second thing is — anytime I’ve talked to people in the industry about this, they come back and say, “yes, we technically have an infinite investing horizon, but we have very rigid liquidity needs, so we need to be complex, because our liquidity needs can shift at any moment.” Meanwhile, on one hand I’m thinking, that complexity doesn’t actually help you with liquidity, as far as I can tell — and on the other, it feels like a bit of a convenient excuse. Do you have a response to that? [26:56] Meb Faber: Oh boy, I’ve got a bunch. The endowments famously got caught upside-down in 2008-2009. They only mark their portfolios once a year, June 30th — I wish we could all do that; maybe we should just tell clients, you’re only allowed to look once a year. They were probably down roughly half in ’08-’09, and the illiquid positions were probably down even more. A lot of them got badly offsides, and I don’t think many of them have fully learned the lesson — if you look at the amount of private allocations still sitting in a lot of these portfolios today, it’s a massive amount. I hope they’ve learned the lesson. We’ll see. But it’s a story as old as time — we just saw a version of it recently with a fund blowup, a basic, one-oh-one level failure of situational awareness and position sizing: you over-lever a portfolio, you get taken out of the game, you lose all your money, and then you’re out of chips at the poker table. You watch these mistakes happen at the upper echelons of finance and wonder how it’s still happening — and the core problem is that the career incentives of the people running the money don’t necessarily match the actual investment problem. Yale gets a pass. When Swensen’s successors hit a rough patch, how long do they get a pass? Because Harvard has been a total mess for the last 20 years — there are entire books written about the Harvard endowment, which used to be the Yale before Yale. The Harvard Crimson ran article after article saying, you’re overpaying people, what’s going on here — and the fund would underperform and nobody would actually lose their job over it. That’s the real problem, and I have some sympathy for how hard it is to fix. You deal with a version of this on the personal client side too, with multigenerational wealth — it’s almost an unsolvable structural problem for a Harvard, an endowment, or a CalPERS, because — take Harvard — you’ve got current students, alumni, future students, professors, the people who work at the endowment itself, all with completely different incentives and interests. It creates a genuinely absurd situation where, in no realistic scenario, should the resulting portfolio look like what they actually end up with. It’s an outright disaster, structurally. [29:36] Frazer Rice: It reminds me of a car designed by committee — you end up with this stitched-together Frankenstein’s monster of a product that was never going to work or sell, and it ends up sinking the company. Meb Faber: Yeah, yeah — a Rube Goldberg machine is not what you need. But there’s a reason our endowment ETF, out of the roughly 20 funds we’ve launched, has gotten the least attention — even though it’s now about $5 billion in assets with over a hundred thousand investors. It’s received the least publicity of any ETF we’ve ever done, because it doesn’t benefit anyone in that whole existing ecosystem — it’s actually a genuine threat to it. I was at an institutional conference up in Santa Barbara, at a wine happy hour, talking to three women who run three of the most famous pension and endowment pools of real money in the country. We’d just launched an endowment-style ETF, and they just stared back at me with these icy daggers. I said, oh, sorry — I’m not really a competitor to you, you should easily be able to beat me, I’m just the table stakes. But I think they realized that’s probably not true — they’re going to have a very hard time beating me, which doesn’t exactly make me anyone’s friend. I’m the anti-Switzerland of asset management. [31:16] Frazer Rice: Meb, how do people find the firm, find the book, find you? [31:24] Meb Faber: With a name like Meb, it’s easy. Cambria Funds is the day job, with the ETFs. Meb Faber is the old blog, podcast, and Twitter presence — you can find that just about anywhere. And if you find yourself in Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, come say hi. We’d love to hear from you if you pick up a copy of the book, Investing in America — let us know what you think. Frazer Rice: Really cool stuff. Thanks, Meb, for being on. This was a blast — let’s do it again. Meb Faber: Let’s do it. [31:50] Close (produced VO): This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes. It is neither investment, legal, nor tax advice. It does not represent the opinions of the employers of the host or guests. https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Actually-Intelligent-Decision-Making-1-ebook/dp/B07FPQJJQT/

Nejlepší byznysová partnerství nevznikají v zasedačce. Vznikají za 13 let obědů, otevřených rozhovorů a přátelství, které přežije i složité momenty.Jan Sušánka a Tomáš Grec (Real Luxembourg) s Pavlem Černíkem mluví otevřeně o tom, co stojí za jejich dlouhodobou spoluprací, následně probírají témata českého realitního trhu, lombardního financování a trendům, které vidí u svých UHNW klientů.Při správě rodinného bohatství v řádu 100+ mil. Kč si zakládáme na partnerství. Pokud hledáte profesionální zázemí, které stojí striktně na vaší straně stolu a není navázané na konkrétní bankovní instituce, rádi s vámi zahájíme diskrétní dialog.Odkaz na strategickou úvodní konzultaci: https://jansusanka.cz/konzultace/V rozhovoru uslyšíte:• Proč přátelství musí předcházet byznys partnerství a ne naopak• Co si myslí o tvrdém leadershipu a proč vztahy ve firmě nejsou slabost• Proč jsou Češi a Slováci přepákovaní v nemovitostech a co z toho plyne• Kde vidí Tomáš Grepl nejzajímavější příležitost na českém realitním trhu dnes• Jak využít nemovitostní portfolio přes americkou banku ke vstupu do private equity________________________________________________________Sledujte nás, pokud vás zajímá, jak řídit rodinný kapitál jako celek — napříč generacemi, strukturami, likviditou. www.susankapartneri.cz________________________________________________________O Sušánka & partneři:Jsme boutique Multi-Family Office pro české a slovenské rodiny s významným kapitálem. Nejsme prodejci produktů; držíme dlouhodobý mandát pro správu likvidity, rizik a mezigenerační kontinuity.Nová partnerství navazujeme s rodinami s majetkem od 100 mil. Kč, pro které jsme dlouhodobým partnerem při správě jejich bohatství.Upozornění: Investování na kapitálových trzích je spojeno s rizikem ztráty a minulá výkonnost není zárukou budoucích výnosů. Podrobnější informace o rizicích klient vždy obdrží před realizací investice.#PrivateWealth #MultiFamilyOffice #RodinýKapitál #WealthManagement #Investice #RealitníTrh #Nemovitosti #LombardníFinancování #PrivateEquity

Today, I'm excited to speak with Chris Demaillet. Chris spent 18 years working as a private chef for some of the world's wealthiest families: on yachts, in residences, and across the globe. He founded Montclair Chef to help clients find world-class Chefs such as himself and the culinary masters he's worked with and trained. Before private service, Chris trained in France and worked in several of the world's best kitchens, including a 3-Michelin-star restaurant once ranked among the top 25 globally. That experience, which was the culinary equivalent of being a professional athlete, taught him what precision, discipline, and world-class execution really mean. Now, he runs Montclair Chef with that same mindset: placing elite private chefs into ultra-luxury homes and superyachts, with the standards and care of a Michelin kitchen. Chris is the author of The Private Chef Guide - How to Become a Private Chef and Build a Career in Private Dining. We start with an overview of the world of private culinary services. Chris explains how the need for a personal chef normally arises and when it makes sense for a family or a family office to consider employing a private chef. He describes what UHNW clients and families look for in a private chef and outlines the most common needs and preferences of UHNW clients when they are considering or working with a private chef. For families who are considering private culinary services, Chris offers his tips on how to find and hire the right private chef. A personal chef can become an integral part of the family's household and everyday life. Chris provides some practical suggestions for families and their family offices on how to retain their chef for many years and what they need to do to take good care of their chef. Enjoy this informative exchange with one of the best connected and most experienced advisors in the world of private culinary services for UHNW individuals and enterprising families.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Sherri Helmond, Accounting & Financial Outsourcing Director, Equine Industry Leader at Dean Dorton. With more than 30 years of executive management experience, Sherri brings a unique blend of operational leadership, financial expertise, and industry insight to her role as Dean Dorton's Equine Industry Leader. As Equine Industry Leader, she works closely with clients to align financial strategies with the unique demands of the industry. Sherri's areas of expertise include business planning, financial analysis, forecasting, and outsourced accounting. She is particularly skilled in implementing technology solutions, including Sage Intacct, to streamline financial processes, enhance reporting, and deliver actionable insights that support sustainable growth. Since joining Dean Dorton in 2019, Sherri has specialized in serving equine clients, leveraging her CFO-level expertise to help farm owners, trainers, and equine businesses strengthen operations, improve profitability, and plan strategically for long-term success. Sherri and her firm, Dean Dorton, are an Advisor Member of FOX, and we are thrilled to have her expertise and thought leadership within our membership community. We start with Sherri's views on where equine ownership sits in the bigger picture of an enterprise family's life and investment portfolio. She describes the different reasons and models for a family and their family office to be involved with breeding and owning horses. There are many segments within the equine industry. Shery elaborates on how a family should evaluate and select the right segment, and how they should engage with all the industry players within their chosen segment of equine ownership. One practical consideration for families who are passionate about owning or investing in horses is all the specialized expertise they need to be successful in this niche endeavor. Sherri offers her advice on how families and their family offices should assemble the right team of advisors with deep and relevant expertise in the equine space. Do not miss this illuminating conversation with one of the foremost equine experts serving UHNW families and their family offices.

Today, I am pleased to welcome Edward Marshall, Founder and CEO of Presage Global, an intelligence-powered risk and business advisory firm serving C-suites and boards, family offices, and investors. Eddy is a family office insider and a leading family office researcher, advisor, and author. He is also a risk and threat management specialist, working with families to reduce their cyber, physical, financial, operational, and reputational risk profiles. Eddy is a member of the Advisory Board and co-heads the Family Office Initiative at the UHNW Institute. He co-authored the book, The Family Office: A Comprehensive Guide for Advisers, Practitioners, and Students. Prior to founding Presage Global, Eddy held leading family office roles at Dentons, Credit Suisse, Citibank, and Boston Private. Eddy has been in the family office industry for a while now and recently released a joint study with Nines on the state of the family office estate security. He shares his view on what's happening in the family office security space and what's changed in the past decade or so. Eddy provides a synthesis of the overall risk situation facing most family offices, explaining why family offices at risk and what are the major risks they face. He offers his thoughts on whether most family offices are being proactive or are reacting to risks only after a major threat or failure. Eddy talks about risk management as a cross-domain field and one practical tool he and his firm have put forth is the Ten Domains of Risk framework, which includes elaborate checklists for family offices across multiple risk areas. He describes the framework and shares how family office leaders can apply it in their everyday work. Eddy works with many family offices and as he looks across all these different cases he has assessed in the past few years, he summarizes the top three things he believes family offices can change to improve their risk management posture and capabilities. Enjoy this highly relevant conversation with a family office industry veteran and risk management expert serving UHNW families and their complex enterprises.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.We sat down with Kyle Kniffen, Managing Director, Global Head of Alternatives, Third Party Wealth at Goldman Sachs. We were live from Berlin, which becomes the “capital of private capital” in June as private equity industry leaders make the annual pilgrimage to the city for one of the marquee private equity conferences, SuperReturn Berlin.With Prosek Partners and former Bloomberg TV journalist Deirdre Bolton as my producer, along with her team, we took over a Tiny Space cabin to hold big conversations with some of the industry's leading alternative asset managers.A little over two years ago, I wrote on AGM about how, at $456B in AUM in alternatives, Goldman Sachs was a “sleeping giant” in private markets. In reality, Goldman is anything but a sleeping giant in private markets, having started its private equity business in 1984 and earning the distinction of being a top-5 alternatives manager by AUM across both traditional and alternative asset managers.Today, Goldman has grown its alternatives business to over $625B in AUM.The firm has expanded its platform with the acquisition of Industry Ventures and a partnership with T. Rowe Price to deliver public and private markets solutions to the wealth channel, and, most recently, the creation of its Alternative Investment Platform to provide HNW clients with direct access to private companies.The evolution of Goldman's Alternatives business reflects a thoughtful, measured approach to understanding the needs of wealth channel investors and finding the utility and purpose of strategy, product, and product structure.That was much of the focus of the conversation Kyle and I had in Berlin. We discussed the objective and utility of private markets in a portfolio. We covered:The growth of evergreen funds.Why evergreens are the product structure of choice.Why are evergreens also appealing to institutional allocators, insurance companies, and UHNW investors?How GPs and LPs are approaching LP composition to evergreen vehicles.The next wave of product innovation.The build, buy, partner framework Why Goldman is so excited about the GeoWealth partnership and what the future of model portfolios look like.What is not known but should be known about the Goldman Alternatives franchise.BioKyle Kniffen is a managing director in the Client Solutions Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He serves as global head of Alternatives for Third Party Wealth (TPW), overseeing client strategy for the firm's TPW clients globally, delivering the power of the Alternatives investing platform to a broad set of individual investors through our partnerships with financial intermediary clients and their advisors, including Private Banks, Broker-Dealers, RIAs and other distribution platforms. Kyle partners closely with leadership across our Alternatives franchise to develop products that meet our clients' evolving needs. He is also co-chair of the AWM Global Distribution Working Group.Prior to this role, Kyle was in Alternative Capital Markets (ACM), serving as head of ACM for Goldman Sachs Ayco and leading coverage for One Goldman Sachs financial sponsors globally. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2018 as a vice president in ACM and was named managing director in 2021.Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Kyle led a variety of distribution and product management teams for Bank of America's Alternative Investment Group within their Global Wealth and Investment Management division.Kyle is a board member for the Institute of Portfolio Alternatives (IPA), and a member of The Economic Club of New York. Kyle earned a BA from Gettysburg College.Thanks, Kyle, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about private markets and serving the wealth channel.Show Notes00:00 AGM Live from SuperReturn Berlin00:22 Meet Kyle Kniffin01:10 Wealth Meets Private Markets01:37 Big Pools Little Allocation02:24 Alt Strategies Explosion03:04 Lessons from Hedge Funds03:34 Start with Client Goals03:53 Risk Liquidity Tradeoffs04:10 Portfolio Utility First04:25 Holistic Private Markets04:44 Fit and Terms Matter05:07 Setting Expectations05:32 Product Innovation Shift05:52 Evergreens and Flexibility06:10 Monthly Access and Tactics06:39 Evergreen Growth Rates06:45 Education and Dispersion07:15 Why Evergreens Exist07:41 Diversification Lower Minimums08:04 Operational Simplicity08:21 Evergreen Nuance Phase One08:47 Goldman in Third Party Wealth09:26 Institutions Buying Evergreens10:31 LP Mix and Liquidity Caps11:36 Institutionalizing Wealth Platforms13:29 Goldman Platform Advantage14:46 Feeding the Evergreen Engine15:13 GeoWealth and Model Portfolios15:45 T Rowe Price Collaboration16:12 Build vs Buy Partner Balance16:42 Industry Ventures Acquisition17:33 Goldman Alts Heritage18:35 Pioneering GP Stakes19:45 Secondaries Since 199820:12 Apex of Private Markets21:08 Will Secondaries Be Core21:48 Max Flexibility for Wealth22:42 Customization vs Scale23:16 Flagships Then Bespoke23:49 Lessons from Private Wealth25:10 Broader Menu of Privates25:34 Closing Thoughts 

Today, I am delighted to speak with Tony McChrystal, Founder & Managing Director of Pavesen, a specialist digital reputation management firm working exclusively with high-profile individuals, family offices, and private clients. With over 15 years in online reputation management, executive privacy, and sensitive-issue consultancy, Tony is one of the UK's leading authorities on digital reputation strategy. He has worked directly with hundreds of UHNW individuals, family offices, entrepreneurs, C-suite leaders, and politicians across the UK, US, and Middle East. Prior to founding Pavesen, Tony served as Managing Director of ReputationDefender's UK & European private client practice and subsequently as EMEA Director of Sales and Service at Gen Digital, the parent company of Norton, Avast, and LifeLock. He has been featured by the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and other international outlets. Tony shares his opinion on how families feel about online reputation today and describes some of the challenges and realizations faced by families and family offices on this topic over the past decade or so. Privacy and obscurity have been the go-to approach in the past, but how Tony shines a light on how families' views and preferences have been evolving recently. He outlines best practices that are emerging among family offices regarding reputation management and even pro-active public relations. Tony shares his views on the various channels and tools for families and their family offices to stay on top of and monitor reputation risks, manage their public image proactively, and deploy their long-term social capital strategies. He opines on how families and family offices should collaborate with or engage the services of outside experts and service providers in the field of reputation management. Don't miss this highly illuminating conversation with an experienced practitioner specializing in the niche field of UHNW family reputation management.

Today, I'm excited to speak with Sarah Walker, Founder and Principal Designer of Nuance, a legacy estate interior design & wellness advisory firm that helps families and family offices create homes that feel deeply personal, wellness-centered, and effortless to live in. Over 20 years, she has delivered more than 50 multi-million-dollar estates and compounds, specializing in homes that feel like private retreats while remaining straightforward for staff to operate. Born and raised in Dubai and educated in interior design, art, and construction management, Sarah combines a global design perspective with a strong technical foundation. Prior to Nuance, she led interior design across Nordstrom stores, spas, and restaurants nationwide, aligning large teams around an elevated experience and making complex environments intuitive to use. Sarah has been featured in Architectural Digest, Luxe Interiors + Design, Forbes, The Seattle Times, Homes & Gardens, and many other publications. We kick off the conversation with Sarah's explanation of what wellbeing-centered design means. She offers her definition of the concept and describes what it takes to design and build living spaces that embody the family's values and help both individual family members and the family as a whole flourish. Sarah describes the connection between family governance and the design of the family home and talks about instituting an "operating system for the home" and explains how that operating system can support the family across multiple generations. Sarah offers some practical tips to families and their offices related to designing homes and personal spaces that support and advance the physical health of family members. She touches on key practical and technical aspects, such as air quality and water purity, that families need to consider and incorporate into the design of their living spaces. Sarah also touches on the practicalities of designing a home that facilitates and promotes interpersonal connection, mental health, and personal happiness of the family members and describes how family leaders can achieve the objective of building a wellness-centric home. Enjoy this instructive conversation with a leading player in the world of wellbeing-centered design for UHNW families.

Scott Kerr is joined by Francesco Galli Zugaro, founder and CEO of Aqua Expeditions, an ultra-luxury small‑ship cruise operator specializing in taking UHNW travelers on immersive expeditions to some of the world's most remote destinations. Francesco, who founded Aqua in 2007 and a pioneer of luxury river cruising, discusses why expedition cruising resonates with wealthy travelers and if their risk tolerance has changed in the last 20 years. He also talks about why Aqua deliberately chooses to slow down and go deeper into each destination's ecosystem and culture on its voyages, how ultra-affluent guests getting younger and more active, and why its fine dining program is a psychological luxury counterpoint to the sensorially intense expeditions. Plus: Preserving Aqua's founder-led culture and exploratory DNA after its recent acquisition by Ponant Explorations GroupFeaturing: Francesco Galli Zugaro, CEO of Aqua Expeditions (aquaexpeditions.com)Host: Scott Kerr, Founder & President of Silvertone ConsultingAbout: Host Scott Kerr gives you the in-depth, unfiltered interviews with leaders of the world's most influential luxury brands. Kerr chats with the biggest names in the luxury business, from CEOs and presidents to creative directors and fashion designers, about the forces redefining the sector: from customer expectations and brand relevance to new approaches in creativity, operations, AI and growth strategy. Let me know what you think of the show. Email me at scott@silvertoneconsulting.comListen and subscribe to The Luxury Item wherever you get your podcasts. Tell a friend or a colleague!

What if leaving private staffing was the very thing that made you better at it?In this episode of Recruitment Diaries: Life in Private Staffing, Philippa is joined by Patricia Levinson, a House Manager and Executive Assistant based in Manhattan, whose career has taken anything but a traditional path. From owning and running a hotel in Costa Rica to managing private properties, raising a family, working in financial services and eventually returning to private service, Patricia shares how every stage of her journey has shaped the professional she is today.Together, Philippa and Patricia discuss why transferable skills matter, the realities of stepping away from the industry, and how perseverance helped Patricia secure the role she'd always hoped for.In this episode, Philippa and Patricia cover:✨ Breaking into private staffing unexpectedly

What does it really take to build a successful career as a Private PA?In this episode of Life in Private Staffing, Philippa is joined by experienced Private PA Will Graham, who shares his journey through the world of private households, celebrity support, freelancing and lifestyle management.Having worked with high-profile principals across a variety of sectors, Will offers a fascinating insight into the realities of working behind the scenes for UHNW individuals, navigating discretion, building trust and creating long-lasting professional relationships.Together, Philippa and Will discuss how the role of a Private PA has evolved, the opportunities available within private staffing today, and the skills that truly set exceptional candidates apart.In this episode, Philippa and Will cover:✨ How Will landed his first Private PA role

Matt McClintock (Founder & CEO of Bespoke Group) returns to the show alongside Alla Futterman (Associate Client Relationship Manager & Head of Philanthropy Operations) fresh off his main-stage talk at BTC Prague 2026 titled “Using Bitcoin to Change the World.”In this deep dive, we explore how ultra-high-net-worth Bitcoiners and their families are moving beyond simple HODLing to become active stewards — deploying Bitcoin through sophisticated, values-aligned philanthropy to solve real problems (landmine clearance, human trafficking recovery, wildlife protection, cultural preservation, and more).We unpack Bespoke Group's “Wealth Operating System,” sovereign estate planning for bearer assets, tax-efficient giving structures, next-gen involvement, the mindset shift from ownership to “this wealth has been entrusted to me,” and practical advice for Bitcoiners at every level who want their capital to outlive them and actually improve the world.If you've ever wondered how to turn Bitcoin conviction into lasting generational impact while keeping sovereignty and privacy intact, this is the episode.Timestamps:(00:00) - Introduction to Bitcoin Philanthropy(06:38) - Tax-Efficient Philanthropy Strategies(13:07) - Charitable Structures for Bitcoin(20:22) - Mindset Shifts in Bitcoin Philanthropy(27:22) - Wealth Stewardship and Bitcoin(32:13) - Challenges in Bitcoin Philanthropy(37:23) - Engaging the Next Generation in Philanthropy(39:49) - Practical Tips for Everyday Bitcoiners  Links: Bespoke Group → https://bespokegroup.io/Matt's article: “How Bitcoin Wealth is Changing the World” (June 2026)Alla's article: “Philanthropy as Wealth in Motion”https://x.com/mcclintock_mStephan Livera links:Follow me on X: @stephanliveraSubscribe to the podcastSubscribe to Substack

Fourteen deals worth mentioning in a single week. And those are just the ones that surfaced.The week before Cannes, the dam broke. Christian and Ayelet break down the deepest deal review we've done yet — anchored by a transaction Ayelet's team actually advised on the sell side: Residence acquiring GateMaker, a female-founded creator and influencer agency with a blue-chip beauty roster.Plus a sponsor-to-sponsor recap in commerce services (Bluebird Group + Bertram Capital), and a rapid-fire run through 12 more deals across creator, beauty, luxury PR, B2B, and commerce.One platform investment. One deep dive. Twelve quick hits. Under 20 minutes.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS0:39 — Welcome to Market and Deals Friday — and a 14-deal week1:12 — Did everyone wait until the week before Cannes to announce?1:37 — Coming up: a special edition with Chris Erwin of RockWater on the Accenture/Whalar deal2:00 — Market update: Bluebird Group partners with Bertram Capital2:20 — Bertram's buy-and-build model and the Bertram Labs tech advantage3:00 — Reading the deal size from a $1.6B control fund with a 43% IRR4:00 — Why a relationship-driven commerce services business resists AI disruption5:35 — Deep dive: Residence acquires GateMaker — a sell-side deal Ayelet's team ran6:05 — GateMaker's founders, blue-chip beauty roster, and creator economy pedigree7:20 — Did Residence already have creator capability? (No — this was the capability buy)7:50 — Second acquisition in under five months: Residence is now a 9-agency network8:44 — The Gemspring-backed platform build and why Residence is now an active acquirer9:28 — The "anti-holdco" model — and Christian's pushback on the framing10:42 — Why creator and influence relationships command a premium right now11:30 — The cross-industry pattern: do-no-harm PMI for people-heavy businesses11:56 — Advisors: Palazzo and Speed M&A on the sell side12:32 — Brinkley the deal-finding agent and a 20-deal week13:20 — Quick hit: Front Row acquires Carbon Beauty (second deal this year)13:57 — Quick hit: Mazarine acquires Bacchus — luxury PR and UHNW access14:10 — Quick hit: Huge acquires Rotate — composable commerce14:27 — Quick hit: Motion Agency acquires LKHNS — B2B and video (Kim Everl's 7th)15:30 — Quick hit: Akeneo acquires Pricing Hub — PIM moves into pricing16:33 — Rapid fire: Mile Marker/Lyfe, Legion Advertising, Factual/Intelsio, Everything Branding/Darlington17:44 — The week's only disclosed number: 2X acquires KnownWell at a $400M combined valuation18:09 — Quick hit: Scorpion acquires One SEO Digital18:32 — 14 deals, one disclosed price: the lower middle market buying capability quietly18:52 — Don't miss the Erik Huberman interview (Ep. 71) + the Chris Erwin special coming up

Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Pete Walther, President and CEO of Marsh McLennan Agency Private Client Services, a Marsh business dedicated to serving the unique needs of family offices. Pete also leads the strategy for Marsh Global Family Office Solutions, which extends beyond traditional insurance solutions to include investment solutions, wealth and tax optimization solutions, executive liability and extortion solutions, and risk advisory services, all aimed at addressing the most pressing matters of family offices. Beginning his career in banking, Pete spent seven years structuring and managing a senior debt portfolio of highly leveraged commercial clients. He joined Marsh in 1995 to help launch its Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions (PEMA) practice. Over the subsequent 15 years, he has led several businesses within the firm, including PEMA North America, Global Alternative Risk Solutions, Marsh Midwest Zone, and PEMA Asia-Pacific based out of Australia. Pete, and his firm Marsh, are valued long-term members of the FOX Industry Leaders Council and we are very proud to have their expertise as part of the FOX membership community. Nowadays, families – even those at the top of the wealth pyramid – are facing significant disruptions with the insurability of many of their assets. Pete describes the challenges families and their family offices are experiencing with insurability and what difficulties that creates for them. Pete outlines the main factors driving these insurability challenges and shares his overview of the major trends that are driving these disruptions. One important practical consideration Pete emphasizes to families is to develop and maintain a "prevention vs. recovery mindset". He explains what that means and postulates the key principles of a strong and healthy prevention mindset. Another important practical tip Pete has for families and family offices is to invest in grassroots literacy, education, and design thinking. He elaborates on that and shares what other opportunities and trends are giving him personally hope for the future resilience of families and their family offices. Do not miss this highly instructive conversation with one of the top thought leaders and practitioners in the risk management and insurance industry serving top UHNW families, their enterprises, and their family offices.

Listen to one of our forum sessions on sustainability in yacht shipping:Luxury Client Expectations & UHNW BehaviorToday's ultra-high-net-worth clients are redefining luxury through experience, discretion, and personalization. This session explores how UHNW expectations are evolving across yachting, aviation, and lifestyle markets, and how brands can adapt their marketing, service models, and communication strategies to meet these changing behaviors.Key Topics:Evolving UHNW Values: Experience, Privacy & PurposeEmotional Drivers of Luxury DecisionsMulti-Generational Wealth & New Luxury ExpectationsBuilding Trust in High-Value, Discreet MarketsSpeakers:Kelly DowneyRebecca GabbiModerator:Leona Françoise Caanen

Listen to one of our forum sessions on sustainability in yacht shipping:Global Wealth Migration and UHNW TrendsUnderstanding where wealth is moving, and how UHNW individuals live, travel, and invest, is critical to effective luxury marketing strategy. This session explores global wealth migration, emerging markets, and shifting buyer behavior, offering insight into how brands can align outreach, positioning, and partnerships with today's evolving luxury landscape.Key Topics:Global wealth migration and emerging UHNW hubsRegional differences in luxury consumption and expectationsHow market shifts influence yacht, aviation, and lifestyle demandStrategic positioning and market focus for long-term growthSpeakers:Janet Henfield-GreenStella Madero Moderator:Cecile Gauert

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Thorpe Scott, an executive coach and advisor working at the intersection of leadership, capital, and family enterprise systems. She supports executives, investors, and multigenerational families navigating the moments that matter, including succession, wealth transfer, leadership transitions, governance decisions, and spouses marrying into family systems. Her work focuses on the emotional and relational dynamics that often sit beneath these moments, helping families prepare the next generation for leadership and stewardship while strengthening the dialogue and trust required for long-term success across generations. Sarah is the Founder of Thorpe Scott Coaching & Advisory, Coach-in-Residence at Bedrock, a global multi-family office with offices in Geneva, London, and Monaco, and a Special Advisor to Horizons, a member network of millennial next-generation leaders and investors. Sarah began her career in investment banking at Credit Suisse in New York and later worked across leading media organizations including CNBC and Forbes. She went on to hold senior leadership roles at The New York Times, where she became Managing Director, EMEA, leading global teams and executing dozens of complex, multi-million-dollar partnerships with multinational organizations across virtually every major industry. Married into a fifth-generation family enterprise herself, Sarah brings both professional rigor and lived experience to her work with family offices, next-generation leaders, and the executives and advisors who work alongside them. She has served as Chair of the Young Vic Development Board and the Duke UK Alumni Board. We delve into the topic of spousal integration into UHNW families and the experiences of spouses within the broader family enterprise. We start by having Sarah sharing her observations on how family structures see and treat spouses today, and how enterprise family systems are organized to receive and engage spouses and in-laws. Sarah describes how spousal integration works presently, outlining the typical experience of a spouse joining a multigenerational family of wealth. She highlights some of the common challenges faced by spouses entering these sometimes-complex family systems. One common, and often controversial, practical tool that is part of the spousal integration process is the prenuptial agreement. Sarah shares her thoughts and lived experiences on how well prenups work and offers her views on where there may be room to improve and enhance the experience of the soon-to-be-married couple going through the process. Finally, Sarah lays out her vision and roadmap for a better spousal integration process, including the elements, the approach, and the spirit that can provide a more positive, engaging, and pleasant experience for spouses and the entire family. Enjoy this illuminating conversation with a highly regarded family member-turned-practitioner providing thought leadership in the spousal integration topic that impacts every enterprising family.

Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Deborah Goldstein, founder of Enlightened Philanthropy, and advisory firm dedicated to guiding philanthropists across their giving journeys. Drawing from more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit field, Deborah helps clients align their values with their giving so they can give with clarity and confidence. She is the creator of Philanthropy Camp for Women, an opportunity for women to explore their giving and learn in community. Deborah has worked for Oregon State University, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She is a 21/64-certified consultant and co-Dean of Philanthropy for the Purposeful Planning Institute. Philanthropy is an important and powerful force in the world in general, but it is also a fundamental pillar of how successful families deploy their hard-earned capital. Deborah offers her view on philanthropy for families, explaining why it is important, what purpose it serves, and how to best unleash its full potential and impact. Going deeper into the different archetypes of family principals and family members who are engaged in or inspired by philanthropy, Deborah delves into the topic of philanthropy for women and talks about the unique aspects of how women approach and engage with philanthropic giving. Deborah has created Philanthropy Camp for Women and she describes for our audience the concept, the thesis, and how the camp experience works and creates value for the female principals who attend it. Deborah has developed and frequently utilizes various practical tools to help philanthropists understand and overcome the challenges that may stand in the way of their charitable giving. She highlights some of the diagnostic tools and frameworks that she uses to help philanthropic families get unstuck, align around a shared vision, and successfully achieve their philanthropic strategies. Enjoy this informative conversation with a leading philanthropic advisor serving top UHNW families and their family offices.

What does it really take to manage luxury service at the very highest level?In this episode of Life in Private Staffing, Philippa is joined by hospitality and estate management expert Thibaut Barbé, whose incredible 30-year career has taken him from luxury cruise ships to the world's largest superyachts, royal palaces in the Middle East and large-scale UHNW estates across the globe.

Join Jason Ma, Founder & CEO of ThreeEQ, for a candid conversation on what's reshaping the world of single family offices and ultra-high-net-worth investing.As a senior advisor and rainmaker to select SFOs, UHNW families, and enterprises, longstanding B20 member across 12 G20 presidencies, and chair of the recent Silicon Valley Economic Forum (SVEF) and moderator of its "Single Family Office Trends in the Age of AI" panel, Jason sits at the intersection of global capital, AI disruption, and generational wealth strategy.In this episode, we unpack how SFOs are repositioning into AI and tech direct investing, the risks they're navigating, and why the families who thrive long-term are those investing not just in assets — but in people.

Send us Fan MailOn this episode, I'm joined by Aaron Bates, Head of Bernstein's Ultra-High-Net-Worth practice. We discuss some of the key findings from his team's recent research study on how families think about wealth, as well as some of the more emotionally charged issues for wealthy families. Aaron discusses what he learned from speaking directly with UHNW families through the extensive research process. He shares how the desire and need for financial privacy can lead to a feeling of isolation; how a liquidity event or transaction can create questions around identity; as well as how to talk about money with the next generation.Any questions or comments, or to discuss your own financial situation, I can be reached at marc.penziner@bernstein.com or 212-969-6655.The information presented and opinions expressed are solely the views of the podcast host commentator and their guest speaker(s).  AllianceBernstein L.P. or its affiliates makes no representations or warranties concerning the accuracy of any data. There is no guarantee that any projection, forecast or opinion in this material will be realized. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The views expressed here may change at any time after the date of this podcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. AllianceBernstein L.P. does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. It does not take an investor's personal investment objectives or financial situation into account; investors should discuss their individual circumstances with appropriate professionals before making any decisions. This information should not be construed as sales or marketing material or an offer or solicitation.

What is it REALLY like building a long-term career in the superyacht industry?In this episode of Life in Private Staffing, Philippa is joined by former Chief Stewardess Elle Webster to discuss her decade-long career working onboard luxury superyachts across the world — from busy charter seasons and shipyard builds to global itineraries, UHNW lifestyles and the intense realities of life at sea.Elle shares how she entered the yachting industry at just 20 years old, worked her way up through the interior department, and eventually became Chief Stewardess managing high standards, demanding schedules and luxury service at the very highest level.They discuss everything from crew retention, Below Deck misconceptions and the pressures of modern yachting — to working onboard with your partner, transitioning into motherhood, and building a business after leaving the industry.Now the founder of Maison by Elle, a luxury home organisation business supporting high-net-worth clients, Elle explains how the skills developed in yachting — organisation, anticipation, time management and attention to detail — continue to shape her career today.In this episode, Philippa and Elle cover:⚓️ Building a career in the luxury yachting industry

Today, I am delighted to speak with Will Bledsoe, founder of Restorative Way, a company that provides training and program implementation for schools, individuals, organizations and businesses to recognize trauma, resolve conflict and engage with challenging behavior. In addition to his private consultation practice, Will is currently a professor of communication in the Isaacson School for Communication, Arts, and Media at Colorado Mountain College. Will holds a doctorate in communication from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master's degree in religious studies, also from CU. While at the university he taught courses in conflict management, group communication, global peace & conflict studies, community justice, social justice, the rhetoric of campaigns and social movements. In the religious studies department, he taught a course in Native American religious traditions. In 1999 Will was he was awarded Outstanding Scholarship Recognition by the National Honor Society of Religious Studies/Theology. He has facilitated over 1000 mediation encounters using a range of restorative models including victim/offender dialogue, family-group conferences, community-group conferences, and peacemaking circles for various municipal and district courts, schools, families, family businesses, and workplaces. Will is the author of The Restorative Way: Harnessing the Power of Restorative Communication to Mend Relationships, Heal Trauma, and Reclaim Civility One Conversation at a Time (2024). Will specializes in the field of restorative communication, especially restorative conflict resolution. He provides a definition for our listeners of restorative conflict resolution and describes the purpose and the practice of restorative communication. Relationship challenges and interpersonal conflict are common in most families. Will tells us how restorative conflict resolution can help families manage and resolve conflicts and describes his work with families who struggle with conflict and fractured relationships. Next, we look at the practical applications of Will's expertise. He describes the method of restorative conflict resolution, detailing the tools, frameworks, and approaches inherent in the practice of restorative conflict resolution. Communication is a critical component of restorative conflict resolution. Will talks about the importance of communication skills and offer some of your tips for developing and applying restorative communication among family members. Enjoy this instructive conversation with one of the leading practitioners of restorative conflict resolution in support of UHNW families.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Alex Hayward, Executive Fellow, Family Offices and Private Capital at London Business School. Alex is a seasoned expert in Family Offices, with extensive experience building, reviewing, and optimizing Family Offices across the UK, Europe, the US, Dubai, and Australia. Over the past 15 years, he has analyzed more than 100 Single Family Offices, evaluating their structures, operations, and investment strategies. Alex draws on this broad experience to lead London Business School's work on value creation within Family Offices, examining how leading Family Offices develop their strategy, operations, and culture to support long-term growth. Alex also serves as an independent director to a Family Office in London, supporting a third-generation multi-billion family. Alongside this role he chairs the Family Office Community at Said Business School, University of Oxford, Ownership Project 2.0. Alex is a long-time friend and collaborator of FOX and a valued alumnus of the FOX team. Alex has done significant research into the importance of organizational culture among investment management, and its significance in explaining and driving performance of investment teams. He tells us what his research shows and highlights what both clients and members of investment teams can learn from it. We then focus more narrowly and look at the role of culture within family offices. Alex shares his views on how culture contributes to the value creation at the family office and the ability of family office teams to drive meaningful outcomes for their principals. Impact is frequently among the top objectives that family members seek to pursue individually or collectively with the support of their family office. Alex talks about his work and research on the effect of family office culture on the family's impact strategy, and the ability of family members to find and follow their individual pathways for self-realization and impact. Alex has also studied the effect of grief on the ability of families to make decisions and achieve growth. He shares his findings on how grief and other emotions impact UHNW family strategies and their collective activities within the family enterprise, including investing, philanthropy, social impact, etc. Enjoy this insightful conversation with one of the foremost academics and practitioners in the family wealth and family office space.

What does a 40-year career in private service really look like?In this episode of Life in Private Staffing, Philippa is joined by Steven — an industry professional whose career spans decades, continents, and some of the most prestigious private households in the world.From his early days in the Royal Navy, Steven shares how discipline, structure and opportunity led him into private service — landing roles working with royalty, UHNW families, and global principals across Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.Having worked across five continents in roles ranging from butlering and house management to palace operations and staff training, Steven offers a rare, honest insight into how the industry has evolved — and what it really takes to succeed at the highest level today.They discuss everything from travelling the world with UHNW families, managing large-scale private households, and working within royal environments — to the modern reality of smaller teams, faster-paced roles, and changing expectations in luxury service.In this episode, Philippa and Steven cover:

Over the past decade, all the (now tired) excuses for why advisors shouldn't move to the RIA model have fallen.To name a few:"The technology is not as good.""You won't have access to the same level of investment solutions.""Clients want the big brand name on the door."Not only are these arguments no longer true, but the RIA model now generally provides a superior solution.But what about servicing HNW and UHNW clients?Can such clients be accommodated the same, or even better, in the RIA model?In this episode (#147) of the Transition To RIA question & answer series, I explain how supporting such clients is not just possible, but generally more favorable in the RIA model.Come take a listen!P.S. Prefer video? You can find this entire series in video format on Youtube. Search for the TRANSITION TO RIA channel.Show notes: https://TransitionToRIA.com/can-i-service-high-net-worth-and-ultra-high-net-worth-clients-as-an-ria/About Host: Brad Wales is the founder of Transition To RIA, where he helps financial advisors between $50M and $1B understand everything there is to know about WHY and HOW to transition their practice to the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) model. Brad has 20+ years of industry experience, including direct RIA related roles in Compliance, Finance and Business Development. He has an MBA and has held the 4, 7, 24, 63 & 65 licenses. The Transition To RIA website (TransitionToRIA.com) has a large catalog of free videos, articles, whitepapers, as well as other resources to help advisors understand the RIA model and how it would apply to their unique circumstances.

This week's episode looks at how shifting priorities are showing up in both our personal lives and the broader financial landscape. From the rising cost of spring break—where family vacations are increasingly built around the kids—to the complex questions ultra-high-net-worth families face when passing wealth to the next generation, we explore how decisions today can shape outcomes for years to come.We also turn to the markets, where investors are weighing geopolitical tension and rising oil prices against encouraging inflation data and a rally that's pushed stocks to fresh all-time highs. And as always, we'll wrap with a listener question—this time on what to do with a long-term underperforming investment sitting on embedded gains in a taxable account.Join hosts Nick Antonucci, CVA, CEPA, Director of Research, and Managing Associates K.C. Smith, CFP®, CEPA, and D.J. Barker, CWS®, and Kelly-Lynne Scalice, a seasoned communicator and host, on Henssler Money Talks as they explore key financial strategies to help investors navigate market uncertainty. Henssler Money Talks — April 18, 2026  |  Season 40, Episode 16Timestamps and Chapters9:09: Built for the Kids: The Evolution of Spring Break26:35: Guardrails for Generational Wealth41:24: Markets Reach All-Time High51:54: Listener Question: Underperforming Investment with Embedded GainsFollow Henssler:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HensslerFinancial/ YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/HensslerFinancial LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/henssler-financial/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hensslerfinancial/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hensslerfinancial?lang=en X: https://www.x.com/hensslergroup “Henssler Money Talks” is brought to you by Henssler Financial. Sign up for the Money Talks Newsletter: https://www.henssler.com/newsletters/ Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Center for Financial Planning, Inc. owns and licenses the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, and CFP® (with plaque design) in the United States to Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., which authorizes individuals who successfully complete the organization's initial and ongoing certification requirements to use the certification marks.See important disclosures at Henssler.com

With Wen Nottebohm—Managing Director, Wealth Advisor at Cresset Overview Wen Nottebohm of Cresset joins Mindy Diamond to share the next gen perspective: how advisors can design their own growth path, earn credibility among UHNW clients, the value of mentors, the influence of AI, and much more. Listen in… > Download a transcript of this episode… NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. Watch… https://youtu.be/jmtqqBQ9C80 About this episode… There's a fairly well-defined career path for most financial advisors. You spend the early years learning the business, supporting senior advisors, and gradually taking on more responsibility. When it comes to ultra-high net worth clients, that timeline tends to stretch even longer, given the complexity and expectations that come with those relationships. But the path isn't always linear. And in some cases, it moves faster than people expect—especially when the focus shifts from simply accumulating experience to developing real expertise and “a seat at the table” early on. That's part of what makes Wen Nottebohm's perspective so compelling. Wen is part of the Atlanta team at Cresset, a $230B+ multi-family office. The team manages roughly $7B in assets, and Wen herself is advising on $1.6B for UHNW families and entrepreneurs. What stands out is not just the scale, but how early in her career Wen stepped into that level of responsibility—and what it actually required to make that work. In this conversation with Mindy Diamond, Wen offers a very real look at the next gen perspective, including: The wirehouse environment—and what made it a successful training ground. The value of a mentor—and how working with Justin Berman helped her move to the next level. Building a book to over $1B—and how she did so in a much shorter timeline than many of her peers. Earning credibility—and what it really takes to build a business and client trust with less of a track record. Working with a sophisticated client base—and how to manage expectations and identify what they really value. The benefit of a firm like Cresset—and how the more personalized culture and boutique feel creates a foundation for growth. The influence of AI—and how it's both changing the dynamic and raising the level of the advisor-client conversation. This episode is a masterclass for next gen and seasoned advisors alike, identifying what it really takes to build a billion-dollar business in a rapidly changing environment and questioning whether the traditional timeline for building an advisory practice is being rewritten in real time. Want to learn more about where, why, and how advisors like you are moving? Click to contact us or call 908-879-1002. Related Resources Finding the Shortest Path to Excellence Can Be a Game Changer for AdvisorsDoing everything you can to deliver better service, drive growth, and achieve your goals faster can result in extraordinary benefits. The 4th Annual Advisor Transition ReportA data-driven look at where advisors are moving, why they're making changes, and what it means for your business in 2026. Life After Goldman Sachs: A Story of Extraordinary SuccessEx-Goldman Sachs advisor Justin Berman shares how he found the courage to leave the Goldman imprimatur, brave Garden Leave, and build the $3B Berman Capital Advisors. Wen NottebohmManaging Director and Wealth Advisor Wen Nottebohm is a Managing Director, Wealth Advisor at Cresset. She works with clients to help protect and grow their legacy in order to have a bigger impact on what is most important to them. Wen was named to the 2024 Barron's Top 100 Independent Advisors, 2025 Barron's Top Independent Financial Advisors, 2025 Barron's Top Financial Advisors By State, 2025 Barron's Top Women Financial Advisors, 2025 Forbes Top Women Wealth Advisors Best-In-State, 2025 Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisors, 2025 Forbes Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisors Best-In-State, and 2025 Forbes America's Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisors lists. Prior to Cresset, Wen worked as a Wealth Advisor for Berman Capital Advisors, and before that was with AQR Capital Management, where she was a Client Strategies and Portfolio Solutions Analyst. Wen started out her career in the Private Wealth Management division at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, where she specialized in risk and discretionary account management for the firm's ultra-high-net-worth clients. Wen graduated from MIT with Bachelor of Science degrees in Economics and Management Science. She also holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She obtained the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designation in 2019. Wen and her husband live in Atlanta with their son and daughter. She serves on the Board of the YWCA of Greater Atlanta and is involved with the Atlanta Regional Commission Global Advisory Panel, the MIT Alumni Association, the Wharton Club of Atlanta, and the Young Women Leadership Forum. Wen is also a member of the LEAD Atlanta Class of 2016.

Today, it is my pleasure and honor to speak with John A. Warnick. John A. is a celebrated leader and founder in the family wealth professional space, and an inspiration to many of us in our niche field. He has practiced as a tax attorney for over 45 years and has published articles in law reviews, Trust and Estates magazine and the Journal of Practical Estate Planning. He worked as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill in the 1970s and was a legal intern in the office of the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973. In 2010 John A. founded the Purposeful Planning Institute which today is the largest multi-disciplinary educational institute (non-profit) focused on best practices for UHNW and HNW families with over 525 members in the U.S. and nine countries internationally. He was also a co-founder of the Collaboration for Family Flourishing (CFF) and served for four years on the Board of the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy. He was nominated as a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel in 1994 and has chaired two subcommittees within ACTEC, the Legacy and Generational Planning Subcommittee of the Practice Committee and the Family Dynamics Subcommittee of the Business Planning Committee. In 2017, John A. received the Scott Fithian Leadership Award from the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy and served on the Board of Directors of that organization for four years. He has served on the Planned Giving Advisory Council of the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia since 2015. John A. is the author of two Tax Management portfolios and more recently has self-published The Purposeful Trusts and Legacies Handbook and is currently working on two book projects, The Gift of You, and the New Vocabulary of Family Wealth. John A. is a good and long-time friend of FOX and we are privileged to have collaborated with him and with PPI repeatedly throughout the years. Purpose is often cited as one of the key pillars of long-term success for multigenerational families. John A. dedicated much of his professional work on bringing purpose to families and the advisors who serve them – particularly as the founder of the Purposeful Planning Institute. He elaborates on the importance of purpose for families and their advisors and talks about why it is important to be purposeful as a family leader or wealth advisor. He also highlights the distinctions between purpose, values, and mission since these are often lumped together and not always fully understood. John A. has pointed to the significance of family traditions and rituals as powerful tools for establishing and living the family purpose. He describes why rituals are important and how they help families crystallize their purpose and values and pass them on across generations. Conversely, he points out what happens if traditions become performative or imposed on the family, rather than genuinely meaningful. John A. shares some examples of family traditions that he has encountered over his decades of work with UHNW families and outlines the impact of these traditions on the family and the changed that resulted from these shared rites. John A. has formulated five suggestions for trustees, including corporate and professional trustees, as well as PTCs, related to helping the families they serve define and fulfill their shared purpose. He provides an overview of these practical resources and describe how they can be put to use in support of the family's success and wellbeing. Do not miss this opportunity to hear from one of the most respected founders and premier thought leaders of the family wealth space.

Join Ken Ducey, CEO of Veridel, for a critical look at the "dangerous blind spot" threatening modern wealth. A veteran entrepreneur who has testified before Congress and appeared on CNBC as an M&A specialist, Ken has spent his career bridging the gap between complex Wall Street structures and real-world impact. In this episode, we discuss why family offices—with their webs of private equity, real estate, and trusts—are uniquely suited for AI, and how Veridel is using proprietary automation to turn scattered documents into a unified, actionable legacy.

Today, it is my pleasure and honor to speak with Mark Daniell, Chairman of The Raffles Family Wealth Trust Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based strategic advisory boutique working with a select set of UHNW families and their businesses around the world, addressing issues related to strategy, strategic transactions, governance, leadership, generational transitions and Integrated Legacy Strategy. In addition, Mark is the founder, along with a team of distinguished global partners, of www.raffleslegacylearning.com, an advanced e-learning platform for legacy families and their advisors. He has 20 years of experience as a partner at Bain & Co, and was also Director of merchant bank Wasserstein Perella, and President of a publicly listed investment firm in Singapore, and he serves on the boards of a number of public and private companies including Olam International and ED&F man, in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Mark is the author of seven books (so far) in areas related to family wealth and business strategy. In 2010, he co-wrote "Family Legacy and Leadership: Preserving True Family Wealth in Challenging Times" with FOX founder Sara Hamilton, and he has written articles for The Wall Street Journal and appeared on the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Channel NewsAsia. Mark is a long-time friend and collaborator of FOX. Mark's advisory work over the past 35 years has been focused on business strategy, which is probably the #1 subject talked about, taught, and worked on in the corporate world. But what does strategy mean in the family office and family wealth realm? Mark talks about how family leaders and family office executives should think about, develop, and execute the strategy for their family, enterprise, or office? Another foundational corporate concept that Mark has deep experience and expertise in is culture. Mark shares his insights on how culture manifests itself at a family office or family enterprise and offers some pointers on what family office leaders need to do to foster a strong, vibrant culture that attracts and retains top talent. Mark has developed the "10 Circles Framework" to serve as a strategic guide for families of wealth and family enterprises. He describes the framework and explains how family leaders and family office executives can utilize it in their work with the families they serve. Another area of practical importance Mark points out is the imperative – and challenge – for families and their enterprises and offices to stay innovative and competitive. He offers his views on how families and family offices can nurture their creativity in each of the 10 circles of his 10 Circles Framework. Don't miss this deeply insightful conversation with one of the bets known strategists, thinkers, and global practitioners serving UHNW families and their complex enterprises.

What if running a private household required more than just hiring staff?In this episode of Life in Private Staffing, Philippa is joined by Alice Bournarel, a private household consultant supporting UHNW families with everything from recruitment and training to operations and bespoke event management.With over 13 years of experience across private households, yachts, and international residences, Alice shares how she built her career from the ground up — and why she has now launched her own business to support households in a more flexible, consultancy-style capacity.They discuss the reality behind managing private homes, the gaps many households don't realise they have, and why structure, clarity, and training are key to building a high-performing team.

Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Annette Hopper and Levi Hammett, co-founders of Full Scope Solutions, a strategic outsourcing firm serving family offices. Annette brings more than 25 years of experience in the investment advisory industry. From 2004 through January 2025, she held key leadership roles at a Boulder- and New York-based asset allocator, serving as Partner, CFO, CCO, and COO. In these positions, she oversaw financial strategy, compliance, and operational execution for both institutional and family clients. Prior to that, she co-founded a consulting firm that served over 60 clients across multiple industries and provided outsourced CCO services for a Boulder-based asset allocator. Levi has over 12 years of investment operations and analytics experience with an Asset Allocator operating out of both Boulder and New York City. Throughout his career, he has successfully implemented performance reporting systems, risk management platforms, data warehouses, trading workflows, and custodial relationships. His extensive expertise in investment operations, systems integration, and investment reporting has made him an expert in enhancing business processes and supporting data-driven strategies within the financial industry. Annette and Levi, and their firm Full Scope Solutions, are valued Advisor members of FOX, and we are privileged to have their knowledge and expertise in our membership community. There is much talk within our space about the formalization and professionalization of family office functions, but not much uniformity or consistency in defining what these functions are. Annette and Levi give us their overview of the core family office functions and their working definitions of back-office, middle-office, and front-office departments that are commonly seen among family offices. A big part of professionalizing various family office functions is the decision whether to outsource any of them – and certainly, many families are making the decision to hand off key components of their family office operations to specialized external providers. Annette and Levi talk about what it takes to architect an outsourcing relationship that both brings in world-class expertise and capabilities and provides the family with the control, quality and customization of services they often require. Annette and Levi offer their practical tips and advice for family principals and leaders on how best to understand the middle-office and back-office functions that serve their family – and why it is important to do that in the first place. Going back to the concept of architecting the family office for the long term, Annette and Levi provide some suggestions to families and their family office executives on how to build a resilient infrastructure for their family office – how do they decide what to own vs. rent, build vs. outsource. Enjoy this informative dialog with two highly experienced operators and service providers in the UHNW wealth management and family office space.

On this episode, Kevin chats with Derek Myron, Managing Partner of Centura Wealth Advisory, a San Diego-based registered investment advisor specializing in ultra-high-net-worth families. Since founding Centura in 2014, Derek and his team of 62 professionals have grown to $1.4 billion in assets under management.Derek walks us through how Centura has built a practice that goes well beyond traditional asset management into comprehensive tax planning and financial engineering. He gets into how sophisticated strategies around index replication, hedging, and tangible property regulations can materially change the tax picture for high income earners, and why that planning conversation is fundamentally different from what most advisors offer.He also gets into how RIAs like Centura think about allocating into real estate, where private market investments fit within a UHNW portfolio, and why real estate remains a core tool in the tax planning conversation, not just an asset class.On the business side, Derek shares how he thinks about building a firm, designing accountability around roles before people, extracting genuine core values from top performers, and why he prioritizes his team's growth above everything else. His advice for entrepreneurs is straightforward: stay humble, find good mentors, and build a peer network that functions like a real board of directors.

What if childcare in UHNW households went beyond traditional roles?In this episode of Life in Private Staffing, Philippa is joined by Wesley, a specialist working with children in private households to build confidence, discipline, resilience and fitness through personalised coaching.From his background in sport to launching his own business in Dubai, Wesley shares how he has carved out a unique role within private staffing — working closely with families to support children's development through structured, one-to-one programmes.They discuss the importance of sport in early development, the responsibility that comes with working so closely with children, and why more UHNW families are investing in specialist support beyond traditional childcare.In this episode, Philippa and Wesley cover:

Send us Fan MailWhat does it really take to build and protect a globally diversified single family office across multiple countries, industries, and generations?In this powerful fireside chat, international tax and corporate lawyer Joel Nagel shares the 15 core strategies behind building a strategic, multi-country single family office platform spanning banking, insurance, real estate development, hospitality, timber, professional sports, and international trusts.With over 36 years of experience advising high net worth and ultra high net worth families across 40+ countries, Joel reveals how disciplined structure, asset protection, and strategic focus have helped clients avoid losses for decades — while quietly building significant global assets of his own.In this episode, you'll discover:• How to structure international trusts, foundations, and asset protection frameworks• Why “defense” matters more than chasing returns• The power of staying in your lane — and saying no• How to build a global strategic platform of complementary businesses• The mindset difference between $10M families and $100M+ families• Using Bitcoin as a financial tool (not just an investment)• Structuring offshore banks and financial institutions• Buying undervalued global real estate with downside protection• Risk mitigation strategies in emerging markets• How to think long-term about generational wealthJoel also shares real case studies — from launching a European professional football league to building a Marriott hotel in Belize using crypto-backed financing.If you're a founder, family office executive, UHNW advisor, or investor building international structures, this conversation delivers practical insights on protecting wealth, structuring globally, and scaling strategically across borders.Because as Joel puts it: it's not what you make — it's what you keep.https://familyoffices.com/

Today, I'm excited to speak with Chris Bull, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Jet, one of the nation's premier private aviation companies delivering personalized travel solutions for entrepreneurs, executives, and families across the United States. With more than two decades of experience in aviation leadership, Chris has guided Northern Jet through a period of significant growth and transformation — most notably leading the 2023 merger of SpeedBird and Northern Jet Management, which established the company as one of the largest independently owned private aviation providers in the country. Under Chris's leadership, Northern Jet continues to set the standard for safety, reliability, and authentic client relationships, offering fractional ownership, jet management, and jet card programs designed to help clients make the most of their most valuable asset — time. Chris and his company, Northern Jet, are valued specialist advisor members of FOX and we are thrilled to have their expertise within our community. There has been a lot of change and developments in the private aviation space, especially in the past few years, so we start with a quick overview of the space. Chris offers his definition of private aviation these days and describes the evergreen benefits that attract UHNW clients to fly private. He also outlines the most notable trends that have been reshaping this niche industry. Chris then outlines the key options UHNW clients face and often must decide between, covering all the "4 lanes" of private aviation, as he defines them. He describes these different avenues and compares their pros and cons. Chris provides a comprehensive overview of the different types of vendors and players who comprise the private aviation space, equipping our listeners with all they need to know about these distinct companies serving the private aviation space. He also outlines how his company's consultative model works in helping clients navigate the choices and decisions they face in this sector. Finally, Chriss provides some practical tips and tools he recommends to families and family offices who are considering or are actively utilizing various private aviation services and operating models. This is a highly instructive conversation with one of the top advisors and service providers in the private aviation industry specializing in solutions for UHNW individuals, enterprise families, and their family offices.

From working on superyachts to building a flexible career across private residences and luxury hospitality, Maja Novak shares what it really takes to succeed in the private service industry.After more than a decade in yachting, Maja made the transition to contract-based roles in private households, villas and chalets, designing a career that allows her to balance professional opportunities with personal life.In this episode, Philippa and Maja discuss the realities of working in private service and UHNW environments, from the importance of emotional intelligence and professionalism within teams to the challenges of working far from home.Maja also shares valuable insight into networking, personal branding, and building a reputation within the industry, as well as why visibility on platforms like LinkedIn can open unexpected doors.In this episode, we cover:

Today, I am pleased to speak with Pascal Köppel, Managing Director, Head of Investment Management and Chief Investment Officer at Vontobel Swiss Financial Advisers. Pascal and his teams are responsible for the discretionary portfolio management, selection of suitable investment vehicles and development of specific client solutions as well as the investment advisory mandates. He joined UBS in 2004 as Head of Active Advisory in Zurich where he was responsible for the investing of CHF15bn in assets and managed a team of 40 investment specialists providing investment advisory services for clients worldwide. Prior to joining UBS, Pascal worked for a hedge fund company in Switzerland where his focus was on the selection of investment opportunities worldwide as well as structuring of investment vehicles. An increasing number of UHNW individuals and successful families in the US are exploring global diversification strategies. Pascal explains why US wealth owners and their family offices are opting to custody and invest assets in other jurisdictions across the globe. Pascal's firm specializes in investing in Switzerland, but he talks about all the top jurisdictions UHNW families are choosing to invest in nowadays and describes their respective attractions. Pascal helps us explore the practical applications and use cases UHNW investors are pursuing with their global diversification strategies. He describes the key motivations and objectives for wealthy clients who are moving assets to other global jurisdictions. A key practical consideration for families and their family offices is the selection of a foreign broker. Pascal shares his views on what they need to look for in a foreign broker, including what certifications, designations, or other capabilities families need to be aware of and seek when they evaluate foreign brokers. Enjoy this informative conversation with a leading expert in multi-jurisdictional investment advisory services for global UHNW clients.

From cooking for world-famous athletes and global touring musicians to navigating extreme dietary requirements inside private households, Chef Joy's career offers a fascinating insight into life as a Private Chef at the highest level.Originally from New Orleans and now based in Los Angeles, Joy shares how she built her career from professional kitchens into the world of private staffing — travelling internationally, cooking in unconventional environments, and adapting to the unique demands of UHNW clients.She opens up about the realities behind the glamour, the importance of attitude and flexibility, and how challenges like cooking without onion or garlic have actually helped her grow creatively as a chef.In this episode, Philippa and Joy discuss:

Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Jeffrey Croteau and Kate Dumas of Tide Cycle, a specialized firm that serves as the outsourced chief investment officer for large, ultra-high-net-worth families and individuals, providing customized investment solutions. Jeff is Founder and CIO of Tide Cycle, which he founded after a successful tenure at Prime Buchholz LLC and Mercer Investment Consulting. With a background in mathematics, Jeff's investment journey began as an analyst and evolved into leadership, guiding families and institutions through major market events like the tech bubble, the financial crisis, and the Covid pandemic. He serves as a Board member of the Foundation for Seacoast Health, a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for the College of Science at Northeastern University, and coaches cycling at Portsmouth High School. Kate is Chief of Staff and Deputy CIO at Tide Cycle. She joined the firm following a brief career pause to explore philanthropic pursuits. Kate was previously a Managing Principal and Consultant at Prime Buchholz LLC where she built successful investment programs for a variety of clients. Prior to Prime Buchholz, Kate worked at Deutsche Bank AG in New York and Mellon Trust in Boston. She is a member of the Sustainability Advisory Board at the University of New Hampshire, the Finance Committee at the Southeast Land Trust, and the Boston Economic Club. Kate volunteers with Invest for Better and CFA? (Society) Boston to promote financial literacy. Jeff and Kate, and their firm Tide Cycle, are valued Advisor members of FOX, and we are privileged to have their knowledge and expertise in our membership community. One significant and growing tendency in the family office space is for wealth owners to consider and create virtual family offices. Jeff and Kate give an overview of the family office virtualization trend and describe the latest developments in this space. As part of the virtualization trend, outsourcing the investment function is increasingly common among family offices. Jeff and Kate share their perspective on the evolution of the OCIO function and practice in recent years, explaining how the function is defined and how has it changed. One major practical consideration for family offices is how to envision what to outsource and what to keep in-house. Jeff and Kate offer their tips for wealth owners and family office leaders on how to make this important and consequential decision. Another piece of practical advice Jeff and Kate have for family office principals and executives is to consider the full investment function by analyzing the full value chain of activities and players. They talk about this important consideration and highlight how family office professionals can best accomplish that goal. Do not miss this highly instructive conversation with two of the foremost leaders and practitioners in the OCIO space serving top UHNW families and their family offices.

Today, I am delighted to welcome Verónica Lajud del Valle, Founder of Stellar Educational Consulting and Creator of the Stellar Insight Method. Verónica works with UHNW families worldwide and helps them create homes and educational environments where their children don't just succeed but they flourish and make a deeper change. Her approach weaves together structure and empathy, strategy and heart. She has trained at the historic Montessori institutes in Bergamo, Perugia, and Rome, diving deep into everything from psychomotor development to Edgar Morin's complex thinking to psychoanalysis. This multidimensional perspective inspired her to create the Stellar Insight Method™, a framework that brings together Montessori wisdom, cutting-edge neuroscience, psychoanalytic understanding, and mindfulness practices. Verónica is a published author, international literary award winner, and certified yoga teacher. Verónica and her firm Stellar Educational Consulting are a Specialist Advisor member of FOX, and we are thankful to have her expertise within our membership community. Verónica's work with children of wealthy families is extensive and innovative, and she tells our audience about the experience and challenges of children growing up in UHNW households. She talks about "the system" that exists for families to raise their children – a system that can either help or hinder families and children – and touches on the choice they face to either stay in or go outside the system. One important practical consideration for parents is to learn to spot the early signs of behavioral issues. Verónica shares some of the "red flags" or behavioral indicators parents need to understand, interpret, and manage. Verónica developed the Stellar Insight Method to equip parents and children with the tools to create an environment of mutual support, personalized learning, and emotional thriving. She describes this method in more detail and highlights other useful tools families can rely on, also providing a comparison between these tools and her method. Enjoy this informative conversation with a true innovator and experienced practitioner in the field of early childhood education, engagement, and support for UHNW families.

Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Natasha Silver Bell, Founder & CEO of SilverBell Global, a concierge provider of case management services, crisis management and intervention for individuals and families with behavioral, mental health, and addiction difficulties. Bringing over a decade of expertise in mental health, Natasha orchestrates multidisciplinary systems and teams across the US, the UK, the UAE, and beyond. A thought leader and keynote speaker, Natasha curates dialogues with leading practitioners around mental health, wellbeing, and spirituality. Recent thought leadership includes the Lord Mayor's Global Family Office Summit at Mansion House, London, and Grace Under Pressure with Sir António Horta-Osório, exploring the evolving relational complexities of generational prosperity in personal and professional realms. Natasha extends her commitment to accessible mental healthcare through her co-founding of Inservice Foundation, which supports underserved populations, and the creation of the Megan Ann Foundation, which serves sober women and survivors of intimate partner violence, prioritizing personal growth. Natasha and her firm, SilverBell Global, are Specialist Advisor members of FOX, and we are thrilled to have her expertise and thought leadership within our membership community. In her professional field, where Natasha helps clients manage and overcome serious challenges, such as mental health issues and addiction, spirituality – one's relationship with and belief in a higher power or a divine entity – is a big and important topic. We start by talking about spirituality in the context of an organized religious institution. Natasha shares her views and experience with institutional spirituality. She highlights the most common rewards and struggles people have when engaging with organized spirituality shares best practices to consider from her years of working with families and individual clients. Being part of a religious institution that is built and run by other people is not the only way to experience and nurture one's spirituality. Natasha discusses the paths people can pursue to have a spiritual life outside of an organized religion. One practical tool Natasha emphasizes in the pursuit of spirituality is story telling. She tells us how and why stories are an important pillar of any spiritual experience – especially those shared by multigenerational families. For nearly everyone, fear is always present in their relationship with a divine entity. Natasha offers her practical suggestions on how to address and overcome the fear in spiritual and religious life – outlining the alternative paths to "fear of God". Do not miss this deeply insightful conversation with one of the leading practitioners and thought leaders in the realm of spirituality and wellbeing serving UHNW families.

From luxury resorts and private islands to UHNW households in the Middle East, Imran Zulfikar's career offers a rare insight into one of private staffing's most discreet and misunderstood roles — the Private Wellness Manager.With a background spanning elite hospitality, private islands (including three years on Necker Island as the first male in the role), and now working within a private household in the UAE, Imran shares what it truly takes to manage health, wellbeing and lifestyle at the highest level.This is not about personal training or spa treatments — it's about long-term prevention, accountability, trust, and guiding principals towards sustainable lifestyle change.Imran opens up about working closely with UHNW individuals, navigating resistance to change, building trust over time, and why wellness in private households must be deeply personalised. He also shares how psychology, observation, and emotional intelligence are just as critical as physical expertise.In this episode, Philippa and Imran dive into:

Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Alicia Fritz, Founder and Principal Designer of A Day in May Events, an event production firm sought after for mastering the art of entertaining. With a mission to preserve the unique history and life experiences of her clients and their families, Alicia and her team have been entrusted as strategic partners for their private, legacy clients for close to two decades. Since 2007, Alicia has built a dedicated staff of event specialists and creative thinkers who operate with a methodical and intuitive system that prioritizes collaboration with their clients, respectful partnership with their creative teams and an unwavering commitment to a flawless event. Alicia has been recognized as one of the country's top event planners by VOGUE and Martha Stewart Weddings to name a few. From the serene, idyllic coastline of Northern Michigan to the exquisite landscape of the South of France, Alicia and her team rarely create in the same place twice and welcome the challenge of producing these exceptional moments for beloved clients in unchartered territory. Alicia describes the world of events for UHNH families and their family offices, and highlights the occasions, formats, and experiences for which families most commonly turn to a professional, experiential event production specialist. She walks us through some of the unique aspects of events in the family wealth space and talks about the unique challenges, opportunities, and needs that family offices must understand and manage when overseeing such events. Alicia offers her tips for engaging family members – especially the rising gen – during family events and gatherings organized by the family office or the family leadership. Producing elaborate, experiential events takes a village of service providers. Alicia provides practical suggestions for families and their family offices on how to work with the universe of specialized vendors to make their events special and memorable. Enjoy this illuminating conversation with one of the leading professionals in the UHNW events production space.

Serving ultra-high-net-worth families requires more than technical expertise. It demands deep attention to detail, a strong supporting team, and a planning approach capable of navigating complex tax, estate, and investment structures. This episode explores what it really takes for advisors to successfully move 'upmarket' and support clients whose financial lives involve high stakes, fast-moving parts, and opportunities measured in millions. Blair duQuesnay is a Lead Advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management, an RIA based in New York City that oversees $6.5 billion in AUM for 3,900 households. Listen in as Blair shares how she transitioned from working with traditional wealth-management clients to serving ultra-high-net-worth families, and what she learned about applying advanced expertise in real-world scenarios where accuracy and timeliness are critical. You'll hear why flat-fee models often make more sense than AUM fees at the highest wealth levels, how she demonstrates multimillion-dollar planning value through sophisticated tax and estate strategies, and how UHNW clients' biggest fear isn't running out of money but making a catastrophic financial mistake. We also discuss how Blair manages impostor syndrome, the confidence that comes from having a strong team behind her, and why advisors can thrive with any client segment as long as they intentionally choose the work they enjoy most. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/474

Today, I am pleased to welcome Paul Boutros, Deputy Chairman and Head of Watches, Americas for Phillip, the leading auction house dedicated to collector's watches. Based in New York City, he helped establish and build the watch department since its launch in 2014. In October 2017, he led Phillips's inaugural New York watch auction, Winning Icons, where Paul Newman's legendary Rolex "Paul Newman" Daytona sold for $17.8 million - the highest result ever for a vintage wristwatch sold at auction. Under his leadership, the Phillips New York team as sold many legendary pieces, including a Heuer Monaco wristwatch gifted by Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando's Rolex GMT-Master worn in "Apocalypse Now", Jack Nicklaus' Rolex Day-Date, and Paul Newman's Rolex "Big Red" Daytona, to mention just a few. In December 2021, his team's fifth annual flagship watch auction achieved $35.9 million, breaking the record for the highest watch auction total in U.S. history. A collector of wristwatches since childhood, Paul is a specialist in their authentication and valuation. Frequently appearing on television programs sharing tips on watch collecting, he has hosted talks for investment banks, luxury brands, and magazines. As the former watch columnist for Barron's PENTA, Paul has been published or cited in numerous publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, and Robb Report. Paul serves as a Trustee for the Horological Society of New York, an Honorary Committee Member of the Gerald Genta Heritage Association, and as an Academy Member of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). Paul also serves as a strategy consultant to luxury brands through his firm, Boutros Group. To start off, Paul tells us about the exotic world of luxury time pieces. He tells the story of how the luxury watch landscape has evolved and how UHNW individuals and families are viewing watches today as a component of their portfolio's alternative assets allocation. We then talk about what sets unique time pieces apart from the "mere mortal" expensive watches. Paul helps us understand and define what makes a luxury watch a collectible piece.>/p> Paul offers some tips for families and family offices on how to get started, especially if they are new to luxury watch investing and collecting. He goes into detail on how one can find the right watch for their needs and goals. An important consideration in this specialized segment of alternative investments is protecting against fraud and other unique threats. Paul provides invaluable pointers into what UHNW families need to know about how to avoid the risks inherent in the world of luxury watches and how to protect against being taken advantage of. Finally, he describes the important role the family office can and should play in this process. Do not miss this fascinating and deeply insightful conversation with one of the world's leading experts on luxury time pieces and collectible watches.