Wealth should strengthen a family, not merely survive it

Historically Today’s successful families accumulated wealth during a unique era of American leadership, globalization, institutional stability, and economic expansion—and those conditions are changing. The post-World War II era is giving way to the post-COVID era that demands more attention to inflation, renewed attention to diversification and reevaluation of what financial professionals have for 80 years learned to be “true.”

Relationally True “wealth transfer” is incomplete if it leaves children unprepared, parents frustrated, or family relationships challenged. Nearly all of our clients are “immigrants” to wealth meaning they are the first generation in their family to achieve extraordinary financial success. It takes intentional, consistent work to ensure that the very next generation understands how they got there and what that wealth means to their family going forward.

Community My wide-ranging experiences in politics, higher education, foundations, sustainable investing, and philanthropy challenge our mission to see wealth beyond accumulation. What does “life after wealth” look like? If it would take more than a lifetime to spend it, who and for what is it really for? Our clients want the challenge of answering these questions.

Insider-Outsider As a second-generation American and a Gen Xer, I’ve had the pleasure of being raised by the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world by people who were not. My dad didn’t live to experience the COVID-19 Pandemic, nor the run up of inflation that mirrored his 1970s experience, nor the return of tariffs that align with pre-NATO unilateralism and protectionism. But he had seen it before: from NATO to NAFTA to the Great Recession.

I didn’t understand his perspective while he was alive. Ever since his death, I have been a committed “forever student” of economics and finance on behalf of our clients’ and my own family. Financial decisions never exist apart from families, communities, and the historical conditions surrounding them. This is why our firm helps families integrate family governance with resilient investing, and proactive philanthropy.