PW: What are your clients' greatest concerns, and how have those concerns changed over the last year.
GROMEK: Remarkably, the concerns haven't changed all that drastically. The bulk of our clients are entrepreneurs who built their wealth over time. And many of them are concerned about educating the next generation and really passing on the values that helped them build their wealth and making sure that that is consistent throughout the generations. So, we spend a lot of time educating. Educating the first generation, but also building programs to educate the next generation as well.
ROGERS: The overarching goal for many of these families is perpetuating well-being across the generations.
They're thinking about expanding their definition of wealth into relationships across the family.
But I think their greatest concern is, do we have competent, clear decision-making that's impacting all those various areas in an expanded definition of wealth?
The biggest concern right now, is what's falling through the cracks, and what should I be worrying about in the future that I wasn't thinking about coming into 2008?
SALLENAVE: At Schwab, we only deal with advisors. So, we can't speak to the end client. But what I think is interesting, what our multifamily office advisors are asking us for that they weren't two or three years ago, is specifically on the topic of family governance. They're looking to understand the standards and best practices about when advisors are asked to run family meetings.
SINSHEIMER: I'm finding the same thing that Greg mentioned. To me, that's really a concern about a loss of control in some fashion. And that is what has come to the fore after the latter part of [2008]. The sense that, whether it be in their investments, or in their family, or how they relate to their advisors, they're very critically concerned now with having some level of control.
They're also concerned that they may not be focusing on the right issues. And every client is quite different, so I can't tell you what those are. But I sense that more and more today after the past nine months or so, or 12 months, than ever before.
PATTERSON: I think people are still frightened. I mean, our financial underpinnings were threatened with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and various things that happened. And that fear hasn't gone away. And now we've got the stimulus coming in but they're still worried about what the long-term effects of the stimulus are going to be and what our country and our economy are going to look like ten years from now.