Lesson 2: You can always negotiate with the professionals you engage. Very often, the key is to ask penetrating questions and being assertive. Astute questioning will give you the information you need to navigate the professional’s business model and show you where you have leverage. We recommend you aim to strike a marginally better deal. Thus, the professionals you engage are well compensated (just not as well as before your negotiations) and they are motivated to do a spectacular job for you.
Lesson 3: The best way to make certain you are getting or will get the outcomes that matter to you, is to periodically stress test your investment portfolio or your financial plans or the services and product of any professionals you have worked with. In coordinating stress tests for the super-rich, most of the time we find that a little refinement might be in order but overall everyone is in good shape. One the other hand, when we do find major mistakes they prove to usually be disastrous.
Bottom line: High-performing single-family offices deliver exceptional value to their wealthy families. If you are not exceptionally wealthy, you can still benefit by following the hard earned lesson of high-performing single-family offices.
For a complimentary PDF copy of The High-Functioning Single-Family Offices: A Primer for Family Members and Senior Management request the book from [email protected]