The world of single-family offices is growing rapidly. It is a worldwide phenomenon that is correlated to the incredible creation of private wealth. Not only is there a boom in the number of single-family offices globally, but the amount of wealth they control is growing at an accelerating rate.
The explosion of single-family offices is fast outpacing the talent to manage them. This is creating a very substantial need for understanding best practices as well as being able to source specialists and business possibilities. A large percentage of the wealthy who are establishing single-family offices are leveraging their personal and professional networks to help ensure their offices are state of the art.
Not only are the very wealthy leveraging their networks on behalf of their single-family offices, it is a dominant trend for the non-family senior executives to constructively use their personal and professional networks. However, single-family office senior executives are also making considerable efforts to develop more formidable results-driven professional networks.
A crucial component of this agenda is building solid relationships with senior executives at other single-family offices. In a survey of 78 single-family offices, about 85% of the senior executives said they are making concerted efforts to expand and strengthen their relationship with their peers in other single-family offices.
While the universe of single-family offices is generally opaque by design, there are ways these senior executives are effectively reaching out and establishing productive relationships with other single-family office senior executives. Attending select conferences, geared toward single-family offices, proves to be quite an effective way to meet and get to know other senior executives.
Angelo Robles, founder and CEO of the Family Office Association and author of Effective Family Office, said, “Not discounting the value of the content, very often the best take away when attending a conference for family office executives is the ability to meet their peers and establish strong relationships. For years now I’ve made a concerted effort to understand the needs and wants of my family office members, so I can make introductions, when appropriate, to other family offices members as well as providers.”
Single-family office senior executives are also connecting at various elite conclaves. They are attending Bilderberg meetings, the World Economic Forum, and elite mastermind groups. In these settings they are not only finding and building relationships with other single-family office senior executives, but they are often meeting and uncovering opportunities with some extraordinarily successful entrepreneurs.
More recently, single-family office senior executives are leveraging their provider relationships to meet like-minded peers. All in all, a large percentage of the senior executives at single-family offices are proactively taking steps to network with each other. This trend is likely to intensify, especially as the numbers of single-family offices continue to grow.
Russ Alan Prince, president of R.A. Prince & Associates, is a consultant to family offices, the ultra-wealthy and select professionals.