Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Patricia Angus, Founder and CEO of Angus Advisory Group, an independent consulting practice serving enterprise families. A former international trusts and estates lawyer, Patricia is a thought leader in the field of multi-generational family governance, wealth and philanthropy. She has been advising global families and their companies, family offices, and foundations, for three decades and is the author of The Beneficiary Primer, among numerous publications. She founded the Global Family Enterprise Program at Columbia Business School, where she teaches graduate and executive education courses, and is a Fellow and board member of the Family Firm Institute and a frequent speaker at industry and family events. Patricia is a long-time friend and collaborator of FOX.

Patricia is one of the pioneers in the family wealth space and has been at the forefront of the industry for over 3 decades. As she reflects on the past 30 years, she shares what she believes has changed significantly and what has stayed the same.

As Mark Twain famously said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Today, we find ourselves once again in a time of significant geopolitical and economic shocks, armed conflicts at home and abroad, and the return of populism and authoritarianism even among western democracies. Patricia offers some of the lessons she has learned and would like to pass on to families and their advisors on how to best weather such times of conflict, instability, and disruption.

Throughout her career, Patricia has developed a number of practical tools for families – one prominent example of a tool she utilizes with her clients is the Trustee and Beneficiary Primer. She tells us more about these tools, what is in them, and how families and their advisors can benefit from them.

In the family wealth space, there is a mix of practitioners and academic programs aimed at helping families of wealth achieve success throughout their multigenerational journey. Patricia provides her insights into how families should think about utilizing practitioners vs. academics, highlighting the utility and limitations of each of these resources and offering tips into how families can achieve the right balance between the different kinds of knowledge and tools both academia and practitioners provide?

Do not miss this deeply insightful conversation with one of the veterans and original thought leaders of the family wealth space.

Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Samantha Reynolds, Founder & CEO of ECHO Storytelling Agency. Since 1999, Sam and her firm have been trusted by hundreds of prominent families and global companies to preserve their legacies in books and videos. In 2005, Sam was named one of British Columbia’s “Top 40 under 40” and is also a Forbes Magazine Council Member and writes a monthly article on how to use authentic storytelling to drive business results. Sam and her firm, ECHO, are Specialist Advisor members of FOX, and we are excited to have her expertise and thought leadership within our membership community.

In the family wealth space, we are increasingly talking about the importance of telling the family story and passing the history down to future generations. Sam talks about the neuroscience behind sharing authentic stories – both stories of success and of adversity. Can you talk about this and connect it with how you see the significance of the family’s story throughout their journey.

There’s a delicate balance between sharing enough and sharing too much – both among family members and with external constituents. Sam shares her views on how families should navigate this balance and determine how much to share internally and with the public and their employees.

One practical tool Sam has developed and uses with her clients is a list of questions rising-gen members can ask of their elders. She tells us about this list and highlights the top questions to ask and the best settings in which to ask them. Sam also describes some of the modern technology-enabled tools and resources she recommends to families to help them with their effective communications and storytelling – or as she calls it “memory insurance.”

Enjoy this insightful conversation with one of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the storytelling and legacy preservation space.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Elizabeth Clubb, Founder and CEO of myFloc, an innovative fintech company addressing the unique financial needs of the aging population and their families. Prior to myFloc, Elizabeth was President and Chief Strategy Officer at an innovation and growth consultancy serving Fortune 500 clients across a broad range of industries. Elizabeth is on the Board of Directors of Lenbrook, a nationally renowned Continuing Care Retirement Community, where she serves on the Strategic Planning Committee and the Marketing Committee. She is an active member of the AARP Agetech Collaborative and The Business Collaborative for Brain Health and an Advisory Board member of The Famtech Collaborative.

Across our society, there are lately more conversations about and recognition of the impact of age on financial decision-making and the associated risks. Elizabeth talks about how the topic is being broached and addressed in the wealth management space in general, and in the world of wealthy families and family offices in particular.

A related, and unfortunately relevant and frequent, topic is financial fraud targeting older people. Elizabeth describes the latest trends and developments in the space and elaborates on how the threats and risks evolving are and how the risk-management, education and protection strategies and tactics are developing to respond to those threats.

One practical tip Elizabeth offers is that, in addition to all the technical and quantitative solutions and strategies, families and their family offices should also focus on the human element of fraud prevention – specifically, talking to and educating family members about fraud sooner than later. She shares the best practices and approaches for families she has observed in that area. Finally, she provides her top list of useful fraud prevention tools for families and family offices that can help them protect family members from financial exploitation.

Please enjoy this highly informative conversation with a leading expert and practitioner specializing in the unique financial needs and risks among the elderly and their families.