"Family Office" recruiting is one of the most difficult subsets of wealth management.



Loaded with mystery and allure, many wealthy families want to "have" a family office. It's a different story when the family has to determine the ROI of the project, lay out the costs and, ultimately, staff one. This is actual work.



Family offices are expensive and require deep strategic thought and long term purpose and budgeting by the family.



As we will learn here, family offices call for the identification, acquisition, and support of talent that is not readily available. This new talent can also be risky.



A new structure with new people subjects large amounts of personal wealth to the domain of outsiders and public risk. Failure is often embarrassing (and expensive).




https://open.spotify.com/episode/5IBc5iTzMNHHSoQqp8Ufhe?si=PUFi51DIR361WrnlEoJyRQ




I went to a source with a unique viewpoint.



BRIAN C. ADAMS is a Principal at Mack International, a leading executivesearch, and human capital consulting firm that serves the familyoffice/wealth management markets.



Along with his background in family office, Brian has co-founded two real estate private equity firms, Excelsior Capital and Priam Properties, and has assembled a portfolio of over $600 million in real estate assets.



Brian's Background and Unique Path into Family Office Recruiting



The Nuts and Bolts



SUCCESSION PLANNING AND NEXT GENERATION DEVELOPMENT



TALENT IDENTIFICATION AND ACQUISITION/ STRATEGIES FOR RETAINING KEY TALENT



COMPETITIVE COMPENSATION



PACKAGES AND HOLISTIC COMPENSATION APPROACHES



GLOBAL TRENDS THAT IMPACT THE FUTURE OF FAMILY ENTERPRISES




How "fully formed" is the vision for the office by the time they begin actually recruiting?



Is this coming from the lawyer?



The tax professional?



The banker?



Or from family office consultants?




What is the ROI on a family office?




Should it be a profit center?



A "break-even" cost of doing business?



A loss-leading accomodation?




Is the family driving the search or a consultant?




Do they often hire a CEO and they run the lower level searches? 



How do you get a family to think about a family office's linkage with (or separation from) a family business? 



Should it be funded out of liquidity or operating cash?




Complications with Family Office Recruiting




What happens if the job mandate doesn't feel right? How much are you dealing with the family and how much is it the consultant? Are the structures already built?



Eddie Marshall's 3 x 3 rule "problem" for Family Offices: 3 years / Over 3M and you still don't know what you have? LEARN MORE HERE



What are the real costs?



Do families understand the expense?



Who is developing the budget?




Threading a needle-




Identifying the talent and skills



Cultural Fit



Compensation terms - Salary vs Upside



The accounting spine VS "the guy to analyze deals" VS a large, full service situation



What happens if the fit is bad after 6 months?




Searches for new (de novo) family offices



Turnover due to retirement vs, turnover due to cultural problems



Searches for executives vs. technicians




Do searches for positions ever include family members to engender competition



Private or Public Company Board experience - is a lack of it a red flag?



Technology building and security experience



Any major best practices (or worst) for families exploring which functions to internalize and which to outsource?




Family offices and the trends toward outsourcing and MFO's




How does one deal with "scope creep"?



What if the family gets sick of the expense? 



Do you look for other families to use services and share in the expense?





https://youtu.be/O3qFi0YhuFI?si=nu5iQJ_Hnuno0zjX




How To Find Brian Adams




BRIAN ADAMS LINKEDIN



BRIAN ADAMS MACK INTERNATIONAL





https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Actually-Intelligent-Decision-Making-1-ebook/dp/B07FPQJJQT/