Family Office Sherpa Podcast Series: Episode 5 - Engaging Family Members in the Investment Office (especially next gen)

I have produced a five part education series on how to structure the investment office. This fifth episode covers family office engagement in the investments.

This episode covers engaging family members in the investment office.

So, what are we talking about? In the first episode of this podcast series, I spoke on “taking the family with you on the journey” for the investment policy. And without engagement, they’re not going to follow you anywhere.

 So, what have I seen work (and not work):

1)      Engage with the Investment Policy

·       Make it easy to read, remove jargon, bring them on the journey on the why and the how of managing the assets

·       Have aspects that are verbatim what the family members believe should be included.

·       Lean into their biases, especially those that will be stewards going forward.

2)      Give them a portfolio

·       Accessible and with real world impact – they receive the gains, feel the losses

·       Make it an extension of them, not just the family portfolio

·       Lean into their interests.

·       Make it easy to implement and track – single stocks, ETFs etc

3)      Provide a narrative

·       When investing in VC/PE allow for interactions with the portfolio companies.

·       Be transparent in the reasons the portfolio has been constructed in this way

4)      Always be educating and learning

• It’s a two way street

5)      Make it easy to understand where you are/have invested and how it has performed

• Prioritize good reporting, move away from Excel

• Use appropriate performance measures and benchmarks to show efficacy

What not to do:

1)      Make it complicated and full of financial speak

2)      Ignore components that don’t exactly match the main portfolio or investment policy.

3)      Exclude people from the process, just because they don’t manage the portfolio directly

4)      Make it complicated and full of data points.

5)      Speak at people rather than to them.

6)      Say “this won’t interest you” as if this is the boring part.

This is a new platform for me, hopefully it works as a way of delivering information for those families and advisers seeking practical insight. They're short (30 minutes tops).

For more insights into family offices and their investments, operations and technology, subscribe to the Sherpa newsletter at:  hallroad.com.au.

Cheers

Shaun.

“Hall Road Investments Pty Ltd is a Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR No. 001279456) of Non Correlated Capital Pty Ltd (AFSL No. 499882). Shaun Parkin is an Authorised Representative (AR No 001279458) of Hall Road Investments Pty Ltd (CAR No. 001279456) and is authorised to provide general advice to wholesale investors”