Last week Agreus attended the Global Family Office Community (GFOC) Conference in Beverly Hills to discuss the Family Office of the Future, Today’s Investment Opportunities, the Global Domestic and Political Environment and Family Leadership Development.

The event was well attended by more than 100 Principals and professionals from across the US Family Office community. It also featured incredible discussions by an array of esteemed panellists including Agreus Co-Founder Tayyab Mohamed and Agreus Thought-Leadership Council (TLC) Members Kirby Rosplock and Dennis Jaffe.

Founder and CEO of the GFOC, Vahe Vartanian, opened the day with an interesting insight: 68% of Family Office professionals in attendance were most concerned with the current state of the financial world.

This was marginally followed by 16% who worry for their children, 11% who fret about their health and 5% most worried about their Family Office reputation.

The four themes continued throughout the day. Here are some other interesting takeaways:

  • Tayyab joined Agreus TLC member Kirby and a fourth generation family member on a panel dedicated to the Family Office of the future. Tayyab continued a conversation started at the GFOC London event in June which centred around talent retention and how in an increasingly candidate driven market, Family Offices must provide flexibility to secure and retain the best talent. He also spoke of the importance of professionalising the hiring process by following best practices especially as Family Offices were competing directly with Sell Side firms and others from highly benchmarked industries.
  • What followed was a fascinating discussion about current investment opportunities, something every Principal was interested in learning more about. Property was still considered a critical investment for Family Offices while the audience heard of many Family Offices actually winding down from an investment perspective with uncertainty a risk far too great. The current cost of living and inflationary concerns are really on top of agendas as this brings with it an expectation of market corrections.

  • A Former United States Ambassador in Europe joined the discussion to discuss macro-economic factors currently at play, trying to answer some of the concerns brought by the 68% of audience members who stated that they were worried about the state of the world today. He offered his take on what the current global and domestic political environment means for Family Office portfolios and emphasised a common attitude which is that Family Offices exist to future-proof and should always expect Plan C.
  • TLC Member Dennis joined a selection of enterprising families who discussed their best practices for thriving across generations. Two interesting themes found their way through each discussion on the panel: The first was social responsibility and how attitudes towards it change across generations and the second was about trust. Generation 1 and 2 must have trust in the next generation. They might have different ideas but with the world changing at an alarming rate, difference can be great. Thomas Brown of Ad Altius advisors also pointed out an interesting observation showing the difference in the landscape of Family Offices in the UK and USA. He pointed out that there is a considerable dearth of multi generation family offices in the USA in comparison to the UK and that is not just a coincidence. He argues that it is mainly due to high cost structures of the smaller Family Office setups that almost makes it unviable in the longer term.The panel left the audience with a thought-provoking question: Do you need an archaic mindset to perpetuate wealth?

As always, the event offered the chance to interact with like-minded peers in the community, all of which were optimistic, opportunistic and ready to conquer 2023.