Family offices

Schwan Financial Group's Prepared Heirs program helps advisors connect with second-generation clients.

Steven Cohen, who agreed to close down his SAC Capital Advisors as part of a settlement with the U.S. government, will rename the firm and add a layer of management to oversee traders as the hedge fund becomes a family office, said a person familiar with the firm.

As the stock market has soared, firms face new competition for both talent and clients.

The Family Office Exchange's newly published Guide to the Professional Family Office offers time-tested recommendations to help wealthy families maintain their fortunes.

G. Moffett Cochran, co-founder and chief executive officer of Silvercrest Asset Management Group Inc., a New York-based firm catering to wealthy families, which went public in June, has died. He was 63.

Demand is high for experienced executives across all channels. While advisor migration to independent RIAs remains the dominant trend, large wirehouse and bank players are also very much in the game for talent.

Three big industry names are joining forces to form a new wealth management firm, Lebenthal Wealth Advisors.

“We see an opportunity to have a national RIA multifamily office brand with the Forbes name,” Scott Gregorchuk, chief executive of Forbes Family Trust tells Financial Planning. “We are surgically targeting the right advisors and investment advisory firms to join our effort.”

While a new report on multifamily offices finds big growth industrywide -- nearly 10% asset growth in 2011, the last year cited -- family office executives said a "primary growth constraint" was the ability to hire dedicated business development professionals.

For families with a special-needs child, advisors must employ a variety of tactics.

Thinking of working for a family office? First look under the hood – and into the mirror.

Contango Capital Advisors is shooting for growth in AUM of up to 10 times within five to seven years, while also increasing profitability.

A rebranding of the businesses is likely, Benevides told Financial Planning, as he “actively works” to unify the UHNW group. “It makes sense,” he said. “We’re one team and we want to leverage the strength each unit brings to the table in a way that gives us greater depth in all categories.”

Governance and succession-planning will be the primary offerings of a new family office consulting firm being launched on Tuesday by Withers, the giant international law firm.

Joe Calabrese has left as president of Harris myCFO, one of the country’s largest multi-family offices.

U.S. Bank wants to take the business of serving the ultra-wealthy to a higher, “experiential level.”

Multi-family offices and wealth advisors are registering solid revenue growth, according to a new report from Chicago-based Family Office Exchange. But they also face “operational challenges” going forward.

Single-family offices are investing directly because of declining fund returns and concerns that some outside managers charge high fees and may have conflicts of interest

The tax-exempt market posted a sixth consecutive trading session of gains on Tuesday as demand has outweighed supply in the muni market this week, and prices are following Treasuries higher.

When relatives are your supervisors and employees a special set of problems arise.