How to Build a Career in a Family Office
Richard C. Wilson records a short career-advice video from Prague before meetings and training work.
Richard C. Wilson gives direct career guidance for people seeking to enter or advance in family offices. He says the video grew from advice he gave to someone on the asset management side who wanted to break into the industry. The discussion addresses how candidates can show value, build industry relationships and learn the field, followed by Richard's recommendations for resources.
In this video: Richard C. Wilson (Speaker)
What they said
- Richard on varied family office roles. Richard says family office professionals often need to handle several roles. He describes one 800 million dollar family office where one person manages the money and the rest is outsourced. (at 1:22)
- Richard on relevant experience. Richard says the amount of assets someone has helped manage or invest matters. He believes relevant family office experience is more useful than work at an investment house unrelated to family offices. (at 1:22)
- Richard on long-term relationships. Richard advises respecting contacts' time, being organized and prepared, and sharing useful resources. He says some people helping him most knew him before he worked directly with family offices. (at 2:18)
- Richard on studying family offices. Richard says he has read all the books on family offices he could find, which he puts at about 30. He recommends spending fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars to acquire them and read them. (at 3:40)
In their words
"pedigree is important if you went to harvard or wharton obviously it's going to help you"
"there's no way for me to make money off of helping them write this research report"
Why it matters if you are building or preserving great wealth
Richard says he has read all the roughly 30 books he could find on family offices. His point suggests that candidates can make their knowledge visible by studying a field many experienced analysts haven't taken time to read about.
From Richard's exclusive Billionaires.com interviews
Lessons from Richard C. Wilson's one-on-one interviews, as published on each interview page.
- Anu Aga: Focus on one main cause. Her family found its giving more satisfying and impactful once it chose primary education for the underprivileged in India.
- Binod K. Chaudhary: Never chase a deal out of desperation. Stay cool and look at every part of the deal. Have your advisers and your finance team review it critically. Your counsel should review it too.
- Larry Connor: Learn from every mistake. Larry's team owns its failures and makes no excuses. They learn, change quickly, and keep getting better.
See the data
Frequently asked questions
What does The Family Office Report include?
Richard says the free PDF includes two chapters from his book, The Family Office Book: Investing Capital for the Ultra Affluent. He gives familyofficereport.com as the website.
What is included in the Qualified Family Office Professional program?
Richard describes it as a self-paced training and certificate program available from anywhere. He says it includes 36 hours of audio interviews with family office CIOs and CEOs, plus over 200 videos.
Sources
Quotes are copied from the video captions and checked against the transcript. Timestamps link to the moment in the video. General information only, not legal, tax or investment advice.