Richard C. Wilson on Running a Virtual Family Office
In Prague, Richard C. Wilson speaks directly to camera about setting up and running a virtual family office.
Richard C. Wilson, CEO of the Family Offices Group, discusses how to set up and run a virtual family office. He focuses on design choices around its purpose, investment oversight, meeting practices and expert support, using examples to show how the work a family needs done can shape the office.
In this video: Richard C. Wilson (CEO of the Family Offices Group)
What they said
- Richard's view on office structure. Richard says a virtual family office is typically a one-off arrangement for a family, rather than a multi-family office. He advises weighing it against a single family office and outsourcing investment oversight to an outsourced chief investment officer or consulting firm. (at 0:27)
- Richard says purpose changes team needs. Richard says a family seeking co-investments or club investing needs different team talent and a different advisory board or investment committee. He says the office's shape changes with its goals. (at 1:22)
- Richard links holdings to oversight pace. Richard contrasts weekly reports for a minority owner in restaurant franchises with intraday oversight for volatile hedge funds in a fund of funds approach. He says frequent monitoring can help cut off funds posting steep losses. (at 2:16)
- Richard's remote meeting practices. Richard encourages in-person meetings when possible. For people who cannot meet in person, he recommends video calls and set processes, saying they can help keep participants engaged and build trust. (at 3:40)
- Richard's core team approach. Richard recommends retaining three to five core professionals with varied expertise to help bring in specialists for individual projects. He gives setting up a division, acquiring a business and managing a partnership or joint venture with another family office as examples. (at 4:35)
In their words
"there's no excuse not to do video conference calls"
"the larger your family office is the more likely you're going to want to create more of a single family office"
Why it matters if you are building or preserving great wealth
Richard ties a larger office to the control, transparency and reporting of a single family office. That gives a family a concrete reason to revisit its setup as the operation grows.
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
How does Richard describe the investment committees?
He says some family offices use a smaller tactical committee that can meet quickly, alongside a strategic committee that may meet weekly or monthly.
Does a family need a virtual family office just to manage alternative investments?
Richard says it may not. If alternative investment management is the only aim, he says a virtual family office may be unnecessary and the project could be avoided.
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.