What Single Family Offices Want From Deal Partners
Richard C. Wilson moderates a family office panel at a Family Office Club event, where investors discuss deal sourcing, portfolio decisions and working with partners.
Richard C. Wilson introduces the panel and asks what each family office wants to access through the event. The guests discuss how they choose partners, structure real estate deals, think about public markets and approach assets or sectors they have not worked in before.
In this video: Richard C. Wilson (Founder and CEO, panel moderator), David (First generation single family office investor), Greg (Managing director at CGI Strategies), Dan (Founder and managing director of an introducing brokerage firm), Marco (Fourth generation family office executive)
What they said
- Site control shapes the fit. Greg says deal size matters more than a sponsor's track record. A newer sponsor with site control may still be worth talking to. Greg says his firm needs control to sign a loan guarantee. If the sponsor can sign the guarantee and only needs capital, he says the discussion is different.
- Match economics to the work. Greg says the arrangement depends on the deal. His firm may take a smaller share when local partners do most of the work, while its role and economics differ when it leads the project and brings equity.
- David favors liquid public equity exposure. David says he moved from investing in his own funds to the S&P 500 after leaving Third Avenue. He believes each investor should have exposure to liquid public equities, with the allocation depending on the individual.
- Dan sees a role for managed futures overlays. Dan says he looks at active, short-duration traders on regulated exchanges. In his view, managed futures overlays can capture upside during a black swan event and add liquidity for a later opportunity.
- David on assessing unfamiliar assets. David says investors entering an unfamiliar area should assess the project leader, sponsor and co-investors. He puts trust in the partners at the center of evaluating a project the family does not know well.
In their words
"we meet quarterly, religiously, and share investment ideas."
"invested in those technologies ourselves so that we can circle the money around"
Why it matters if you are building or preserving great wealth
David's reference to co-investors who have already diligenced a project makes their work part of the expertise available to a family entering an unfamiliar asset.
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 Dan's firm do?
Dan says his Fort Lauderdale brokerage serves as an execution base for commodity trading advisers and helps family offices enter managed futures or hedge market exposure.
What kind of opportunity zone projects did David prefer?
David says the projects he liked most were residential developments near universities with demand for dormitory housing. He said they were modeling returns in the high teens before tax benefits.
What technology did Marco's family office invest in?
Marco says his family's hotel group invested in operating technologies, including online travel agency and payment systems, to reduce costs and keep more of the money within its business.
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.