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y judy magness
Sometimes, a term bubbles to the
general surface from the special
environment where it began. One
that seems to be popping up more
and more is “family office,” but what
actually is it? Family offices began in
many types of financial service firms,
ranging from those providing solely
financial services to firms providing
comprehensive services, including
everything from managing household
staff to making travel arrangements
for members of a single –
sometimes extended – family.
Family Office Firms:
Advising
the
Affluent
Welcome to the
world of Jack Sullivan,
CEO of Heritage
Wealth Counselors,
LLC, a Registered Investment
Advisory
firm. This New Jersey-based
family office
firm manages financial investments,
trusts and administrative functions for
high net worth families.
Heritage Wealth Counselors offers
proprietary services for preserving and
growing family wealth as well as for
generational planning. Sullivan is the
creator of the “Family Wealth Protection
Process,” a system that families can
follow to successfully pass on wealth as
a legacy to their heirs.
“It’s about transitioning the wealth
from one generation to the next – and
also transitioning the values that created
the wealth,” Sullivan said. “Getting a
buy-in from the next generation can be
very challenging,” he continued. “One
of the ways we engage the family is by
encouraging family meetings on a regular
basis to discuss business issues,
and we facilitate family development
practices in empathy and other sensitive
areas. Different skill sets are needed to
navigate the hard and soft issues that
surround family and wealth.”
It’s a recognition that Mark Butler, the
CFO of Heritage Wealth, said takes time
to develop.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JULY 2014
“When families first acquire their
wealth, there is a lot of financial illiteracy
that comes along with that,” Butler
explained. “The manner in which
Heritage Wealth Counselors works
with families is what attracted me to
this firm.”
Butler respects the firm’s policy of
setting up rules and guidelines for a
multitude of situations. These are established
and fully defined in documents
that surround the family council.
For instance, everyone involved
understands exactly what must happen
in the event of the death of a
spouse. Other life-changing situations
are similarly defined. Trusts can also
be developed for future generations.
These and family partnerships are
often established through the family
office.
Affluent investors began to think
more like the rest of us after the 2008
economic bust. Sullivan says that his
clients talk more about asset preservation
these days, than about chasing
high returns in their portfolios, and he
believes that this is true for most high
net worth families as well. “Today’s
strategy is to keep the money safe.
That’s more important than Alpha.
While we do take some risk, we’re
not taking the risks we took five years
ago,” he said.
Butler agrees.
“Today, it is all about capital preservation,”
he said. “When people are
chasing yield and return, that pursuit
usually ends badly.”
Butler shares Sullivan’s emphasis
on helping each family achieve their
individual goals. “I get inspired by
helping people – that’s what we do at
Heritage Wealth Counselors, particularly
in the areas of working with the
next generation of a family. It’s not
work, it is fun,” Sullivan said.
In fact, he enjoys it so much that he
wrote a book about it, entitled, “Family
Wealth Counseling: Getting to the
Heart of the Matter – A Revolution
in Estate Planning for Wealthy Families.”
He shares his wisdom, garnered
over the course of more than 30 years
of working with many wealthy families.
In the book, Sullivan details how
the family wealth counseling process
he developed has positively impacted
America's wealthy families – financially,
socially, emotionally and spiritually
– by creating comprehensive
life plans that produce successful results.
429 Rockaway Valley Rd. Suite 500
Boonton Township, NJ 07005
www.heritagewealth.com