Editor’s note: As you may know, for a limited time we’re opening up provisional membership to our top-tier family wealth advisory, Bonner & Partners Family Office. (You can read the details of that offer here.)
We realize our little family office project is unique. And we’ve gotten a lot of great questions about it from interested readers.
You probably have your own questions…
So today… Bonner & Partners Family Office executive director Will Bonner is sharing some of the answers he’s given to readers about what family offices are all about.
If you’ve already built significant wealth and are interested in making sure it’s around for your kids – and grandkids – to enjoy, today’s essay is a must read.
Your Burning Family Office Questions Answered
By Will Bonner, Executive Director, Bonner & Partners Family Office
Q: Sounds like my family needs a ton of money to take full advantage of a Bonner & Partners Family Office membership. Is that the case?
A: Great question! The answer is: yes and no.
Yes, because most family office services require your family to have at least $20 million in assets to become a member. No, because our little group aims to provide the same level of information that those services offer for much less money.
Here’s where we differ: We aim to level the playing field for families that might not have $20 million in assets. That said, we recommend your family has at least $1 million in assets… or at least a $500,000 investment portfolio.
You’ll need to have that kind of wealth to make the most of our legacy-protecting recommendations. If you don’t, you probably want to look elsewhere for financial research.
Q: How can you offer a family office research service for much less money than your typical family office? Doesn’t that kind of research cost a lot of money?
A: My family has spent a seven-figure sum figuring out the family office system.
At Bonner & Partners Family Office we share everything we’ve learned with our members. That keeps the cost – and time commitment – for our members much lower than it would be if they looked for this kind of advice themselves.
Q: Does a family office have a much longer time frame for its investment portfolio?
A: Yes… for the most part. Wealthy families invest for decades… even generations. So naturally, they look for the kinds of investments that do well over the long run.
The key is finding big, long-term trends. And making those trends your friends.
Right now, the average investor holds a stock in his portfolio for about 7.5 months. Roughly speaking, that’s also the average holding period for most financial newsletters.
Those short time frames may work for individual investors. But obviously, the goals are different for families investing on behalf of future generations. So their time horizons are much longer.
Q: What tax issues does a typical family office face? Does your service address tax issues?
A: Yes, we do.
It’s a long story. There are many different taxes that can hit a family over the generations. That’s why we have an experienced family tax attorney on staff. He deals solely with these issues: from estate-tax minimization… to gift-tax avoidance techniques… to using your real estate to defer – and sometimes prevent – excessive taxation.
Our expert has written a detailed “blueprint” that covers all aspects of the tax side of things. He also gives regular updates as new developments emerge. Once you become a member of our group, you can immediately put his “blueprint” in place for your own family.
Q: I’ve heard Bonner & Partners Family Office is unlike most newsletter subscriptions. Is that true?
A: Yes. It is very different.
Mainly, that’s because our goals are very different from the goals of ordinary investors.
Normally, financial services are geared toward an individual… maybe someone looking to build a nest egg for retirement. But we aim to help families preserve their wealth – and keep their families unified – over generations. That’s the key source of the differences.
In short, we have different time horizons (much longer)… we have a different tolerance for risk (much more conservative)… we have different ideas about paying fees and commissions (we are paranoid about avoiding them)… and we have different ideas about what it means to “live wealthy” (almost the exact opposite of the popular ideas of what it means to be rich).
We also have a global mindset. We don’t stick to one asset class or one geographical region. We look to jump on major long-term “beta” trends rather than a stock picking – or “alpha” – approach.
Most important: We focus on the family as much as we focus on the money. We know we’ve gotta work hard and have the family concentrate on our long-term goals to make this work.
If you have any other questions, please look to your private invitation for the answers. You can find it here.
P.S. Please be aware that this offer – plus the big discount it makes available to you on all the research we publish – will close on Tuesday, December 16. After that, we’ll stop accepting membership applications – perhaps until next year. So take a look right now, and decide if this is right for your family.