As markets convulsed and headlines warned of economic upheaval, many wealth advisers spent the past few weeks steadying nerves and reinforcing the importance of long-term planning.
In this week’s top story, Marcus Baram explores how advisers are doubling down on communication to keep family office clients informed and focused on long-term goals. As Certuity’s Scott Welch put it, “It is almost impossible to overcommunicate with clients during turbulent periods.” With economic uncertainty high and tariff policy still in flux, the message from advisers is clear: Don’t panic, stay diversified and trust the planning already in place.
Baram also reports on the growing appeal of venture debt among family offices. As equity markets remain volatile and traditional venture capital slows, this niche form of lending is emerging as a compelling alternative. With its built-in predictability and relatively low correlation to public markets, venture debt offers a new way for family offices to access high-growth companies while managing risk.
We always appreciate your thoughts, feedback and ideas to make this newsletter even more valuable. I look forward to continuing to grow this family office community together. Feel free to reach out at [email protected].
Fred Gabriel, Executive Editor
HANDPICKED: What family offices should be hearing from their wealth advisers right now
By MARCUS BARAM
Dagny Maidman doesn’t usually reach out to clients on weekends.
But the wealth adviser and executive managing director at Cresset Capital was working on Sunday, April 6, while the world was doomscrolling the latest tariff updates amid dire predictions of the economic chaos to come.
“It’s best to reach out and say ‘I’m here for you’ and not to avoid or be too hands-off,” said Maidman, who sent a note to some clients and worked on another one for Monday morning.
“You kind of want to slow people down and give them a reminder of the types of things we did to position their portfolios to be able to tolerate this.”
That was the consensus approach among family offices and their investment advisers during the roller-coaster ride in global markets over the past week — during which equities, bonds, currencies and crypto were all whipsawing in price.
Though President Trump’s decision to take a 90-day pause on tariffs for all countries except China triggered a spike in the market, investors remain in shock, and the outlook remains uncertain. Prominent family office investors like Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Capital and Leon Cooperman of the Omega Family Office have expressed concerns about the likelihood of a recession.
Keep clients informed, invested
“It is almost impossible to overcommunicate with clients at any time, but especially during turbulent periods,” said Scott Welch, chief investment officer of New York-based Certuity. “Stay in touch. There is no need for fear-mongering or panic, but these are the times when advisers, especially, earn their fees — keep your clients informed, keep them invested unless there is some pressing need for liquidity, and encourage them to remain calm and stay focused on the long term.”
During a time of hyperbolic headlines and social media hysteria, it’s important to avoid panic, said Jason Britton, the founder and CIO of Reflection Asset Management in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
“If you call them in a panic and you're like ‘Oh, my God, I don't know what to do. But I just wanted to call you and let you know that I have no idea what's going on here,’ that's not helpful,” Britton said. “You never want to hear the captain come over the intercom and go, ‘I've got good news and bad news.’ ”
Family offices should expect the facts when they talk with their advisers. “Don’t sugarcoat or obfuscate,” Welch said. “Just present the facts and put them into context within longer-term investor objectives. We have been through market turbulence many times before.”
Investors in general shouldn’t be reactive and immediately liquidate their holdings. That advice applies even more to family offices, which take a long-term perspective.
“They’re not necessarily looking for short-term gains; they are for patient capital,” said Ankit Shrivastava, the founder and CEO of Enventure, a private equity fund in Naperville, Illinois, that partners with family offices. “Our job is to help them see through these turbulent moments — to separate the noise from the signal — and look for opportunities they have to diversify and navigate them through this process.”
Family offices should think about generational investment time horizons and sophisticated planning, Britton said. “You can save more in taxes by being thoughtful around asset location and transfer than the 30 or 40% the market’s going to move and then come back from,” he said.
In addition to diversification — and given the Trump administration’s enormous tariffs on China — investors obviously need to look at companies that are less vulnerable to Chinese supply chains, said Shrivastava, pointing to companies in health care, specialized manufacturing and clean energy technology; as well as looking overseas, given the improved economic outlooks in Europe and India.
Given all the tumult, it’s also early to be making long-lasting decisions. “Spend two or three weeks right now before having concrete discussions about specifics,” Shrivastava counsels clients.
Cresset’s Maidman focuses on what she calls avoiding the three ways that people can go broke: leverage, illiquidity and concentration. “We usually work to make sure that we don’t have any of those, but certainly not more than one,” she said.
Maidman likes to use the metaphor of a houseboat when talking with her clients. “I remind them that the boat is constructed so well that even though you’ve got these gargantuan waves and you can see the boat getting sucked in, we have built a portfolio to keep it together.”
'Stay the course'
Even with the 90-day pause in tariffs on most countries, the uncertainty remains among investors.
“No one knows how the tariff policies will ultimately play out, and trying to outguess that outcome, for most investors, is a losing game,” said Certuity’s Welch. “If you are appropriately diversified and have in place a portfolio designed to meet your long-term objective, regardless of the underlying market environment, then stay the course and do not overreact.”
The tariff chaos definitely signals a restructuring of the world order. “The old status quo is dead, and the new status quo is not clear,” Maidman said. “But it’s better to calmly prepare for that scenario than to overreact.”
Said Britton of Reflection Asset Management: “If your time horizon is longer than two years, what’s happening now is not relevant. Do not allow the producer whose job it is to fill airtime 24 hours a day create an artificial panic for you.”
At the end of a call, Britton likes to tell clients: “Read a book. Go do something outside. Go for a walk. Play with your kids. It will be OK.”
Family offices increasingly drawn to venture debt
By MARCUS BARAM
With markets in chaos and tariff threats upending the global economy, family offices are increasingly drawn to alternative investments — including the small credit niche of venture debt.
Venture debt has become more popular due to its flexibility. This type of lending to high-growth companies might discourage equity investment because it dilutes ownership. But with a steep drop in venture capital deals, the niche offers a way for investors to get access to those growth companies.
Venture debt investment grew to $53.3 billion last year, up 94.5% from $27.4 billion in 2023, driven by fewer — but much larger — deals, according to Pitchbook.
In early April, the Swiss family office Cape Capital took part in a €25 million venture debt financing arrangement for Fairmat, a French company that specializes in recycling carbon-fiber composite materials. And family offices interested in accessing India’s consumer sector are using venture debt, said Sahil Aggarwal, director of the venture debt fund Trifecta Capital.
“We’re definitely seeing an uptick in interest from family offices,” said Andrew Kahn, co-founder of Partners for Growth, a global private credit firm. “It’s proved to be an effective way for them to get involved in innovative startups, especially in tech.”
Kahn, who has been structuring custom financing for technology companies for several decades, said the interest from family offices is fairly recent, as they seek to diversify their investments.
As a niche sector with limited competition, venture debt can boost risk-adjusted returns, said Marten Vading, managing director of BlackRock Growth Debt. “Compared to equity, growth and venture debt come with a host of features that offer more predictability of return,” Vading said. “They have a predetermined repayment schedule, clear security, amortization and priority in the capital structure.”
According to a recent BlackRock report: “There’s an abundance of high-quality companies actively in search of debt financing. They’re turning to a relatively small pool of qualified lenders who understand the intricacies of structuring these loans.”
LOOSE CHANGE
Knight Foundation names new CIO from Walton family office: Rebecca Carland will be responsible for overseeing the $2.6 billion endowment of the foundation, which funds journalism organizations, community-based arts and culture initiatives, as well as research on media and democracy.
Secretive family opens retail empire to outsiders: As flagship European clothing retailer C&A struggles with online competition, a new generation of the Brenninkmeijer family is increasingly trying to attract more institutional money, selectively hire more external talent — and take riskier bets.
Billionaire buys superyacht maker in bet that rich keep spending: In the latest example of the market for massive, luxurious ships, Heesen Yachts, a superyacht builder formerly owned by a Russian oligarch, was acquired recently by Dutch packaging billionaire Laurens Last.