Family offices are reshaping the investment landscape — and one of the most significant ways they’re making an impact is by backing women-owned businesses.
In this week’s Crain Currency, reporter Carrie Pallardy spotlights two women driving this change. Rose Vitale, managing partner of the DRA Family Office, is channeling capital and resources to female founders. Meanwhile, Sharon Olson, founder of Olson Wealth Group’s Inspired Life Family Office, is guiding women through wealth management and business transitions, ensuring long-term success.
Also in this issue, Marcus Baram examines how family offices are maintaining a disciplined investment approach during economic volatility. While some are capitalizing on opportunities in sectors like commodities and AI, many remain patient, prioritizing long-term strategies and diversification.
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Fred Gabriel, Executive Editor
HANDPICKED: Family offices backing women-owned businesses
By CARRIE PALLARDY
Women are poised to take control of an unprecedented share of wealth, setting the stage for a seismic shift in financial decision-making. By 2030, they are expected to manage $30 trillion in assets, according to a report from McKinsey & Co.
This growing financial influence is already evident in households, where more than two in three women take the lead on investment decisions, according to the CFP Board.
Yet despite their increasing control of capital, the broader investment landscape remains overwhelmingly male-dominated. In 2023, women-led startups received less than 3% of venture capital funding, Forbes reported — a stark reminder of the barriers that persist.
But some in the family office space are working to change that by empowering female entrepreneurs and bringing women to the forefront of conversations about generational wealth. Crain Currency asked two women leading family offices how they support women-owned businesses.
Rose Vitale, managing partner of the DRA Family Office
Rose Vitale was just 6 years old when she first asked her parents about entrepreneurship. Years later, she became the first in her family to strike out on her own and build a business.
“It was one of the most difficult things of my life to do when I had essentially no experience, not really any money and no mentors or help,” she said.
Through her years as a serial entrepreneur, Vitale developed a passion for helping female founders. Today, she is managing partner of the DRA Family Office, a San Diego-based private investment firm backed by a single-family office. DRA, founded in 2019, launched a $10 million fund in 2022 to give women business owners access to capital.
In May 2024, Vitale launched the Female Founders Institute, a nonprofit providing resources to female entrepreneurs.
“As I was getting into the space of allocating capital, I saw that there was a huge need for it,” she said. “It led me down a path of what's really missing in the space. It's not just capital allocation. Women need the support. They need to be surrounded by the right people, the right teams.”
Vitale also hosts the Female Investor Podcast.
“I decided that I wanted to go out there and listen to the stories of other women entrepreneurs. I wanted to hear what their struggles were,” she explained. “I think oftentimes, as women, we feel like we're on this island by ourselves, especially in the entrepreneurial space.”
Through her podcast and social media presence, Vitale has built strong relationships with other entrepreneurial women.
One of the companies the DRA Family Office has supported is Vertical Harvest, a vertical, hydroponic agriculture company co-founded and led by CEO Nona Yehia. DRA provided funding for the company's farm in Maine.
Vitale plans to continue her mission of supporting female entrepreneurs. The Female Founders Institute is working to launch innovation hubs in cities, with the first targeted for late this year.
“I'm going to be putting the first one in Michigan to pay homage to where I'm from,” she said. “And so, we're going to strategically launch these throughout the U.S. in cities where we see opportunities for women to really create innovation in their particular regions.”
Sharon Olson, founder and president of Olson Wealth Group, Inspired Life Family Office
Sharon Olson grew up on a farm in southeastern Minnesota, where she had a paper route at age 7 and sold eggs to help fund her college education. After graduating, she started building a client base as an independent adviser at a financial planning and wealth management firm.
“It was thrilling to connect with business owners and entrepreneurs, especially women, and help them structure their futures strategically,” Olson said.
Olson Wealth Group’s Inspired Life Family Office, a multifamily office based in Bloomington, Minnesota, was founded in 1994, with the family office established in 2020.
In 2022, she wrote an article for Forbes highlighting the lack of family office services tailored to women. What has changed since then?
Olson pointed to the major transfer of wealth expected to put trillions more in the hands of women in the coming years.
“This seismic shift is driving a transformation in family offices, where women are stepping into leadership roles, redefining governance and integrating technology that aligns with modern values — transparency, impact and adaptability,” she said.
As a certified exit planning adviser (CEPA), Olson has worked with female business owners to navigate successful sales. She described working with a woman who owned a manufacturing firm structured as a C corporation and wanted to sell her business. Olson Wealth Group guided the woman through the process, from evaluating offers to leveraging tax planning strategies.
“By addressing every aspect of her transition, we empowered her to achieve not just a successful sale but a financially secure future,” Olson said.
Today, there are over 8,000 family offices worldwide, and that number is expected to surpass 10,000 by 2030, according to Deloitte. The firm also found that women are more likely than men to partner with a family office for wealth management. As more wealth shifts into the hands of women, family offices will have increasing opportunities to collaborate with them on both wealth management and entrepreneurial ventures.
At the Inspired Life Family Office, the team takes a multigenerational approach, inviting family members as young as 11 years old to participate in meetings.
“I think by encouraging younger generations to attend these meetings, especially young girls, it'll be just a natural flow into the leadership of family offices,” Olson said.
“Legacy family offices are at a crossroads. Will they continue old patterns, or will they recognize that diverse leadership — especially more women — creates more resilient legacies?”
Amid economic volatility, family offices diversify, stay patient
By MARCUS BARAM
Family offices are responding to this year’s economic turbulence — from tumbling markets to President Trump’s trade wars — by maintaining patience and a disciplined focus on the long term. While some are taking advantage of volatility with opportunistic investments, most are sticking to their strategies.
Investor sentiment has “deteriorated very quickly” in recent weeks, said Michael Zeuner, managing partner of WE Family Offices. “Riding through that volatility because of a long-term focus on a long-term strategic allocation becomes very important,” he said, noting that his firm has been neutral on equity allocations while increasing its positions in commodities and natural resources.
The firm, Zeuner said, is “not getting an itchy trigger finger and the urge to sell out of stocks.”
WE’s senior investment manager, Sam Sudame, emphasized that “the best defense is diversification.”
Patience and discipline were also recommended by Coldstream’s chief investment officer, Bryan P. Shipley. “Headlines can amplify fear, but reacting impulsively often undermines the pursuit of long-term objectives,” he said. “Our strategy is to remain proactive, not reactive.”
Yet some family offices are holding off on deals until there is more clarity in the Trump administration’s policy direction. One firm’s chief investment officer told CNBC that it decided to pause a private investment with ties to Mexico, out of caution.
Other investors, however, have seized the opportunity to make strategic bets, adjusting portfolios to increase exposure to U.S. steel and aluminum producers as well as safer investments like bonds and gold. Some have also invested in European defense companies, as Germany and the EU have boosted military spending in recent weeks.
Billionaire Michael Platt’s London-based hedge-fund-turned-family-office, BlueCrest Capital Management, has gained nearly 15% this year by betting on currency markets, U.S. interest rate reversals and AI stocks, the Financial Times reported.
The New York-based Kaufman Family Office has ramped up its commercial real estate investments — committing over $250 million to new acquisitions, with a focus on stable, long-term assets.
In contrast, some overseas family offices are shifting away from U.S. investments. Srihari Kumar, a principal at his family’s Singapore-based firm, LionRock Capital, told the CONVERGE LIVE conference that his firm has reduced its U.S. allocation to 25% from 40% this year, potentially redirecting investments to China and Europe.
LOOSE CHANGE
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Ex-Carlyle exec now Murdoch heir’s money manager: Mike Ramsay joined the family office of Prudence MacLeod during the pandemic. The shake-up provides rare insight into one of London’s biggest family offices.
Colleges fight to protect riches from taxation: They were taking action even before President Trump said he would pull $400 million from Columbia University.