Özge Doğan, founder and CEO of Karman Beyond, a Turkey-based multi-family office (MFO), shares global insights on working with international families and the evolving dynamics of ultra-high-net-worth families.
What are the primary challenges your family clients are encountering in today’s economic landscape?
As Turkey’s first independent multi-family office, most of our family clients are domestically based. But we also experience demand from other emerging markets, which present unique circumstances compared with more-developed regions. For instance, the perceived higher risk in emerging markets means there is a huge desire for families to diversify their investments across sectors, asset classes and geographies.
Families may appreciate the need for geographical diversification — for allocation and risk management — but often don’t know the target markets or sectors well enough. They generally lack the know-how and manpower to diversify on their own. According to Citi Private Bank, 47% of single-family offices seek external support with investment management and asset allocation.
Diversification often contributes to a priority client objective: Preserving wealth for the long term. However, the “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” curse demonstrates how difficult this can be — 70% of families lose their wealth by the second generation and 90% by the third generation. Many of our clients are second or third generation who are looking to expand their horizons and make decisions aligning with their values but also protecting their family’s future.
Another key challenge for second- or third-generation family members is contending with complex family dynamics. The conflicting views, priorities and considerations of different generations can often lead to disputes and difficult conversations. This is where family governance structures are vital, ensuring alignment and a shared vision for the family as they navigate hurdles and plan for the decades to come.
As an MFO with a next-generation founder and expertise covering all bases including tax, investment, law, real estate and finance, we are ideally equipped to help next-gens and their families build and maintain generational wealth and secure a prosperous future.
In what ways can you assist families considering relocation and emigration to live abroad?
In today’s world, it is possible to be a true global citizen. You can have official citizenship in more than one country and residences all over the world. Relocation and emigration are key considerations for wealthy families looking to enhance their asset portfolio, broader wealth management strategy and their lifestyle.
Whether families opt to settle abroad for education opportunities or to structure their wealth in more effective geographies for generational wealth-building, global solutions are inevitably front-of-mind. Data from Henley & Partners shows 128,000 millionaires are estimated to have relocated across 2024, the highest number on record. [And] 19% of UHNWIs [ultra-high-net-worth individuals] are planning to apply for a second passport or secure citizenship in another country, according to Knight Frank.
Some families prefer the living standards and culture in another country or plan to relocate for security, privacy, lifestyle reasons or a combination of all such factors. We speak with families to uncover their needs and priorities, evaluate and present all possible options, and help to design and implement the optimal solution to cater for their specific wealth management or lifestyle needs.
We leverage our unparalleled network and expertise to reduce the burdens and responsibilities of relocation and other globally minded activities, making the process as seamless as possible for our families.
Legacy planning often involves navigating complex family goals. What approach do you take to initiate this conversation?
I am a second-generation family member who has experienced first-hand how hard it can be for different generations within a family to unite around shared goals and values. Generally speaking, the bigger the family, the more complicated its dynamic. But all families have unique circumstances and priorities to be factored into legacy planning.
Our initiation process involves sitting down with families to outline their unique circumstances, which informs the chosen strategies to realize their goals. For example, whether a family is in the first, second or third generation can greatly alter the optimum approach to wealth management, asset allocation, risk exposure and other key elements of generational wealth-building. Often, families do not know what their specific circumstances mean in the context of wealth management and legacy planning and how they should approach these important issues.
That is how we help. We invite families to discuss their desired legacy with us and what it means to them. We help to ensure an entire family can unite around these shared goals, with full appreciation that maintaining the family legacy is a generational duty which will remain with the family forever.
Philanthropy is often a useful way of framing this legacy, by defining exactly what a family wants to achieve beyond financial returns. It is also a useful way of engaging next-gens who are more passionate about philanthropy than their elders.
Whether via philanthropy or other means, families can tackle the issue of legacy planning in numerous ways. The range of available options can be overwhelming, but independent and impartial advice can help reveal the best way forward, ensuring the whole family stays focused on its priority goals and objectives.
With your global insights, how do you envision the evolution of UHNW families in the coming years?
Using my personal and professional experiences, I can testify to the significant mindset shift between baby boomers and the next-gens. The former can be seen as taking a "not to lose" approach and the latter as having a "want to win" view. Creating wealth on one hand and maintaining it on the other can shape vastly different personal cultures, hence this mindset difference.
I am connected to next-gens and families all around the world. Next-gens want to work with each other and collaborate more with peers who share their values, which wasn’t always the case with the generation who came before them. Those values can differ wildly from one family to the next, depending on which generation the incumbent family leader is.
The philanthropic drive is another key shift. Many families now invest for financial returns and to make an impact. Next-gens are the main proponents here and of other shifts including a rise in risk-taking, openness to new ideas and fresh approaches, and more generally embracing changes to the status quo of the wider wealth management sector.
As a woman in wealth management, what steps can others take to support female wealth inheritors and advisers as we work toward meaningful change within the industry?
Women will inherit vast amounts of wealth over the next 20 years — perhaps up to $80 trillion by the end of the great wealth transfer. The importance and value of women, and especially young next-gens, in conversations about the future of wealth management cannot be ignored.
As a young woman whose familial and personal background is not in the financial world, working to simplify wealth management for families, I am optimistic that times are changing.
Doors to leadership roles are opening, but much more work remains to truly democratize this traditionally male-dominated sector. The most important step is to recognize how clients’ values and priorities will shift as female family leaders take over and to give women the opportunity to discover and manage the unique potential of their wealth.
It is about time women are given the appropriate platforms to succeed as the decision-makers in today’s world.