Wealth management industry veteran and TIGER 21 (The Investment Group for Enhanced Results in the 21st Century) founder Michael Sonnenfeldt discusses his firm’s milestone celebration of 25 years and shares insights on how the ultra-high-net-worth space has evolved over the past several decades.
You’ve been on a path to innovation and growth in the past decade. Can you share with us how TIGER 21 has evolved recently?
It has been an amazing 25 years. TIGER 21 started with one group of six entrepreneurs in New York City who had all sold their businesses. Each of these members had already experienced a major liquidity event, and I recognized there was a need to create a peer membership organization, which could help us navigate the opportunities and challenges that accompany the responsibilities to preserve and grow significant wealth as first-generation wealth creators.
TIGER 21 has grown to over 1,500 members who manage over $165 billion in personal assets, and the last decade has seen incredible global expansion. We now have 120-plus groups and operate in seven countries, the newest being Dubai, along with Singapore, Portugal, Switzerland, London, Canada and the United States.
The biggest structural difference from 10 years ago is that we have introduced a whole catalog of what we call “networks,” which are subgroups of our members with common interests. Our growing networks have dramatically expanded the points of connection between our members across the globe and furthered the personal growth of members.
Two new group offerings include “global groups” for members who cannot commit a full day a month in a specific location or, perhaps, live in an area where we do not have a presence. Global groups meet twice monthly by Zoom and then in person a few times throughout the year in amazing locations around the world.
The second new group offering is for members with single-family offices, where the principals of the family office join TIGER 21 as a member. For those grappling with issues regarding building and operating family offices, this has been incredibly well-received.
How have you innovated in terms of new global groups in particular?
Instead of being a member of one specific geographic TIGER 21 group, we now have a global group offering that allows members to get together virtually by region. We currently have six global groups that meet online twice per month and a few times a year in person, one of them at the annual TIGER 21 Global Exchange conference. This new offering is adaptive to the needs of individuals who live around the globe or who travel frequently, so they can participate in meetings from wherever they are in the world.
One of the most interesting moves is the launch of your family office group community. Why launch that now?
As we continued to grow, we realized that members who have family office operations might like to get together to talk about them with more focus. Family offices are also evolving and becoming more sophisticated. Family offices generally, but not always, have a minimum of $200 million in assets, and the concerns created by family offices are quite different from what is on the minds of the majority of our members. Traditionally, TIGER 21’s qualifications were for members with $20 million to $1 billion in investable assets; but for family office group members, the minimum is generally $200 million with no upper limit, which has opened up an important new market for TIGER 21. The family office groups are our fastest-growing community in the TIGER 21 ecosystem.
What do the family office groups focus on?
TIGER 21’s family office groups provide a confidential platform to exchange information that is facilitated by a dedicated chair knowledgeable in family offices. Some of the primary areas of focus for family office groups include estate planning and legal issues; social impact and philanthropy; governance and decision-making; health and well-being; integrated financial management; family leadership and transition planning; risk management; and family dynamics, values and culture.
Staffing and long-term planning, including succession planning, is something most well-run family offices are usually concerned about. Leveraging the collective wisdom assembled, TIGER 21 family office members leave no crucial issue unexplored and gain the clarity to look beyond day-to-day management toward establishing a multi-generational legacy that embodies shared family values and provides lasting financial security for generations to come.
What makes your family office offering unique compared to other industry groups?
Unlike vendor-driven offerings that sell family office products, TIGER 21 family office groups provide a strictly no-solicitation environment. It’s an intimate gathering of family office principals who deep-dive into the unique considerations, issues and opportunities that emerge when managing a single-family office (SFO).
What distinguishes the TIGER 21 family office groups is they are for principals only, and the overwhelming majority of our family office members are first-generation creators of wealth. TIGER 21 is the only place where SFO principals can sit down with other SFO principals and work through the challenges and opportunities that come from running a family office.
TIGER 21 is developing educational programming specifically for members’ spouses and children, as well as other family members and family office staff, in the areas of investment strategy, leadership, transition planning and more.
Tell us about the creation of what you call “networks.” Can you give a few examples?
As our groups have grown, our TIGER 21 members discovered many shared interests beyond just discussing their investment portfolios. Our members are lifelong learners, so we established networks to help connect those with common passions. We already have a couple dozen networks, such as women’s, philanthropy, real estate, private aviation, health, under 45, post-liquidity, golf and many more.
How do you help families who have gone through a liquidity event in particular?
This is where we really speak to the whole person beyond their assets and investment portfolios. The majority of our members are first-time wealth creators who have never experienced coming into a large amount of wealth very quickly. We help these founders and business leaders navigate the complexities that come with life after a liquidity event by facilitating conversations around topics such as finding purpose, family, legacy planning and more.
How committed is TIGER 21 to diversity within the organization?
TIGER 21 embraces and encourages diversity across our membership. We believe that having different perspectives enhances the collective intelligence of each group, increases creativity and provides a wealth of resources that members require and wouldn’t otherwise have access to.