Family Business Office

Who Benefits from FBO Services?

Families with diverse assets often lack consistent and accessible family and business representation and guidance. Problems are brought "piece meal" to selected professionals. Typically, when the problem is finally identified, significant time, energy and expense have been lost, not to mention the emotional expense.

Family professionals including CPAs, financial consultants, tax advisors and business consultants, rarely communicate among themselves. The result is a fractionalized approach to solving family financial and business concerns. Family members are typically reluctant to consult with their various advisors because of the cost and perception that family professionals need only be advised after a problem arises.

How Do I Determine Whether FBO
Would Enhance our Family Operation?

We can best answer this question by providing actual examples of FBO's family successes:

Margaret, widowed mother of two children; with a family business
David, entrepreneur dealing with the challenges of business and family growth

Margaret's FBO Family

Margaret was widowed, in her 40s and left with two children and a large family enterprise. Her late husband's best friend and CPA managed the family trusts and affairs. Another law firm was engaged to design charitable objectives of Margaret and her family. A large bank was engaged to manage the financial assets, stock funds and bond portfolios.

When FBO was first retained, there was an immediate sense of mismanagement and something "very wrong". The CPA was defensive about his management of the family affairs. Within weeks, FBO exposed the CPA had been embezzling funds for seven years, totaling more than one-and-one-half million dollars. A new estate planning firm charged $30,000 for preliminary estate planning and estimated another $30,000 to complete the job. More impactful was the firm's recommendation to irrevocably transfer a major portion of the family assets into a charitable trust (over $10 million). The bank was charging a management fee of one-and-one-half percent to manage the family's stock portfolio.

FBO immediately filed suit against the CPA and sought an order of removal as trustee. The estate planning was placed on hold and later completed for $5,000 (previously $30,000). The bank fees were reduced to an average of one-half percent, and the portfolio was diversified among several existing and well known professionals. Within several months, 100% of the embezzled money was recovered, plus interest and attorney fees.

Now Margaret is under the constant watch and professional care of FBO. She is part of our family and we are proud to be associated with hers. Despite the loss of a loving father, the children have grown into a well adjusted, loving and well managed family.

David: What has FBO Done for My Family and Business?

FBO is a unique organization providing an umbrella of outstanding professionals focused on preserving, protecting, and growing family interests.

Before I joined FBO, I was engaged in the final buyout of outstanding shareholders of my company. The original deal had been amended several times through the years to the point of lacking continuity. As CEO, attempting to grow my company, I staffed new executives. In a few short months I found I had compromised control. In addition, my family planning was in its formative years and lacked completeness.

FBO integrity: Rich Watts took the situation of an entrepreneur trying to do everything myself and slowly mentored my management style to that of a listener/director, reviewing advice from professionals hand-picked for excellence depending on the field in question. Ultimately I remain decision maker.