Today, I am delighted to speak with Will Bledsoe, founder of Restorative Way, a company that provides training and program implementation for schools, individuals, organizations and businesses to recognize trauma, resolve conflict and engage with challenging behavior. In addition to his private consultation practice, Will is currently a professor of communication in the Isaacson School for Communication, Arts, and Media at Colorado Mountain College.

Will holds a doctorate in communication from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master's degree in religious studies, also from CU. While at the university he taught courses in conflict management, group communication, global peace & conflict studies, community justice, social justice, the rhetoric of campaigns and social movements. In the religious studies department, he taught a course in Native American religious traditions.

In 1999 Will was he was awarded Outstanding Scholarship Recognition by the National Honor Society of Religious Studies/Theology. He has facilitated over 1000 mediation encounters using a range of restorative models including victim/offender dialogue, family-group conferences, community-group conferences, and peacemaking circles for various municipal and district courts, schools, families, family businesses, and workplaces. Will is the author of The Restorative Way: Harnessing the Power of Restorative Communication to Mend Relationships, Heal Trauma, and Reclaim Civility One Conversation at a Time (2024).

Will specializes in the field of restorative communication, especially restorative conflict resolution. He provides a definition for our listeners of restorative conflict resolution and describes the purpose and the practice of restorative communication.

Relationship challenges and interpersonal conflict are common in most families. Will tells us how restorative conflict resolution can help families manage and resolve conflicts and describes his work with families who struggle with conflict and fractured relationships.

Next, we look at the practical applications of Will's expertise. He describes the method of restorative conflict resolution, detailing the tools, frameworks, and approaches inherent in the practice of restorative conflict resolution.

Communication is a critical component of restorative conflict resolution. Will talks about the importance of communication skills and offer some of your tips for developing and applying restorative communication among family members.

Enjoy this instructive conversation with one of the leading practitioners of restorative conflict resolution in support of UHNW families.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Alex Hayward, Executive Fellow, Family Offices and Private Capital at London Business School. Alex is a seasoned expert in Family Offices, with extensive experience building, reviewing, and optimizing Family Offices across the UK, Europe, the US, Dubai, and Australia. Over the past 15 years, he has analyzed more than 100 Single Family Offices, evaluating their structures, operations, and investment strategies.

Alex draws on this broad experience to lead London Business School's work on value creation within Family Offices, examining how leading Family Offices develop their strategy, operations, and culture to support long-term growth. Alex also serves as an independent director to a Family Office in London, supporting a third-generation multi-billion family. Alongside this role he chairs the Family Office Community at Said Business School, University of Oxford, Ownership Project 2.0.

Alex is a long-time friend and collaborator of FOX and a valued alumnus of the FOX team.

Alex has done significant research into the importance of organizational culture among investment management, and its significance in explaining and driving performance of investment teams. He tells us what his research shows and highlights what both clients and members of investment teams can learn from it.

We then focus more narrowly and look at the role of culture within family offices. Alex shares his views on how culture contributes to the value creation at the family office and the ability of family office teams to drive meaningful outcomes for their principals.

Impact is frequently among the top objectives that family members seek to pursue individually or collectively with the support of their family office. Alex talks about his work and research on the effect of family office culture on the family's impact strategy, and the ability of family members to find and follow their individual pathways for self-realization and impact.

Alex has also studied the effect of grief on the ability of families to make decisions and achieve growth. He shares his findings on how grief and other emotions impact UHNW family strategies and their collective activities within the family enterprise, including investing, philanthropy, social impact, etc.

Enjoy this insightful conversation with one of the foremost academics and practitioners in the family wealth and family office space.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Dan Spector, partner at Hanson Bridgett, an Am Law 200 California-based law firm and the first law firm recognized as a certified B Corp. Dan is a trial lawyer, mediator, and arbitrator whose practice focuses on trust, probate and complex civil cases involving families. He has been named in multiple years as a Super Lawyer by his peers for Northern California in the area of Trust and Estate Litigation and a statewide mediation and private neutral panelist for Judicate West, a professional neutral company with offices throughout California.

Dan is a member of the California Lawyer's Association's (CLA) Trust and Estates Section and Litigation Section, as well as the Sacramento County Bar Association's Probate, Trust and Estate Planning Section. He has recently been selected to serve on the Executive Committee for CLA's Trust and Estate Section (TEXCOM), for which he participates in various subcommittees, including the Litigation, Incapacity and Legislation subcommittees. He also serves as a Judge Pro-Tem in the Sacramento Superior Court and has been named as an expert witness on issues relating to trust, probate, and litigation matters.

Dan has lectured at U.C. Davis before the Sacramento County Bar Association, CCLSA and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants on the topics of civil litigation and trust and probate litigation. He has served on numerous non-profit boards throughout Sacramento, including as Chair of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Sacramento, board member of the San Juan Unified School District Superintendent's Advisory Board, board member of the St. Ignatius School Advisory Board, board member of the Anthony M. Kennedy Learning Center, and Chairman of the Board of Del Paso Country Club.

Dan served as General Chairman of the 2015 United States Senior Open Golf Championship, the single largest sporting event in Sacramento's history. Dan and his firm Hanson Bridgett are values advisor members of FOX, and we are thrilled to have their expertise within our membership community.

We've talked about conflict on this podcast before, but today we'll learn more about Dan's area of expertise – "active conflict". Dan explains for our listeners how active conflict is defined and how it is manifested in both pre-litigation and litigation situations.

Families are complex, and family dynamics and the emotional undercurrents that run through the relationships among family members present a unique challenge for both clients and professionals in our field. Dan shares his experience on how families get to the active conflict stage, and he describes the common pathways and the ways family members and their family offices can recognize them.

In many cases, significant changes – and resulting conflicts – within a family are triggered by the death of a key family principal. So, one practical consideration is to distinguish between pre-mortem and post-mortem conflict situations. Dan talks about the main differences between family conflicts that take place before vs. after a major death in the family.

Active conflict can be very painful for families. Dan provides an outline of the options available to families for managing and resolving active conflict, including the different professional channels and techniques they can resort to.

Don't miss this illuminating conversation with a leading expert and practitioner in the field of family conflict management and resolution.

Today, I'm excited to speak with Max Youngquist, family office structuring and governance leader at RSM, a leading global assurance, tax, and consulting firm.

Max focuses on offering holistic services and solutions for family offices, covering complex tax compliance, structuring, and planning, as well as estate and gift, wealth transfer, and succession planning. He has consulted with individual family members about their many personal financial matters and concierge needs and supported their personal businesses and hobbies.

Prior to RSM, Max held various senior positions at Henry Crown & Company and Ernst & Young. Max and his firm RSM are valued advisor members of FOX, and we are fortunate to have their expertise as part of our membership community.

We start by discussing the very common model where most family offices start – the embedded single-family office (SFO). Max offers his definition of an embedded SFO and describes its common characteristics. He goes over the top reasons to transition away from an embedded SFO, and offers his insights on when, why, and how families should consider unembedding their family office.

Max delves in detail into what is absolutely needed at a minimum for a family to be able to make a successful transition from an embedded SFO and covers the "core" functional elements of an unembedded SFO.

Max provides invaluable tips on how to best design and administer the family office functions to ensure a smooth launch of the unembedded SFO and talks about some best practices to emulate and common mistakes to avoid.

Enjoy this highly instructive dialog with one of the prominent practitioners and thought leaders in the niche realm of family office design and operations.

Today, it is my pleasure and honor to speak with John A. Warnick. John A. is a celebrated leader and founder in the family wealth professional space, and an inspiration to many of us in our niche field. He has practiced as a tax attorney for over 45 years and has published articles in law reviews, Trust and Estates magazine and the Journal of Practical Estate Planning. He worked as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill in the 1970s and was a legal intern in the office of the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973.

In 2010 John A. founded the Purposeful Planning Institute which today is the largest multi-disciplinary educational institute (non-profit) focused on best practices for UHNW and HNW families with over 525 members in the U.S. and nine countries internationally. He was also a co-founder of the Collaboration for Family Flourishing (CFF) and served for four years on the Board of the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy. He was nominated as a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel in 1994 and has chaired two subcommittees within ACTEC, the Legacy and Generational Planning Subcommittee of the Practice Committee and the Family Dynamics Subcommittee of the Business Planning Committee.

In 2017, John A. received the Scott Fithian Leadership Award from the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy and served on the Board of Directors of that organization for four years. He has served on the Planned Giving Advisory Council of the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia since 2015. John A. is the author of two Tax Management portfolios and more recently has self-published The Purposeful Trusts and Legacies Handbook and is currently working on two book projects, The Gift of You, and the New Vocabulary of Family Wealth.

John A. is a good and long-time friend of FOX and we are privileged to have collaborated with him and with PPI repeatedly throughout the years.

Purpose is often cited as one of the key pillars of long-term success for multigenerational families. John A. dedicated much of his professional work on bringing purpose to families and the advisors who serve them – particularly as the founder of the Purposeful Planning Institute. He elaborates on the importance of purpose for families and their advisors and talks about why it is important to be purposeful as a family leader or wealth advisor. He also highlights the distinctions between purpose, values, and mission since these are often lumped together and not always fully understood.

John A. has pointed to the significance of family traditions and rituals as powerful tools for establishing and living the family purpose. He describes why rituals are important and how they help families crystallize their purpose and values and pass them on across generations. Conversely, he points out what happens if traditions become performative or imposed on the family, rather than genuinely meaningful.

John A. shares some examples of family traditions that he has encountered over his decades of work with UHNW families and outlines the impact of these traditions on the family and the changed that resulted from these shared rites.

John A. has formulated five suggestions for trustees, including corporate and professional trustees, as well as PTCs, related to helping the families they serve define and fulfill their shared purpose. He provides an overview of these practical resources and describe how they can be put to use in support of the family's success and wellbeing.

Do not miss this opportunity to hear from one of the most respected founders and premier thought leaders of the family wealth space.

Today, it is my pleasure and honor to speak with Mark Daniell, Chairman of The Raffles Family Wealth Trust Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based strategic advisory boutique working with a select set of UHNW families and their businesses around the world, addressing issues related to strategy, strategic transactions, governance, leadership, generational transitions and Integrated Legacy Strategy.

In addition, Mark is the founder, along with a team of distinguished global partners, of www.raffleslegacylearning.com, an advanced e-learning platform for legacy families and their advisors. He has 20 years of experience as a partner at Bain & Co, and was also Director of merchant bank Wasserstein Perella, and President of a publicly listed investment firm in Singapore, and he serves on the boards of a number of public and private companies including Olam International and ED&F man, in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Mark is the author of seven books (so far) in areas related to family wealth and business strategy. In 2010, he co-wrote "Family Legacy and Leadership: Preserving True Family Wealth in Challenging Times" with FOX founder Sara Hamilton, and he has written articles for The Wall Street Journal and appeared on the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Channel NewsAsia. Mark is a long-time friend and collaborator of FOX.

Mark's advisory work over the past 35 years has been focused on business strategy, which is probably the #1 subject talked about, taught, and worked on in the corporate world. But what does strategy mean in the family office and family wealth realm? Mark talks about how family leaders and family office executives should think about, develop, and execute the strategy for their family, enterprise, or office?

Another foundational corporate concept that Mark has deep experience and expertise in is culture. Mark shares his insights on how culture manifests itself at a family office or family enterprise and offers some pointers on what family office leaders need to do to foster a strong, vibrant culture that attracts and retains top talent.

Mark has developed the "10 Circles Framework" to serve as a strategic guide for families of wealth and family enterprises. He describes the framework and explains how family leaders and family office executives can utilize it in their work with the families they serve.

Another area of practical importance Mark points out is the imperative – and challenge – for families and their enterprises and offices to stay innovative and competitive. He offers his views on how families and family offices can nurture their creativity in each of the 10 circles of his 10 Circles Framework.

Don't miss this deeply insightful conversation with one of the bets known strategists, thinkers, and global practitioners serving UHNW families and their complex enterprises.

Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Annette Hopper and Levi Hammett, co-founders of Full Scope Solutions, a strategic outsourcing firm serving family offices. Annette brings more than 25 years of experience in the investment advisory industry. From 2004 through January 2025, she held key leadership roles at a Boulder- and New York-based asset allocator, serving as Partner, CFO, CCO, and COO. In these positions, she oversaw financial strategy, compliance, and operational execution for both institutional and family clients. Prior to that, she co-founded a consulting firm that served over 60 clients across multiple industries and provided outsourced CCO services for a Boulder-based asset allocator.

Levi has over 12 years of investment operations and analytics experience with an Asset Allocator operating out of both Boulder and New York City. Throughout his career, he has successfully implemented performance reporting systems, risk management platforms, data warehouses, trading workflows, and custodial relationships. His extensive expertise in investment operations, systems integration, and investment reporting has made him an expert in enhancing business processes and supporting data-driven strategies within the financial industry.

Annette and Levi, and their firm Full Scope Solutions, are valued Advisor members of FOX, and we are privileged to have their knowledge and expertise in our membership community.

There is much talk within our space about the formalization and professionalization of family office functions, but not much uniformity or consistency in defining what these functions are. Annette and Levi give us their overview of the core family office functions and their working definitions of back-office, middle-office, and front-office departments that are commonly seen among family offices.

A big part of professionalizing various family office functions is the decision whether to outsource any of them – and certainly, many families are making the decision to hand off key components of their family office operations to specialized external providers. Annette and Levi talk about what it takes to architect an outsourcing relationship that both brings in world-class expertise and capabilities and provides the family with the control, quality and customization of services they often require.

Annette and Levi offer their practical tips and advice for family principals and leaders on how best to understand the middle-office and back-office functions that serve their family – and why it is important to do that in the first place.

Going back to the concept of architecting the family office for the long term, Annette and Levi provide some suggestions to families and their family office executives on how to build a resilient infrastructure for their family office – how do they decide what to own vs. rent, build vs. outsource.

Enjoy this informative dialog with two highly experienced operators and service providers in the UHNW wealth management and family office space.

Today, I'm especially honored to welcome Ted Rich, Chief Growth Officer for Rich Products, a family-owned food company with annual sales of over $6B and a market-leader in a number of food categories, including cakes, icings, pizza, appetizers, and specialty toppings. In this position, Ted leads company­wide demand-creation strategies to accelerate growth and expansion in priority markets and segments across the globe. He is also a member of Rich's Executive Team and Board of Directors where he serves on the Finance and Audit Committee.

In 2020, Ted established the Rich Family Council for the family-owned business where he serves as the council head. Since joining Rich's in 1995, Ted has held various associate and customer-facing roles, including Executive Vice President of Organizational Excellence, Senior Vice President of Customer Experience and Europe/Middle East region leader, Regional Sales Manager of Foodservice; Strategic Sourcing Leader of Procurement; and Vice President of Toppings and Icings in North America, to name just a few.

Before joining Rich's, Ted worked for the Seattle Supersonics NBA team as a sales manager and also held positions with North West Parent Publishing in Seattle and Travers-Schutte & Company Advertising in Buffalo, NY. He currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Education Policy Committee on the Culinary Institute of America's Board of Directors and supports the Institute's mission to provide the world's best professional culinary education. Ted and his family are family office members of FOX, and we are thrilled to have them as valued members of our FOX community.

We start with the amazing journey of the Rich family and the iconic company Ted's family has now owned and operated for 80 years. Ted shares the story and path of the family business and the broader family enterprise over the past 8 decades.

Governance is an evergreen topic among family enterprises and family offices, and certainly a frequent topic for families and advisors within the FOX community. Ted talks about his family's governance evolution, highlighting when formal governance became a necessity and how the family went about establishing these structures, both for the business and for the broader family enterprise.

One practical tool Ted recommends to fellow families and their multigenerational enterprises is planning forward. He describes the multi-year planning process and discipline his family has employed throughout their shared journey and outlines some of the specific steps, methods, and tools they have relied on to always have a long-term, forward-looking view of where the family enterprise is going.

The Rich family leadership has embraced the principle of inclusivity. Ted talks about how they have operationalized this belief in inclusivity and describes the various processes and structures that have been instrumental to bringing more family members into the journey and ensuring strong engagement with the rising generations.

Do not miss this exclusive and highly educational conversation with a distinguished family principal and leader of one of the most storied and successful family enterprises in America.