Latest news with #Prestel
CNBC
14-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Why the wealthy can't find enough people to manage their money
Family offices are set to grow at a rapid pace as the ultra-rich look for personalized services to handle their wealth. But they are struggling to find money managers. As of last September, there were 8,030 family offices globally managing $3.1 trillion in assets, according to Deloitte's recent statistics. By 2030, the number of family offices is expected to grow to 10,720 with $5.4 trillion in assets under their management. "We estimate that by 2034, at current advisor productivity levels, the [wealth] advisor workforce will decline to the point where the industry faces a shortage of roughly 100,000 advisors," McKinsey said in February. According to the North America Family Office Report by RBC and Campden Wealth released last September, a significant number of family offices reported how hiring was a "big challenge" and expressed difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff. The same is true for European family offices. Meanwhile, family offices in growing Asian wealth hubs such as Singapore are turning to automating workflows and outsourcing due to talent shortages in the city-state. Family offices also have to compete with banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds for top talent. The talent crunch, though, is not just owed to a lack of keen or qualified candidates — it's also selectivity on the part of family offices. While potential candidates find it difficult to step into the family office bandwagon, some family offices can also be particular when it comes to choosing the perfect fit. The key criteria: Trust. "Why did the boss give the accountant the money? Because they have a lifelong relationship," said Tobias Prestel, managing director of Prestel and Partner Family Office Conferences. "In the family office space, very often not the best person for the job gets the job but the one who's trusted," he told CNBC. "If you have $500 million, who do you trust? Who do you give the key to everything to? It's not an easy decision," said Prestel, who organizes private discussion and investment forums for family offices around the world. Some families have the tendency to put a huge emphasis on the trust factor over other criteria, said Reto Jauch, partner at SZ&J. While this can be a good thing, sometimes it can be detrimental to the job, he added. Family officesare often looking to combine roles such as a chief investment officer cum CFO, where they hope to find the ideal right hand man, said Iris Xu, founder of accounting and corporate services firm Jenga, which hires full-time and contracted professionals for family offices in Singapore. "That's a very tall order. Or very few professionals are both willing and capable to cover all these areas," she said. The wealthy are however stepping up their game to pursue the talent they want. And sometimes, this means being willing to pay a "trust delta," or salary premium, especially if the family wants someone to work for them, said Jauch, particularly in a climate where family offices are willing to pay up to $190,000 a year for executive assistants. European family offices are raising compensation packages to retain and attract talent by offering bonuses and other incentives like co-investment opportunities and a share in investment management profits, a separate report by Campden Wealth and HSBC showed. Young employees are reluctant to work at family offices for reasons including the lack of a clear corporate structure, as well as how it is widely perceived as a "retirement job," experts in the industry told CNBC. Family offices can appear "risky" to potential employees given their relatively informal structure, unclear reporting lines and undefined career progression, said Jenga's Xu. Xu added that investment-related roles in family offices tend to be harder to fill compared to other roles, with the turnover rate largely between one and two years. "In the corporate world, at the end of the day, everything is fungible, including the CEO," said SZ&J's Jauch. This is different from working for a family office, where the family is central and constant, he explained, who conducts hiring and succession planning for family offices. Working for and being at the beck and call of one family requires an intricate balance that's not always easy to strike. "There's a different kind of personality that does well in such an environment: you have to keep your ego in check to work in a family office environment, but you also have to be confident enough to bring your opinion to the fore," Jauch explained. "It is a balance between being able to speak to the family as an advisor, in a role that you have with the family, but also understanding that ultimately, it will always be the family's decision. That is not going away," he added. That's the reason why John, a lawyer in his mid-40s who did not wish to share his real name, declined to take a job offer as a general counsel at a Singapore-based family office, and said it's akin to "putting all your eggs in one basket." "Maybe you get along really well with that person, maybe you don't. But for somebody at my stage of career [then], with a family and different obligations, it was just too much personal risk … where basically one person can decide to just fire me," he said. John had also cited the potential lack of transparency and process around compensation and promotion discussions as amongst other reasons for having turned down the role. The lawyer, who was working at an investment bank at that point in time, also had concerns that taking a family office job at a relatively early stage of his career would render it harder to get back into the corporate world. "You need to want to be part of something. And you're okay if your progression is more on the content and maybe on the quality and professional side, but not necessarily in terms of career steps," Jauch said.
The Guardian
29-01-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Radical statement or eyesore? Japan's divisive brutalist buildings
Emerging after the second world war, Japan's brutalist architecture is characterised by its geometric shapes, functionality and unconventional use of concrete – which is often left unfinished to showcase the material's textures and imperfections. Paul Tulett traveled the country to photograph extraordinary examples. 'Brutalist architecture in Japan might not ruffle feathers locally but it's considered divisive elsewhere,' he says. Brutalist Japan by Prestel publishing can be purchased here Paul Tulett: 'Brutalism outside of Japan is like Marmite. Love it or hate it. Some find it refreshingly raw – an honest counterpoint to contemporary glass-based disingenuous attempts at state transparency. Others are reminded of communism or when the UK nearly slid down the pan in the 1970s. Having failed to do the most basic research prior to moving to Okinawa, I was pleasantly surprised by the preponderance of brutalism here and the absence of negative associations' 'The general line is that the brutalism here is born out of necessity, as Okinawa is seasonally battered by typhoons. Homes must be robust and 90% of new dwellings are concrete. Swift adoption of the material was prompted by postwar reconstruction needs. We also need to factor in concrete's resistance to termites – pests greedy for the traditional material of wood. Then there are earthquakes and a damp climate' 'Weathering and deterioration of concrete can lead to stains, cracks and crumble that upset some. Intended radical philosophical statements become eyesores. With hindsight, I became concrete-obsessed at a young age. During a school trip to London, I envisaged a battalion of Star Wars stormtroopers pouring from Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Hayward Gallery and the National Theatre. A sure gauge of whether something is brutalist or not is this: would it look good in a sci-fi movie?' 'To the haters, brutalism reflects the increased intrusion of government and state power. It is no accident that brutalist architectural forms often harboured state departments. Brutalist buildings afford sobering historic reflection – much like the preservation of communist statues in former Soviet states' Photograph: Paul Tulett 'This residence reflects the philosophy that true architectural harmony is achieved not by bending the land to our will, but by listening to its whispers. Amid the rampant uniformity where cities clone themselves, losing their inherent voice, this home seeks to preserve the memory of the terrain, embracing the spirit of the place. The building's form, an organic response to the site, eschews the aggressive imposition of the flat and the straight for convenience's sake' 'Darth Vader's holiday home? This striking complex features affordable housing stacked above a ground-floor elderly day care centre. It models Okinawa's social aspect of planning. The reverse inequality theory, foundational to Nago City's 1973 Comprehensive Plan, challenges development strategies focused solely on income growth, focusing instead on community-centred urban planning. In Okinawa, where communal ties and collective wellbeing are highly valued, such approaches are essential' 'This silhouette, a composition of bold geometric lines and the stark honesty of exposed concrete, channels the brutalist ethos. Its colossal, forthright forms stand in sharp relief to Kyoto's delicate tapestry. Yet, within its robust frame, the structure nurtures the flexible, organic essence of 'metabolism' – a Japanese architectural vanguard of the 1960s. The design, a tessellation of modular units and transformable spaces, breathes the metabolist vision of perpetual evolution' 'It has been argued that concrete is the 'natural choice' of construction material in Japan as it resonates with the half-a-millennium-old practice of sukiya – the considered composition of raw and rough natural materials. The material expression of concrete's rawness is deemed to chime with an almost genetic appreciation for an elemental, unrefined aesthetic. Apparently, the Japanese have a unique long experience with wood, pottery and stone, but for what people are these not traditional materials? I can only think of the Inuit' 'Situated within Komazawa Park, this tower had to support a substantial 33-ton water tank above ground, which was essential for supplying water throughout the park. It also accommodated an antenna for television broadcasts. Below ground, the structure housed a general electric room, machine room, broadcast room and telephone exchange. And it played a pivotal role in controlling traffic within the park while serving as a commemorative landmark' 'This station emerges like a scene from a sci-fi odyssey. An architectural spaceship, launched in 1995, it defies its historical backdrop with a daring leap into futurism. The station is a stargate to the storied city of Uji and greets travellers not with wooden torii gates, but with a concrete vault that arcs like the heavens above a distant planet. The design is audacious, a semicircular cocoon that dares to embrace both the circle's Zen-like simplicity and the boundless possibilities of the cosmos' 'The exclusive suite garden here showcases the gardener's artistry with a Kyoto stone pathway reminiscent of scattered hailstones, encouraging a moment of pause and reflection. By presenting the Japanese experience, I hope to challenge the stereotypical negative attacks levelled at brutalism more broadly. The aim is to provoke thought about examples of brutalism closer to you. With understanding comes appreciation.' You can see more of Tulett's work at @brutal_zen
