Host Christi Van Rite discusses the often-unspoken loneliness of managing significant wealth and how “responsibility-driven isolation” leads families to become siloed and hesitant to expand their inner circle due to trust concerns. Guest Tim Brown shares how he entered the family office world, why responsibility shrinks the number of people leaders can safely confide in, and how family offices steward far more than investments - governance, relationships, reputation, values, and legacy.

He explains why nice and good people can look similar until adversity reveals character, emphasizing that dependable, consistent advisors matter more than impressive ones and that there are no shortcuts to trust. Tim outlines Somos22’s approach to building curated, high-trust networks and highlights the importance of institutional memory, documentation, and stewardship to preserve judgment and continuity across generations.

Contact Tim Brown:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-brown-65315811/

Website: https://somos22network.com, https://fortalezanetwork.com

Email: tim@3cr8.com

Host Christi Van Rite interviews Rick Waggoner, founder of the Family Office Forum of Texas, a confidential peer-to-peer community that has grown from three families to 125 families in nine groups plus a virtual group, designed to reduce isolation and share practical solutions (including an anonymous “queries” program).

They discuss why distribution policies sit at the intersection of wealth management, governance, and family dynamics, and why relying solely on trust language or HEMS standards can lead to “dependents, not beneficiaries,” urging flexibility, context, guardrails, and a baseline-plus-exceptions approach that avoids exceptions becoming the rule and reduces power imbalances. Rick shares that members estimated family financial literacy is in the single digits, arguing basic financial understanding is essential for trust and engagement. He contrasts technical expertise with true advisory skill, shares contact details for the Forum, and previews an upcoming topic on next-generation alignment and trust.

Connect with Rick:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-waggoner-ba08a11/

Email address: rick@foftexas.com

Phone: 972.571.1299

Christi welcomes listeners to the Family Office Success Podcast and interviews professional coach Michèle Soregaroli about how practitioners can show value and avoid disconnects between the value they believe they deliver and what clients actually perceive. Michèle explains that mismatches come from limited communication about what each party wants and the “filter” clients use to judge value beyond technical expertise.

She recommends asking better questions about what a successful relationship would look and feel like, what clients have liked or found frustrating before, and why the service matters, emphasizing that clients are buying an experience as much as an outcome. Using restaurant and “steak” analogies, they discuss differentiation, aligning offers to client values, and the business costs of taking mismatched clients, as well as the integrity and referral benefits of identifying fit early.

Connect with Michèle:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msoregaroli/

Website: https://www.transformationcatalyst.ca

Email address: m@transformationcatalyst.ca