I’m writing this week from Lausanne, Switzerland, where I attended Institutional Investor’s 11th annual European Single Family Office Symposium. This year, a record 75 single-family offices were represented at the three-day conference. Most were based in Europe (especially London and Geneva) but attendees arrived from as far as New York City, India and Singapore.

And now I understand why.

The sumptuous Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel is a well-suited conference destination for the world’s wealthiest people and the well-off ones managing their money. The week’s activities included everything you’d expect: There were cocktails and espressos on picturesque, private terraces overlooking Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). Meals and meetings took place in rooms with ornate pillars that lead your eyes up 35 feet to chandeliers and painted ceilings. If you set down a plate of half-eaten hors d'oeuvres, don’t turn your back — hotel staff will whisk over and make that disappear before you can say “billionaire.” You get the picture.

The conference agenda is heavily focused on investment management, with some parts dedicated to only one asset class and others on macroeconomic considerations, which long-term investors need to care about. Out of all the formal sessions, geopolitics stirred family offices the most.

I was strictly barred from most of the events at the conference because questions and discussions can get very family-specific. But I didn’t try to sneak into any (a reporter’s instincts run deep). There was no need to slink in and out of panels or roundtables anyway. The hotel hallways and casual hangouts are where you want to be. And the conference is designed with that in mind, too.

There’s plenty of time in the schedule to catch up with people you know and brush shoulders with ones you don’t. There are some regular participants, but new family offices are the ones helping the conference set records. They are attending for the same reason I did: access to people you might otherwise never engage and establish a connection with.

The conference advisory board helps filter out the fakers, so everyone knows they are amongst real peers. That alone is timesaving.

“Families are recommending it to each other. Particularly when new families have liquidity events, or professionalize, and they seek to recruit people,” Alex Beveridge, an executive director at II, who has planned the event for years, told me. Even if an office doesn’t find a suitable candidate for an open job, there are dozens of people who might be able refer someone or have tips to share. 

Family offices appreciate and lean on the advice they get from their private and investment bankers, asset managers, outside counsel, recruiters, and other professionals. But a good conference lets them affirm ideas and generate new ones with peers.

“All of these families, and especially the really big ones, have such access to so many pools of information,” Beveridge said. “People are just aggregating all this information during the year, and they all come together, and they just act as a check and a balance on each other.”

What's your favorite family-office conference and why? Reply to this email in confidence and let me know.

• From II: Allocators Are Paying for Their Managers to Fly on Private Jets — are you one of them?
   
• The U.S. Supreme Court all but slammed the door shut on a wealth tax yesterday, according to this New York Times analysis.
   
• ICONIQ Capital doesn’t talk much, but maybe they are warming to the press? This week, the Financial Times interviewed founding partner Mike Anders about the multi-family office’s “barbell” approach to its profit-seeking ventures and charitable giving platform. 
   
• Family offices are teaming up with firms like KKR and Silver Lake and fueling a $20 billion buyout wave happening right now, according to Bloomberg News.
   
• In 2019, (if my memory serves me correctly) I broke a story about Ken Fisher making lewd comments on stage during a wealth management conference. Other financial advisors who attended were appalled and said Fisher shouldn’t be someone speaking at events and representing the industry. The incident does not seem to have had any impact on the success of his eponymous company; Fisher just doubled his wealth to more than $14 billion after selling a stake in his firm.
   
• Also in the NYT: Group of Austrians Picks 77 Charities to Receive Heiress’s Fortune.
   
• Suzanne Peck, the head of investments for Private Wealth at Neuberger Berman, left the firm to join multi-family office GenTrust. Peck was previously the head of BlackRock’s endowments and foundations business for seven years and worked at Goldman Sachs.
   
• Steve Cohen’s Point72 is raising $1 billion for a new AI-focused, long-short hedge fund.
   
• Whose side are you on? The rich people celebrating a 26-foot-tall statue of Marilyn Monroe in front of the Palm Springs Art Museum, or the ones repulsed by it? “Art is supposed to evoke an emotion,” one person told Slate. “That” — he pointed toward the front door — “does not. It evokes nothing.”

• Speaking of art, I feel like the circles reading this newsletter might be of some help here: Gagosian is looking for an executive assistant to join its Beverly Hills team. Maybe if you refer someone, you’ll gain a good in with the gallery?
   
• An established, multigenerational single-family office in Dallas, Texas with a multibillion-dollar portfolio is looking for a CEO. They want someone experienced (at least 15 years) and with broad knowledge across the disciplines of wealth management. This exec will be responsible for creating a best-in-class infrastructure; reviewing and refining the investment policy; hiring, developing and mentoring staff; and more. If you think you're a fit, or want to refer someone, message Brian Adams and Mack International who are running the search: badams@mackinternational.com
   
• A commercial real estate tribe in Philadelphia has a growing family office and is looking for a director of finance​. The hire will be responsible for developing and leading the accouting and finance functions of the family’s CRE portfolio, as well as underwriting and identifying acquisition opportunities. Additionally, they will oversee the family-office budget, liquidity to the family members, etc.
   
• Attention golfers! A single-family office in Pebble Beach is also looking for an executive assistant. Wait. Sorry, golfers need not apply. The full-time job pays up to only $120,000 and requires you to be in the office five days per week. So you could neither afford the $675 fee to play Pebble Beach Golf Links (plus your cart and caddie) and you’ll never get a tee time.
   
• Are you a family office trying to fill a position, or a recruiter with a job order from one? Share some details in Officium and see who bites (no cost to you). Reply to this email and let’s talk.