90% of family wealth is gone by the third generation — and it's not bad investments doing the damage. It's governance failures, the hard conversations nobody has, and the failure to pass down the values and stories that created the wealth in the first place. In this episode, Tim Brown breaks down what actually separates multi-generational family offices from those that quietly fade back to shirt sleeves.

In this episode of The Deal Podcast, Joshua Wilson sits down with Tim Brown — family office advisor, co-founder of Somos 22 and Fortaleza Network, and consultant to the Anschutz Corporation and Anschutz Investment Company out of Colorado — to explore the full lifecycle of a single family office. Tim maps the three stages every family office moves through: the founder's stage, where the "why" is still being defined and stakeholders identified; the midpoint stage, where governance emerges and the office begins deploying across the capital stack; and the multi-generational stage, where a full institutional team — CIO, chief legal officer, chief of staff, and trust company partner — runs an endowment-style operation built to outlast its founders.

But portfolio construction isn't where family offices fail. The hard part, Tim argues, is that third leg of the stool: governance. Who sits on the family council? How do you make in-laws feel like in-laws and not outlaws? How do you build a family bank that gives the next generation the chance to feel like first-generation wealth creators? And how do you pass down not just capital, but the values, stories, and hard-won wisdom that built it? Tim also dives into Somos 22, a global community that hosted over 1,000 unique family offices from 29 US states and 14 countries last year, and Fortaleza — an invite-only, YPO-style network built for deeper connection capital between serious family office professionals.

Read Tim's LinkedIn post referenced in this episode — a vulnerable reflection on navigating a difficult 2024, reframing fear through curiosity, and building resilience: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tim-brown-65315811_i-wrote-a-post-the-other-day-about-how-success-activity-7434942942739378176-P84u

📌 Topics Covered:

• The 3 stages of a single family office and what shifts at each level
• Why 90% of family wealth is gone by the third generation
• "Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves" — the real reasons it happens
• Core capital vs. surplus capital and how families think about allocation
• Why governance — not investing — is the hardest part of a family office
• Turning in-laws into allies: how great family governance actually works
• Why splitting a corpus among heirs quietly destroys generational wealth
• Family councils, professional management, and values transmission across generations
• Somos 22 and Fortaleza: what they are, who they're for, and how to get connected
• Adjacent leadership — Tim's philosophy on vulnerability and storytelling
• Why next-gen members silently struggle to live up to the wealth creator
• 82% of the world is employed by private families — what this means for the future

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadwilson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.