Today we have a special guest, veteran family enterprise advisor Fredda Herz Brown.  I’ve been wanting to interview Fredda for a while because she is a leader in the space, and her career goes back to the roots of the current theory and practice of family wealth advising.  She talks about the evolution of family systems theory going back to Murray Bowen and Nathan Ackerman, the collaborative nature of the field’s development, the importance of self-awareness for consultants, raising children amidst wealth and avoiding entitlement, and balancing separateness and connectedness in the family.  We had a very rich conversation, and Fredda offered a great deal of wisdom on these crucial topics.

Fredda has been a pioneer and continual innovator in the family enterprise field. She co-founded Relative Solutions to address the complexities and challenges enterprise families face at the intersection of their economy and family. She is the author of several books, including Reweaving the Family Tapestry and The Essential Roadmap: Navigating Family Enterprise Sustainability in a Changing World. 

Fredda has received numerous industry awards recognizing her work. She is the recipient of awards from the Family Firm Institute (FFI), where she is a Fellow and founding board member, and the Family Office Exchange, where she was honored as a thought leader. In 2002, she received the Beckhard award, named for one of her mentors, which acknowledged her contribution to practice in the field. In 1996, she received the Hollander award for her contribution to the community of family enterprise. 

Fredda holds a PhD in Psychology, Master’s degrees in Psychology and Psychiatric Nursing, and received a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing.  

Please enjoy my conversation with Fredda Herz Brown.

WEBSITE: https://www.relative-solutions.com/bio-fredda

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly runs Circulus Group, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: circulus.substack.com

PRIVATE CAPITAL PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-capital/id1644526501

Thanks for listening.  If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and take a minute to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.  We appreciate it.

S5E1

©2026 Joe Reilly

In this special episode, we gathered three leading voices to share practical guidance on what makes a family office truly work. Kirby Rosplock, PhD (Tamarind Partners and Tamarind Learning), Scott Saslow (One World Investments), and James E. “Jay” Hughes Jr. (James E. Hughes Foundation) discuss clear purpose and governance, the right balance of family and independent talent, defining the true “client,” setting operating cadence and boundaries, preparing rising generations for stewardship, and building learning systems that enhance family well-being. Attendees hear real examples, research-informed insights, and actionable takeaways for founders, trustees, and beneficiaries seeking a more durable, values-aligned family office.

Website: https://theinheritanceproject.com

We have a special treat today, an interview I conducted live with Jay Hughes at the recent Southeastern Family Office Forum, or SEFOF, in Atlanta.  SEFOF is a remarkable non-profit family office and family enterprise network that is now 14 years old.  I had a wonderful time there and met many nice folks.  My thanks to Brian Hughes, Bryn Monahan and Betsy Brown and all the volunteers for making this keynote interview possible.  

The interview was conducted over a livestream in front of an audience of three hundred, and I do want to address some minor audio issues you might notice.   While there may be a few slight fluctuations in sound quality, rest assured, these issues are not significant and should not detract from your listening experience.

Jay Hughes is an author, advisor to families, and founder of a law partnership in New York that represented private clients throughout the world, and now retired from the active practice of wealth advisory. His wonderful book, Family Wealth, Keeping it in the Family, has become a classic in the family wealth space, and he warns that the shirtsleeves proverb is a warning and not a curse. 

Jay’s wisdom is on full display in this engaging interview, and it is readily apparent why this man has had such a large impact on many families and individuals over the last thirty years.  

This interview is part of a series done in partnership with the James E. Hughes Jr. Foundation. Please listen to my previous interview with Jay in 2023, as well as Christian Stewart, John Warnick, Gunther Weil and Keith Whitaker.

WEBSITE: https://jehjf.org/

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Family-Wealth-Keeping-Intellectual-Financial-Generations/dp/157660151X

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is the CEO of Circulus Group, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: circulus.substack.com

PRIVATE CAPITAL PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-capital/id1644526501

Thanks for listening.  If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and take a minute to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.  We appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Christian Stewart is a consultant in Hong Kong who started Family Wealth Legacy to help successful Asian families establish communication platforms and decision making structures for their family enterprise.  Christian works with enterprising families as a process consultant, coach and family meeting facilitator. He helps families to form their own family council, family constitution and family policies, often in the context of planning for succession.  He is a prolific author of excellent articles, which are available on his website, and the winner of many awards recognizing his thought leadership.

We had a rich conversation.  Christian thinks succession should be thought of as a design process that breaks down the succession plan down into manageable components.  For patriarchs consumed with management succession, Stewart gently reframes the narrative:  “You have to invest in developing the human, intellectual, and social capital within the family.” He talks about the deep influence of Jay Hughes on his work, and elaborates on the interesting idea of co-regulating emotionally with his clients and the importance of meditation to his own work.   Succession for Christian is not a transaction, but a multigenerational architectural feat.

Christian Stewart is the founder of Family Legacy Asia.  He was previously a managing director at JP Morgan Private Bank, and head of wealth advisory in Asia.  He was at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong, as partner and head of the trust and private client group, and practiced law in Australia before that.  Christian holds a bachelor of laws from the University of Adelaide.

Please enjoy my conversation with Christian Stewart.

WEBSITE: https://www.familylegacyasia.com/christian_stewart.htm

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: circulus.substack.com

PRIVATE CAPITAL PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-capital/id1644526501

Thanks for listening.  If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and take a minute to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.  We appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Keith Whitaker is an educator who consults with leaders and rising generation members of families with significant wealth.

We had an interesting conversation touching on Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, but also on Keiths long practical experience working with the wealthy.  We talk about the cycle of the gift in families, the concept of magnificence, and his work on books with Jay Hughes, Paul Schervish on Wealth and the Will of God and his recent collaboration with Tom McCullough on the Wealth of Wisdom books.

Keith is Managing Director of Wise Counsel Research.  He is the co-author of Wealth and the Will of God, The Cycle of the Gift, The Voice of the Rising Generation, Family Trusts, Complete Family Wealth,  Wealth of Wisdom: the Top 50 Questions Wealthy Families Ask, and Wealth of Wisdom: the Top Practices of Wealthy Families and their Advisors. Keith has served as a Managing Director at Wells Fargo Family Wealth, an adjunct professor of management at Vanderbilt University, and an adjunct assistant professor of philosophy at Boston College. Keith holds a Ph.D. in Social Thought from the University of Chicago, a BA and MA in Classics and Philosophy from Boston University.

Keith is one of the most thoughtful people in the family wealth world, and his knowledge of philosophy and respect for tradition made him a real pleasure to talk to.  Please enjoy my conversation with Keith Whitaker.

AUTHOR PAGE:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/Keith-Whitaker/author/B001HOPVCA

WEBSITE: https://www.wisecounselresearch.com/

KEITH'S PODCAST: https://www.wealthofwisdombook.com/podcast

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://www.circulus.co/

PRIVATE CAPITAL PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-capital/id1644526501

Thanks for listening.  If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and take a minute to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.  We appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

“Generativity is the human impulse to nurture, to do good things for the next generation and to see myself, my life, in a sense, being extended through the possibilities in my children and grandchildren.”

Today, in conjunction with the James E Hughes Jr. Foundation, I’d like to present my interview with one of Jay’s longtime collaborators John A. Warnick.  John A., as he is known, is the founder of the Purposeful Planning Institute, which trains lawyers, financial planners, trustees, and wealth managers to work with clients on their planning that is congruent with their core values and vision.  He was a long-time trusts and estates lawyer himself in Colorado with the firm Holme Roberts and Owen, where he chaired the Private Clients Services Group.  He left the firm and began collaborating with Jay Hughes and Tim Belber, and began to focus on ensuring that the affluence of his clients was a positive force in the lives of their following generations.  John A received his bachelor’s magna cum laude from Brigham Young University and his JD from George Washington University with honors.

Please enjoy my interview with John A Warnick.

Purposeful Planning Institute:  https://purposefulplanninginstitute.com

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://www.circulus.co/

PRIVATE CAPITAL PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-capital/id1644526501

Thanks for listening.  If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and take a minute to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.  We appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

George Marcus wrote a book you probably haven’t heard of, but should.  It is called Lives in Trust and it was published in 1992 and is $146 on Amazon right now.  

Professor Marcus is an anthropologist who studied tribes in Tonga and then applied what he learned to study dynastic wealth in families starting in Texas.  The book has great essays on the HL Hunt family, who tried to corner the silver market in 1980, the Bingham family, who fought over a newspaper chain in Kentucky, a study of two very different family fortunes in Galveston Texas, and an analysis of one of my favorite books, Old Money by Nelson Aldrich.   He discusses the importance of your image of your ancestors and the creation of family ideology, the emptiness at the center of the Getty fortune, and a great essay by his collaborator the late respected philanthropic scholar Peter Dobkin Hall on the efforts of the Rockefeller family to control the narratives told about the family over decades.

In our discussion today, we talk about his career, the book, his interesting concept that he calls the “dynastic uncanny” and his fascinating dive into the meaning of nobility in the current-day Portuguese aristocracy.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with George Marcus.

Biography:

George Marcus is one of the world’s leading anthropologists.  He is the Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irving, and previously chaired the anthropology department at Rice University for twenty-five years.  He is the author of dozens of books and articles including Ethnography Through Thick and Thin and Lives in Trust: The Fortunes of Dynastic Families in Late Twentieth-Century America.  Professor Marcus received a B.A. from Yale in 1968 and a Ph.D from Harvard in 1976.

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://www.circulus.co/

PRIVATE CAPITAL PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-capital/id1644526501

Thanks for listening.  If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and take a minute to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.  We appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Today we are speaking with Gunther Weil.   Gunther has known some of the 20th century’s most interesting psychologists including Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, Gordon Allport, Timothy Leary and Henry Murray as well as such names as Tony Robbins and Eckhart Tolle.  We talk about them, his journey in and out of the psychedelic world, and his later work with Jay Hughes and John A Warnick at the Purposeful Planning Institute, where he was their longtime Dean of Values.  Gunther is a deeply thoughtful guest and his reflections on life, values, transcendence, grace and his own experiences of the various insightful communities he was involved in over the years.

Gunther M. Weil, Ph.D. is the founder and CEO of Value Mentors.  He is an organizational consultant, family advisor, executive coach, educator, and psychologist. For the past 35 years, he has provided wise guidance to senior executives, family businesses, and for-profit and non-profit organizations in the areas of values-based leadership and organizational culture, innovation, team building, strategic planning, conflict resolution, and executive wellness.  Weil earned his doctorate from Harvard University in 1965 and served as a Fulbright Scholar in Oslo, Norway. His early professional mentors included Carl Rogers, the creator of Client-Centered Psychotherapy, Arne Naess, the founder of Deep Ecology, and Abraham Maslow, the father of Humanistic Psychology.  He is also a 40-year practitioner of Tai Chi Chuan and Master Instructor of Qi Gong.

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

WEBSITE:  ValueMentors:  https://valuementors.com

Names and Concepts Mentioned in the Podcast:

Gordon Allport:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Allport

Willem Nyland:  https://www.gurdjieff.org/nyland.htm

Ralph Metzner:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Metzner

George Kelly:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Kelly_(psychologist)

Frank X. Baron:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Barron_(psychologist)

Milton Erickson:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_H._Erickson

Arne Ness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Næss

George Gurdjieff:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gurdjieff

PPI/John A Warnick:  https://purposefulplanninginstitute.com/john-a-warnick/

Jay Hughes:  https://jehjf.org

David McClelland:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McClelland

Henry Murray:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Murray

Milton Rokeach:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Rokeach

Carl Rogers:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers

Abraham Maslow:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow

Eckhart Tolle:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle

Jacob Needleman The American Soul:  http://www.jacobneedleman.com/the-american-soul

TAT - Thematic Aptitude Test:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_apperception_test

NLP Neurolinguistic Programming:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

Concord Prison Project:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord_Prison_Experiment

Good Friday Experiment:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_Chapel_Experiment

Walter Pahnke:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Pahnke

Harry Harlow Attachment in Chimps:  https://www.simplypsychology.org/harlow-monkey.html

Konrad Lorenz Imprinting:  https://www.simplypsychology.org/konrad-lorenz.html

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://www.circulus.co/

PRIVATE CAPITAL PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-capital/id1644526501

Thanks for listening.  If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and take a minute to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.  We appreciate it.

©2023 Joe Reilly

“Families that are failing spend all their time on power.”

Today's guest is Jay Hughes.

Jay and I had a deep and fascinating discussion about the development of the elder in a family, the importance of the midlife crisis, and transcendent values. 

We also discussed many great pioneers in the family wealth field like Joanie Bronfman, Charlie Collier, and Peter Karoff, and we also talked about Matt Wesleys key paper on family culture, which I will link to in the show notes. Jay also mentioned that he is writing a new book with Mary K. Duke and Stacy Allred, and has a lecture course online with David Specht of the Drucker School, part of which I will also link to about the five capitals of wealth.  

We turned over the new ideas in Wealth 3.0 and Jay had some great insights about how the industry restrains the field and how ideas evolve.

This is the inaugural interview The Inheritance Podcast in a series in conjunction with the James E. Hughes Jr Foundation.  I’d like to invite you all to join us on this journey of exploration as I talk to Jay and those he has influenced  Next up is Gunther Weil talking about values.

Jay Hughes is an author, advisor to families, and founder of a law partnership in New York that represented private clients throughout the world, and now retired from the active practice of wealth. His wonderful book, Family Wealth, Keeping it in the Family, has become a classic in the family wealth space, and where he warns that the shirtsleeves proverb is a warning and not a curse. 

Please enjoy my interview with Jay Hughes.

Link to Matt Wesley Paper on Culture:  https://jehjf.org/the-blob-how-culture-eats-structure-for-breakfast/

Link to Drucker Interview:  https://vimeo.com/746951432/5cae8e6538

Link to Jay's book:  https://www.amazon.com/Family-Wealth-Keeping-Intellectual-Financial-Generations/dp/157660151X

Link to James E. Hughes Jr. Foundation:  https://jehjf.org

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://www.circulus.co/

PRIVATE CAPITAL PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-capital/id1644526501

Thanks for listening.  If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and take a minute to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.  We appreciate it.

©2023 Joe Reilly

Today we are speaking with once again Dr. James Grubman, an internationally recognized consultant to families of wealth, family businesses, and the advisors who serve them.  He is the co-author of one of the buzziest books of the year called Wealth 3.0:  The Future of Family Wealth Advising along with Dennis Jaffe and Kristin Keffeler, who I have also interviewed previously on this podcast.  I wanted to talk to Jim and get some more color on his attitudes towards wealth advising, the issues with the literature and research in the space, how to escape from a fear-based mindset to one of growth around wealth, and why everyone does not necessarily want to create a dynasty.

Please enjoy my excellent conversation with Jim Grubman.

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

WEBSITE for Jim:  https://jamesgrubman.com

BOOK:  Wealth 3.0: The Future of Family Wealth Advising

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://www.circulus.co/

PRIVATE CAPITAL PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-capital/id1644526501

Thanks for listening.  If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and take a minute to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.  We appreciate it.

Other Books by these authors:

BOOK - Strangers in Paradise - How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations

by James Grubman

BOOK - Borrowed from your Grandchildren - The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises

by Dennis Jaffe

BOOK - Myth of the Silver Spoon

by Kristin Keffeler

©2023 Joe Reilly