In 2003, Denny Chared founded DC Finance that today is one of the world’s most prominent family office communities holding private dinners, online sessions and highly regarded conferences with some of the world’s most famous and fascinating family members, thought leaders and entrepreneurs.
Russ Prince: Please explain the goals of DC Finance?
Denny Chared: DC Finance’s Global Family Office and High Net Worth Individual Community builds an international network of high net worth individuals, family offices, and investors for mutual growth and support through first tier events worldwide. DC Finance produces leading financial conferences in the U.S., U.K. and Israel reaching over 1,000 families worldwide who represent over 300 Billion USD.
I believe most groups in our space, who call themselves “family offices,” are at best some folks who have a family and might work in an office. But that’s it. Because a high-net-worth individual could be anyone—you don’t carry a business card saying you are—it’s easy to deceive sponsors and those who don’t understand our world, and 80% of the organizations in this space are exactly that.
We distinguish ourselves even from the very few good groups in several ways, and one of them is new wealth. Coming from so called “Start up Nation,” we knew we had a strong edge in tech, which is something families are always after. Beyond our main conferences—which don’t really have a theme—they cover anything on the agenda of the families such as estate planning, philanthropy, arts, Next Gen and co-investing. We have built a family office dedicated tech conference with world leading legal firms in London, NYC and Toronto. Also, each of our main events opens with a tech session, which allows us to reach new wealth as well and connect them with the old. The old want to see what ventures the new wealth are up to, and the new wealth seeks their experience in managing wealth and Next Gens.
Also geographically we are unique. We are in NYC, Chicago, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, London, Tel Aviv, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. We do private dinners and online sessions each week and, of course, our conferences.
Prince: What does it take to produce world-class events for your very discerning audience?
Chared: Content. We bring some of the world’s most prominent and fascinating family members, thought leaders and entrepreneurs on stage. We have a steering committee in each of our locations of local strategic partners such as CPAs, legal firms, associations and families to help us understand which topics the local community cares about. We can fine tune our programs and have them invite their donors/members and friends. Of course, we must have fun while doing this, so the venues must be top notch, and we have nice satellite events around our main event such as private dinners or Art Basel when we do our Miami event.
Prince: Over the next few years, what changes do you see in the global family office and high-net-worth community? How are you responding to these changes?
Chared: I believe family offices will become a stronger financial power in the world. Family offices currently have $10 trillion in assets and another $65 trillion, which will be transferred from the baby boomers to the next generation over the next 15 years. This will be the largest transfer of wealth ever recorded. The family office market will soon be larger than the entire private equity and venture capital industries combined.
And as reported in Bloomberg: “The world’s ultra-wealthy are increasingly investing in startups, both directly from their family offices and through venture capital funds. Total capital invested into venture deals hit $418 billion this year. As of the end of August, it surpassed the record of $333 billion for the whole of 2020 according to the report.”
I also believe Next Gen will want to connect with more people like themselves and will be less private as older generations were. We are making sure our events are reflecting this and currently working on a new private meeting circle for some of our selected close families around the world.
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