Christina Wing is on the faculty of Harvard Business School, where she focuses her research primarily on topics surrounding family enterprises. She founded Wingspan Legacy Partners to help founders and enterprising families navigate the intersections between family dynamics, business operations, wealth, legacy and philanthropic impact.
Russ Alan Prince: What does Wingspan Legacy Partners do for clients in the family enterprise sector?
Christina Wing: Wingspan is a family business and family office advisory firm that works with families across industries and geographies. Our work is focused on strengthening the scaffolding of family-owned enterprises and ensuring the legacies of the families behind them. Family enterprises are responsible for more than 70% of global GDP but also come with the added complexity of mixing business with family dynamics.
I founded Wingspan with the idea of building for enterprising families what they need. Serving as a faculty member at Harvard Business School, writing cases and teaching in this space, gives me great perspective, allowing me and, by extension, our team to draw on research to inform our on-the-ground work with family enterprises and vice versa. At Wingspan, we have this great feedback loop between research and practice that really sharpens our outlook and offerings.
In terms of advisory services for family offices, they can span the spectrum from helping high-net-worth individuals and families in setting up a new family office from scratch to doing a comprehensive audit of a family office that already exists. We provide in-depth counsel on structure, insourcing versus outsourcing, recruiting, governance, and investment policy. We also help family offices develop something we think is essential to success: a long-term vision and purpose. We emphasize our role as close advisors to families and principals who develop a relationship that allows us to tailor our recommendations to their goals and needs. We aren’t just flying in for consulting and then leaving the next day. We’re in it for the long haul.
Prince: What are the major issues and challenges facing family offices right now?
Wing: I think the biggest challenge with family offices is that their growth in number and size has been so fast that they haven’t developed any sort of “playbook” for managing their business. There was a 38% increase in the number of family offices between 2017 and 2019, and they now manage $6 trillion in assets. In 2021 they represented 10% of the entire deals market. So, there’s explosive growth and lots of money at stake, but this is such a new development that the people running these entities often don’t know best practices when it comes to governance, succession planning, managing family members, and having a long-term strategy and vision.
Another thing I always point out is that despite their power in the markets, there isn’t a common definition of what a family office actually is, and many going under that name are doing things from actual investment strategy to booking flights for family members. There needs to be a rebranding of sorts and, along with it, a clearer idea of what the family office is supposed to be doing. It can’t just be a family’s concierge service.
Prince: What are the ways that owners and principals of family offices can better address these challenges and shortcomings?
Wing: Our mantra is that to be a successful business, a family office must be run as a business and not as a family. It needs to be professionalized and have structure. It needs to have clear roles and procedures. And it needs to have a sense of its goals, strategy and purpose, just like any other business. Wingspan helps clients develop all the attributes of a successful, professional enterprise while initiating conversations around issues that can sometimes be touchy and intersect with sensitive family dynamics. But these are conversations that need to happen if your family office is going to thrive.
Prince: You spoke about the importance of purpose for family offices. Can you elaborate on this? And since purpose is so important, what is Wingspan’s purpose?
Wing: The first thing we tell clients regarding purpose is to have one—anything that will serve as their “north star.” It can just be to maximize returns over time, or it can be to help drive social transformation through impact investing. Beyond that, though, we do advocate for a sense of purpose beyond making money. As an advisory firm and as individuals, we strongly believe families have an outsized opportunity to affect societal change. This is why we only work with those committed to doing so. Wingspan itself embodies the purpose of helping clients to do good.
That’s why I’m proud of the work we do at Wingspan. We’re trusted advisors who develop strong, meaningful relationships with clients and provide guidance on how they can give back. That’s Wingspan’s and my purpose.
Russ Alan Prince is the executive director of Private Wealth magazine and chief content officer for High-Net-Worth Genius. He consults with family offices, the wealthy, fast-tracking entrepreneurs and select professionals.
