This article was first published in eprivateclient.
Based in New York City, and with over 25 years’ experience working with UHNW families and their advisors, Darrell King is the managing director, Americas for Crestbridge Fiduciary LLC.
Mr King's key responsibility is to support professional advisors and their clients in the design and implementation of fiduciary structures.
He works regularly with clients in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia. Most often, the family has a nexus to the US and requires a fiduciary structure to support their investment and business interests in the US, the migration of family members to the US, or the efficient transfer of wealth to the next generation who have become US persons.
Mr King holds the Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) and the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designations. He is also a peer selected Private Client Global Elite Advisor and currently serves as Membership Chair for STEP New York.
Why do you specialise in family office services?
I am a planner by background, so a bit of a “structure nerd”. I like the challenge of working with families and their key advisors to design and establish custom structures and provide services that will support the family’s wealth protection and transfer goals. Plus, we are in the midst of the Great Wealth Transfer - that’s a lot of important work to be done and a lot of challenge!
Why are family office services so important to the industry?
Over two thirds of the world’s family offices we reformed since 2000. They continue to be formed at an increasing pace, as boomers are realising on the equity in their business and seeking to establish a vehicle that can deploy their hard-won wealth into investment opportunities and support the effective and efficient preservation and transfer of that wealth to the next generation. Recent reports project that some 80 trillion of wealth will be transferred in the next 30 years, $15 trillion of it by 2030.
Private client providers are at the centre of this wealth transfer process and have the greatest opportunity to utilise the wealth management and transfer tools that they have to establish rewarding client relationships that could last generations.
How might the landscape for family office services change in the next 12 months?
Historically, families have either established their own single-family office or joined a multifamily office.
A single-family office is an attractive option from the stand point of “build it like you want it”, with complete control of the services provided and operations of the family office. However, the family also takes on responsibility for considerable costs of operation, premises, staff recruitment, HR matters, compliance, investment sourcing, etc.
The multifamily office offers a convenient ‘plug and play’ alternative but may not offer all the services the family needs or the degree of customisation that they prefer and may be somewhat restrictive when it comes to investment choice and how services are delivered.
An emerging family office model is a hybrid of the two: a single-family office set up with key control and decision making kept inhouse, while outsourcing administrative, compliance, reporting, HR, accounting, and fiduciary functions. This model offers a number of benefits, including lower costs and addressing matters of recruitment and HR/payroll. It can also be customised to meet the family’s needs, while enabling the services provided to be evolved as the family flexes and changes.
For example, at Crestbridge Fiduciary, we see families who are multi-jurisdictional, often with a US nexus. We have organised ourselves so that we can deliver trust and related structure services from both the US and Jersey with consistency of service delivery and coordination of the US and non-US matters. It makes a big difference to the family’s management of their assets and provides peace of mind.
What are your favourite ways to relax/switch off from work?
I work in New York, and travel to major cities around the world regularly, so getting away from the city life is a welcome change and a chance to recharge. We own a lake house in Canada that is our go to for family summer vacations. Skiing is another activity we like. And there is nothing like a good mystery book to read.
Do you have a pet(s)? What are they like?
We have two cats. They rule the roost.
If you couldn’t do your current role what would your dream job be?
Owner/manager of a classic high end New York steakhouse, with piano bar and a Sinatra era vibe.
