How Rockefeller Family Experience Benefits Other UHNW Clients

We talk to Rockefeller Capital Management about its approach to financial planning, working with female clients, education, and business and financial literacy.

When a UHNW family becomes a client of a business such as

Rockefeller Capital Management (RCM), one resource they tap
into is the family experience of the firm they’re becoming a
client of.

Mallory Findley, RCM’s head of financial education, says this
sharing of ideas and experience is an important part of this
organization’s value proposition. 

“Our financial education program was originally developed in
partnership with and for the Rockefeller family, and leverages
expertise from seven generations of wealth transfer to now
empower new families and new generations to be good stewards of
their own wealth and develop confidence in their financial
decision-making,” Findley told Family Wealth Report.
 

“We also leverage the expertise of our Rockefeller Next Gen
Advisory Council, a 20-person advisory board comprised of
forward-thinking leaders representing the next generation of
family wealth. This group helps provide counsel on the issues
that matter most to the emerging generation of entrepreneurs,
investors and philanthropists, particularly in the areas of
multi-generational stewardship and family leadership, ensuring
that we remain at the cutting edge of innovation,” Findley
continued. 

FWR spoke to Findley around the time of International
Women’s Day and around the tax-filing period that sees
individuals and families wrestling with tax, financial planning
and other tasks. It’s a time to reflect on the centrality of
planning, values and communication. 

The emphasis of financial advice has clearly shifted in the past
10 years, Findley said. More than a decade ago, financial advice
was mostly about portfolio advice; more recently, it has moved
toward financial planning. 

“Now, there is more work on what we call the softer side of
money: helping families handle family dynamics in support of
successful multigenerational transitions of wealth,” Findley
said. “A large concern we see with families is that they want to
be empowered in their own financial understanding and
decision-making.” Consequently, she
said, financial literacy is an issue: “Everybody
deserves to have confidence in their own financial decisions.”

These conversations with clients run through eight main elements:
Personal finance; planning for the future; US tax basics; wills,
trusts and estate planning; investing; sustainability and
impact; philanthropy; and entrepreneurship, also known as a “mini
MBA program” for next gens/families/entrepreneurs.

Women’s issues

Findley said gaps remain in terms of how women are advised about
wealth and their position within financial services more
generally. 

“There are still discrepancies in financial advice; women tend to
live longer than men and often bear the brunt of responsibility
when it comes to family finances,” Findley said. “Tens of
trillions of dollars are being left in the hands of women.”

Rockefeller’s Findley is not alone in noting these issues. UBS

recently noted that women, who manage an estimated $32
trillion of global spending, are due to control 75 per cent of
discretionary spending worldwide. However, by the end of their
working lives, women globally are expected to accumulate only 74
per cent of the wealth of men, UBS said, citing figures from the
2022 Wealth Equity Index from WTW and the World Economic
Forum. Switching to the UK, women are still
significantly worse off than their male counterparts in
wealth terms, a recent bank survey found. 

Findley said women face problems in raising capital if they
are running a business. 

“Women-owned businesses are an important part of the US economy,
however, historically women business-owners have faced unique
challenges when raising capital,” Findley said.

“Particularly related to our conversations around funding
sources, research indicates that in many cases, men and women
entrepreneurs may be asked different questions by investors,
which can impact their ability to fundraise. For example, men
tend to be asked promotion questions which allow them the
opportunity to talk about potential gains, whereas women may be
asked prevention questions that essentially set them up to have
to defend potential losses,” she said.

“Through our curriculum, we seek to help emerging entrepreneurs
address these challenges and help our women clients identify
effective ways to navigate and, in many cases, reframe
potential discussions with investors. How to build an effective
pitch and cultivating strong mentor relationships are also part
of this broader module – all critical to achieving success when
seeking funding and running a business,” Findley continued. 

Value transfers

Passing over money is one thing: Transferring values that go
above and beyond money is another matter entirely, Findley
said. 

“It is easy to transfer wealth; it’s much more challenging to
transfer values – as such our bespoke wealth and values exercise
seeks to help individuals within a family define and articulate
the values that are inherently important to them. We then
moderate conversations during which family members can share
their selections and rationale, while noting any common family
themes around which they can come together,” she said. “We also
note the differences in values between family members and discuss
how families can better understand and appreciate those
differences.

“When families can have these conversations successfully, they
are able to reflect on how family wealth and resources are (or
can) play a supportive role in family values, and they ultimately
create a foundation of trust and respect that will govern and
support them in their decision-making across all areas of life,”
she added.