When Did Being Rich Get So Complicated? (zz)

Ah, the good life. You made your millions or billions. Now it is time to kick back, relax by the pool…and manage your costly and complicated family office.

Family offices are must-haves for Upper Richistanis. If you have $100 million or more, chances are you’ll need a family office to manage your investments, travel plans, philanthropy, political activities, bill-paying and estate plans. That’s not to mention the multiple homes and wives. If the lives of today’s Upper Richistanis are businesses, the family office is corporate headquarters.

“I have four people (in the office) and five people at the house and I don’t even have a job,” says AOL founder James V. Kimsey (left), in an article in the Washington Post. “Why it takes that many people to sustain me is hard to explain.”

To help answer that question, The Post article by Thomas Heath plumbs the inner workings of Mr. Kimsey’s family office. (Richistan Note: When I met Mr. Kimsey at a Richistan reading in D.C. last summer, he had a great line about rich people having three basic choices when it comes to deciding what to do with their money. “You give it to your kids and ruin their lives, you can waste it on buying lots of stuff, or you can give it to charity.” He was leaning toward the last one).

Mr. Kimsey’s staff includes:

The Chief of Staff–Peter Kirsch, a Marquette grad, is Chief of Staff in the Office of James V. Kimsey. He coordinates investments, requests for money, philanthropic giving, home renovations and meetings with politicians and CEOs.

Part gatekeeper, part investment manager, he is known as “Dr. No,” since he says “no” so often. He also checks in with Mr. Kimsey’s house staff–a separate army of chauffeurs, housekeepers, cooks and engineers.

The Accounting Manager–Hired from the wealth-management division of Legg Mason, Mr. Weir’s job is to “follow the money.”

The Scheduler–Nancy Merritt, a former staffer on Capitol Hill, has the mission of getting Mr. Kimsey’s daily schedule “under control.” Mr. Kimsey calls her “my nanny.”

“She organizes my romantic life,” says Mr. Kimsey, a 68-year-old divorcee. “My girlfriends think I’m a much more sensitive, caring guy since Nancy has been with me.”

Comments
To me, wealth should primarily be about having less stress. The wealthy should keep more of their assets liquid, in market neutral funds. Instead they bizarrely insist on making their own lives more cumbersome.
Comment by Jay - August 27, 2008 at 6:46 pm


Jay, please don’t tell us you are this naive about wealth managment. The Chief of Staff is definitely a necessity, if only for the gatekeeper in him. The wealthy are *CONSTANTLY* getting requests for donations (and heaven forbid they get the tiniest bit fatigued from it). All those extra people are designed to make sure Mr. Kimsey’s life is less stressful. In a sense they are all gatekeepers, (except for maybe the home maintenence staff). Look at what can happen to a fortune if you don’t take care of it? Look at all those people invested in Bear Stearns? And when you are rich, you are surrounded by a whole bunch of people who want to know you, be with you, learn from you, dine with you, and, yes, take from you everything they can get. And women, will “line up like ducks” for a man with money. I’m sure he also has attorneys on retainer too because the more wealthy you are, the more you are probably sued (for stupid reasons). I can definitely see how a staff like that is a must if you’re going to reduce your stress.
Comment by Anonymiss - August 27, 2008 at 8:10 pm

( From WSJ "The Wealth Report" Blog )

Love 2008

The true artist has a grand theme in her mind.
Moreover, she knows how to express it freely, with
creativity, through the operation of her fingers. Each
start movement of her finger gives me expectation, as
I am eager to know what is next, what it could be, and
what it will be. Each completion of a picture brings
me amazement, as I wonder how many years of practice
is needed to reach such a stage that the sands are played
waywardly in her hands, and the outcome is fully under
her control. When she calmly erases her
previous masterpiece, I wanted to shout "wait a
minute....", yet I barely have time to feel sorry for
what was disappearing, a brand new surprise starts. A
new wondrous creation of art encourages me to keep on
looking forward instead of thinking backward. When she
finally ceases drawing, I then have a moment to ponder
over the lost sand works - they are still there, in my
memory, along with the spectacular feelings.

Maybe life is also like that. No matter how much we
want to lean on, and hold on to our previous
prosperity, time will calmly, mercilessly bleach our
past. Every second, or even millisecond arrives promptly,
never delays its pace. At the mean time, it
allows opportunity for the current........Even though gone
are the times, the things and the people, they are still
staying in the back of our mind, walk with us in our life journey.
When we have some time to pause and to meditate, they bring us
the warm feelings of encouragement.

The old shall end before the new can begin. When we dance with
the music of time, the old things are transformed into the memory
of love which will stay with us, see us through, and keep us
going on and on...

A rather profound message for the new year.