When the stock market is volatile for any reason, wealth managers collectively send hundreds of thousands of emails to clients, often saying some version of the same thing: Remain calm; this stuff happens, and it’s best to do nothing.
That is not bad advice. During the past two weeks, rapid changes to U.S. tariffs have whipsawed stock and bond prices, sparked a full-on trade war between the U.S. and China, and are fueling recession fears (as of this morning, consumer sentiment has fallen to one of the lowest levels over the past decade). President Trump takes pride in his use of unpredictability as a negotiating tactic, but when applied at this level to tariffs, he has investors wondering what is next — what if most or all tariffs are dramatically reduced, or even go away, in the coming weeks?
Regardless, the typical wealth management client doesn’t have many choices right now. They are primarily, or entirely, invested in public equity and fixed-income funds. So, when a market is down, they can either wait until it goes up again (do nothing), attempt to time the market and sell and buy securities to improve performance (do something that is effectively gambling), or sell shares anyway because they need the cash (do something because they have to, like withdraw from a 529 investment account to pay a college tuition bill).
Chief investment officers and portfolio managers at family offices face the same uncertainty.
“The recent market volatility has meaningfully shaken investor confidence, and as a result, it is a bit tougher to invest that incremental dollar,” Stephanie Bruckner, a principal and the managing director of Family Office Solutions at F.L. Putnam, told Modus. Bruckner, who previously founded and ran her own OCIO business and was a trader at Citadel, serves as a CIO and investment consultant to multiple single-family offices in her current job.
But family offices are not in the same predicament as others. For the wealthiest private investors, there is optionality in the wide gap between “do nothing” and totally rethinking strategic asset allocation.
Well before “Liberation Day,” when the Trump administration announced tariffs globally, family offices were already playing with house money, so to speak, Hannes Hofmann, head of the Global Family Office group at Citi Wealth, told Modus.
The S&P 500 rose more than 20% in 2024, causing offices to rebalance portfolios and freeing up cash to reallocate. Family offices also tend to hold significant amounts of cash, as much as 14%. Those things, along with their access to and interest in derivatives strategies to help soften market blows, have left many of their portfolios in relatively good shape, Hofman said.
Meketa Investment Group, an OCIO and investment consulting firm that advises institutions and private investors on approximately $2.3 trillion in assets, works with a “double-digit” number of family offices and engaged with them more than usual this week, according to Christian McCormick, senior vice president and head of Client Portfolio Management at the firm.
But what will happen to stocks in the near future wasn’t the primary topic of discussion.“That's almost been put on the back burner. It's like there's way too much noise,” McCormick said.
Family offices are leveraging their relationships and trying to figure out “how is the overall economic order being reworked, the entire economic framework of global free trade?” he said. “There are still these massive changes coming…we've had discussions on how to quantify a decrease in trust in the U.S. government and the U.S. economy?”
Until that picture is clearer, the clients McCormick has engaged with aren’t changing their strategic asset allocations. They are, as always, thinking about what they can and should do on the margin. He added: The usual “buy-the-dip mentality” doesn’t seem to be present, but he expects family offices to continue to make more co-investments alongside fund managers, a trend that has progressed in recent years.
“It's this environment that gives investment opportunities, which can be nerve-wracking, but also, if done well, prudent and fruitful. So we are keeping our eyes open, talking to a lot of managers, because everything that we do is third-party managed,” Adele Gorrilla, the founder and CIO of Attinger, an OCIO and consulting firm, said.
Philadelphia-based Attinger manages all or some part of portfolios, ranging from $25 million to more than $1 billion, for institutions, family offices and other private clients. Before she started Attinger in 2021, Gorrilla was the CIO of Zunis Investments, a single-family office, and the CIO of the Denison University endowment.
No sweeping changes are happening to Attinger’s client portfolios. The firm is focused on tuning out the noise and spying opportunities. “Some really interesting things are happening, especially watching credit…spreads are still widening. There are some good opportunities to be had there,” Gorilla said.
Like McCormick predicted, family offices remain active co-investors, at least by way of Attinger.
“We are always very careful about the partners that we're selecting, the experts that have the resources to underwrite and assess the risk on any investment that we would join them in as a co-investor,” Gorilla said.
Trying to pick stocks or invest directly in private companies, instead of leaning on general partners to source co-investments, would defy Attinger’s framework and why family offices work with them. Gorilla had more to share Thursday afternoon, but an interview with her was cut short. Attinger had just finalized a co-investment and she wanted to tell her clients before the end of the day.
“It's exciting,” she said. The clients “wouldn't have these opportunities if we didn't have short-term price dislocations.”
Aleta – Built for the modern family office
Wealth reporting for family offices, by family offices.
Say goodbye to humongous spreadsheets and clunky legacy systems, and hello to a next-gen wealth reporting platform built for forward-thinking family offices.
Enjoy our intuitive platform out of the box or integrate via API or Power BI for endless custom reporting capabilities.
All asset types. One intuitive platform. Total control.
Other News
- “Regardless of how the tariff penalty is divvied up, lower-priced wines are going to feel the impact more than expensive wines,” Eric Asimov, chief wine critic at The New York Times since 2004, wrote yesterday. Modus readers are predominantly high-income earners working for centimillionaires and billionaires, who can likely afford the coming increases. But the wines with the best quality-to-price ratio are arguably priced between $15 to $25.
- But you should still indulge! “The latest alcohol advice ignores the value of pleasure.”
- How to Shop for a Home That Won’t Be Upended by Climate Change.
- There’s often a ton of headlines about the same big thing, but only one story about the thing you shouldn’t miss. This one about bringing dire wolves back from extinction is that story. It is long but crammed with provoking facts and questions.
- When Coffee Mate Made a ‘White Lotus’ Piña Colada Creamer, It Had No Idea How the Season Would End. Lol.
- Dwyane Wade’s Greatest Challenge.
Jobs
- Single-family office Lampton Holdings is hiring a controller to oversee its financial operations of the office, including a large prestressed concrete company (Standard Concrete Products), diverse investment interests, various current real estate holdings, and potential future real estate development projects.
- Do you have a way with words? Because financial services firms are hiring writers and compensating them waaay better than most news companies (trust me, I know). These are just the salaries, btw. The jobs also come with discretionary bonuses, equity compensation and other perks…
- Bessemer Trust is paying $150,000 for stuff about investments, wealth planning, family offices, and more.
- Morgan Stanley’s wealth management global investment office will pay $200,000 for a writer and editor to assist analysts and give client content some zhuzh.
- BNY’s wealth management product marketing team is paying $221,000 for a writer and editor who knows “how content is consumed today.” They should be more specific. Do they want someone to teach short-dance-video master classes or a meme lord? How are we supposed to know?
- Apollo is willing to pay $300,000 for a director-level ABF and structured credit content writer! (Start sharing Modus with more of your family-office friends before I quit and apply.)
Other Stuff
- I was recently a humble guest on “The Investors First Podcast” (Howard Marks, Cliff Asness, and many other great ones have been on it) hosted by Steve Curley, co-managing principal at 55 North Private Wealth, and Chris Cannon, CIO at FirsTrust. I’ve known Steve and been a fan for a long time, so this was a personal win! Listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the show’s website.
- Earlier this week, I joined Family Office List CEO Danielle Patterson and public relations and marketing consultant Michael Walsh for a live LinkedIn conversation about family offices, marketing, and their engagement with journalists. Watch a replay here.
- Modus already has 1,200+ followers on LinkedIn. If you aren’t one of them, you should be.
- More news tips = better stories. If the information is sensitive, use Signal on a personal device not accessible by your employer.
I'll be...
- In the 330 next week.
- Back to NYC.
A correction and clarification made on April 14, 2025: A previous version of this newsletter online incorrectly spelled the name of a source. His name is Hannes Hofmann, and he is head of the Global Family Office group at Citi Wealth, not Citi Private Bank.
