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News & Opinions
6 June 2011
Financial decision-making for the wealthy is often emotional, stressful, lacks discipline, and results in investment underperformance. This is some of the key findings of a Barclays Wealth survey of High-Net-Worth-Individuals, as reported in wealthbriefing.com.
With increased wealth comes increased complexity of investment decisions (a Jewish proverb says it succinctly: "many assets, many worries"). The role of a Family Office is to introduce a more professional approach to investments – rational, disciplined and proactive.
Finally, one quite encouraging finding of the survey - concern about lack of financial self-discipline declines markedly with age.
Read more...
April 14 2011
The Family Office model is generating much interest with wealthy Israeli families. The fast growth of the market, which has already reached a substantial size, is evidenced by the successful March 2011 conference on the topic in Tel Aviv. In the enclosed TheMarker article the Family Office offering is described in its international and Israeli context. The subject is discussed by a panel of experts representing a private bank, a single family office and a multi family office (Fidelis Family Office). Read more...
October 11 2010
It's hard to become rich. But staying rich is often harder...
JP Morgan research looked at the data – how the Forbes 400 US Rich List evolved since it was first established in 1982. More importantly, the bank analysed why individuals and families dropped out. Surprisingly, or maybe not so, it was mostly due to mistakes which could have been avoided and risks which could have been mitigated. If you would like a copy of the JP Morgan research, please contact us. Read more...
September 27 2010
Banks and managers need to be paid, but fees eat into portfolio performance. According to an RBS survey of 12 private banks, over the last few years the percentage of fees out of gross performance has risen dramatically – from 26% in 2007 to 43% currently! The absolute level of fees is very high as well – 1.68% taking into account hidden expenses. Therefore clients (or their family office) need to i) put increased focus on fees and other charges – negotiate hard and watch closely, especially the less visible ones, and ii) invest through cost-efficient and transparent products (e.g. exchange-traded index funds vs. structures, hedge funds and fund of funds). Read more...
June 29 2010
העולים שמגיעים לישראל יודעים שהקושי העיקרי בדרך להשתלבות בחברה הוא התעסוקה. התסכול גובר כשמדובר באקדמאים והפער בין העבודה שם לעבודה כאן גדול. מי שמסייע להם היא "עמותת גבהים" שדואגת לליווי אישי, ולא עוזבת אותם עד שהם מוצאים עבודה
Read more...
May 09 2010
The Israeli government is studying a tax amnesty for Israelis who hold undeclared account offshore. The timing coincides with the working on bi-lateral tax agreements between Israel and Switzerland, Lichtenstein and other so-called 'tax havens'. Recent tax amnesties by other countries (e.g. Italy, Greece) showed mixed rates of success, driven, among other factors, by the clarity and financial terms of the amnesty. In our view, the decision by Israelis to hold undeclared money offshore is driven not only by tax-related reasons, but also by concerns over political stability and long-term economic management by the government. Those who had undeclared money offshore but decided to obey the law (and also be able to repatriate these funds) could enter individual negotiations with the tax authorities either on an unnamed basis or through 'voluntary declaration' basis. Still, many hesitated to do so for various reason, including ignorance of these routes, complexity of the process, and financial cost. At Fidelis Family Office we believe that with the backdrop of a strong Israeli economy and currency, together with reasonable taxation levels on capital gains and dividends/interest, the new tax amnesty could succeed, as long as the financial 'penalty' is viewed as reasonable. Read more...
April 25 2010
The Israeli economy sailed very well through the global economic and market meltdown of 2008. There are good reasons for it, some of them related to the structure of the Israeli housing market and the lack of a 'sophisticated' securitization market. At Fidelis Family Office we do not subscribe to the doom-and-gloom scenario for the future of the Israeli economy. However, we believe in diversification. In putting your hard-earned eggs in different baskets. The last few years have been good for the Israeli economy, markets and currency, but we should not forget the major economic crises we had in 2001-2003, mid '90s, mid 80's, and earlier during the country's turbulent history. Moreover, Israeli crises are often not correlated to the global economy or to other emerging markets - they are due to Israel-specific factors, and therefore their risk can be partly diversified away.
What is the right mix of Israeli vs off-shore investments? There is no hard and fast rule, but we believe that the larger the portfolio, the higher the percentage that should be invested overseas, and it should be significant. Read more...
April 13 2010
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are rapidly growing in popularity in Europe, following their huge success in the US. At Fidelis Family Office we like these instruments as a cheap and efficient vehicle to get exposure to leading indices. We prefer to use them in efficient markets to capture market return (beta), rather than less efficient markets (such as small cap, emerging markets), where good managers can generate above market returns (alfa). Read more...
March 22 2010
מדריך "כלכליסט": איך תבדקו אם יש לכם מנהל השקעות טוב?
בעזרת מדדי אלפא ובטא נצליח לראות את רגישות תיק ההשקעות שלנו לתנודות ואת כישוריו מנהל ההשקעות. Read more...
January 21 2010
OECD Doesn't Object To Use Of Stolen Bank Data, Switzerland Halts
Co-operation. Read more...
January 17 2010
Rich individuals who got their fingers burned in the financial crisis are moving back to basics in search of transparent, simple, low-cost products, shifting from private banks to smaller, independent wealth managers and boutiques to get them. Read more...
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