Joining me is Ruud Hendriks, Chairman of R/A Wealth Advisors, who has for multiple decades been working at the intersection of wealth management, private capital, entrepreneurship, and strategic partnerships. Ruud, welcome to Capital Markets. You have said that money loves speed. How can wealthy families act quickly without becoming impulsive?
I still say that even at 80, I expect people to return my call instantly. What I learned at Goldman Sachs — not answering an email is a lost opportunity. Returning a call within one hour gives you an opportunity. Family offices should prepare themselves in advance. When an opportunity presents itself, you should be ready. Money loves speed — but it does not mean running around like a fool. It means being prepared for the opportunity 100%.
At R/A Wealth Advisors, you advise clients independently rather than managing assets or financial products. Why is independent advice becoming more important?
It will become more and more complicated to manage fortunes. When I started it was US equities and bonds. Now you have public markets, private markets, hedge funds, private equity, infrastructure. And families now have family offices in different jurisdictions — someone living in Holland with a family office in Abu Dhabi and investments all over the world. You need an independent adviser with a helicopter view to make sure the right decisions are taken for the right family. If you look at the development of outsourced CIO structures, assets under management have gone from $4 trillion to $6 trillion in two years. It is a phenomenal rise. Companies like Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Mercer are taking a big part of that pie — and we think we are well equipped to grasp that market too.
Succession planning is often treated as a legal and tax question. But the human aspect can be just as hard. How should families approach it?
If people hear the word succession, they start thinking legal, tax, accountants, structures. But they forget to speak with the people themselves. My simple advice: start having the discussion amongst your family members. What do family members really want? If a father thinks his son will succeed him and his son is too polite to deny this, you get tension. The sooner you start that conversation — when everything is still nice and rosy — the better prepared you are. I know of families where the children are not at all interested in succeeding their father. Fathers are normally proud and think the business will be run by their son or daughter. But if you do not discuss that at an early stage, you get problems 100%.
AI is making investment research more accessible than ever. How will it change wealth management and what happens to advisers?
There was an article in the Financial Times saying that HSBC is making 70% of people in wealth management redundant within the next 12 months. I use AI myself all day — research, reports, investment portfolio advice, asset allocation. But human judgement is still required. Is the suggestion AI makes the right one? Does it fit with this family? You always need human oversight. What you are going to see is an adviser who works well with AI and uses it intelligently — rather than just trusting everything it says.
You have said concentration builds wealth while diversification protects it. How should entrepreneurs think about this after creating significant wealth?
You should use concentration to build a fortune. Look at Heineken, look at Microsoft — individuals who built those concentrated strategies and made fortunes. Bill Gates actually started diversifying when he became close to Warren Buffett. His wealth today is $140 billion. Had he kept his full stake in Microsoft, his wealth today would be in the area of $1.3 trillion. I am not saying concentration is wrong — not at all. But once you have the fortune, you need diversification to protect it for things you simply do not know, cannot anticipate — what we call Black Swan events. Concentration builds your wealth. Diversification protects your wealth for unforeseen circumstances, disasters, catastrophes, and big market shocks.
Thank you so much for joining us today Ruud.
Thank you for having me. A lot of success with the show.
