Family Business Audiocast | Episode 53 | Henry Brandts-Giesen

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R. Adam Smith: Welcome to the Family Business Audiocast. I'm R. Adam Smith, creator of this Audiocast series, and a warm thank you to our live audience today and those listening in the future. Today I'm pleased to host Henry Brandts-Giesen, global co-chair of the Dentons Family Office and High Net Worth group. Henry, it's really great to finally have you on the show.

Henry Brandts-Giesen: Thanks, Adam. Really privileged to be here. I'm a big fan of your show, and I'm glad we've been able to make this happen. Looking forward to the conversation.

R. Adam Smith: I'll talk about you briefly, then we'll dig in. Henry is general counsel and strategic advisor to family offices, investors, multi-family offices, trust companies, family businesses, private fund managers, philanthropists, and grant makers. He's at Dentons, one of the world's largest and most prestigious law firms, and operates globally and jurisdiction-neutrally to develop strategies for clients across the Dentons platform, primarily within the global family office community.

He's particularly focused on wealth management planning, family office design and governance, family business succession, trust law, fiduciary risk management, foreign direct investment, cross-border wealth structuring, and the whole range of family office and family wealth planning — an area we're deeply involved in and excited to discuss with him today. We're going to focus on Asia as the emerging giant of family office and family enterprise expansion.

With the explosion of wealth out of Singapore, China, and South Korea, and secondarily Taiwan, Australia, and Japan, Asia is stepping into a powerful moment. Can you talk about the transformation of wealth in Asia over the last couple of decades, where that's brought us today, particularly around Singapore's acceleration, and how that compares to the European family office landscape?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: Great question, Adam. I've worked all over the world — I practiced in Europe for the first half of my career, done a lot of work with U.S. family offices over the years, and even in Africa. But what's really struck me about the evolution of private wealth in Asia is the remarkable speed at which it's unfolded.

That's not to say there hasn't been private wealth in Asia for millennia — and when we talk about "Asia," we're talking about a very large, diverse region, so it's unfair to generalize, though to some extent we have to. But looking back over the last hundred years, there's been a remarkable development story, and it continues to unfold with complexity and dynamism. Asia's journey from postwar recovery to becoming a global epicenter for private wealth is nothing short of extraordinary, driven by demographic shifts, economic shifts, and regulatory changes that have defined and refined the private wealth landscape.

The catalyst was probably the aftermath of the Second World War, when much of Asia was devastated and uncertain. Countries in North Asia like Japan and South Korea faced reconstruction, and their response was one of real resilience and ambition. We're all familiar with the Japanese economic miracle from the fifties through the eighties.

R. Adam Smith: I actually did my thesis on that in college at Boston University — the rise of the Asian Tigers, the Japanese postwar recovery. But now Singapore is really at the forefront, isn't it?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: Singapore is absolutely at the forefront. When I started my career, Singapore was still something of a new frontier for private wealth management — places like New York, London, and Switzerland were where wealth was intermediated and managed, and capital was deployed. Singapore was still a frontier jurisdiction then. Now it's very much a hub — not just for Asia, but I'd say it's also attracting capital from Europe and the U.S. That's a remarkable success story, driven by a leader's vision and the implementation of policies, tax incentives, and regulations to build a sophisticated city-state with world-class infrastructure, rule of law, and a highly educated population.

R. Adam Smith: Super impressive. I'd recommend that global family offices interested in cross-border investing, FDI, or investing in Asia — or with family or businesses there — seriously consider Singapore, given the latest jurisdictional rulings and changes. As you said, the rule of law is very strong there, and it's friendlier from a jurisdictional and tax perspective.

Moving to the generational shift — you cover a lot of multi-generational family offices, with all the complexities in legal planning, governance, next gen, trusts and estates, generation-skipping trusts, wealth allocation, and succession dynamics. It's a heavy topic. What are some of the more enjoyable elements of advising these large, complex families?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: I think the enjoyable part is the opportunity to add value to families, who in turn add value to the communities in which they live and operate. That's the opportunity to take them from what you might call a "founder office" to a true family office.

A lot of the wealth created in the last 70, 80, even 100 years is relatively young compared to places like Europe and the U.S., so these families haven't gone through that intergenerational transition yet — and even the advisory networks and ecosystems around them haven't fully developed to support that either. The fun part is the education we can offer, the case studies and comparisons from other parts of the world, and the local exemplars too. It's not that the region is underserved or unsophisticated — there's just real diversity, and the opportunity is to help these founder offices evolve into sibling partnerships and cousin confederations. As with any family, there's fun and there's challenge — there's emotion and real excitement, but if not carefully managed, momentum can be lost and conflicts can arise.

R. Adam Smith: It's certainly complex — I've seen this myself planning for families in M&A, buying or selling assets, in my current role and previously in investment banking. The emotional and financial complexity of a sale filters through the entire family and can create conflict, tension, jealousy, ego, and pride. It's complicated — but the good news is that you, as lawyers, have to remain calm and get the work done anyway, which puts you in an essential position; sometimes things simply can't get done without you.

You mentioned "partnership" and "confederation" — interesting, because on this podcast we've had global experts like Christina Wing, Alfredo De Massis, and Tom Deans. When we discussed family dynamics, Alfredo De Massis referred to the ecosystem of the family enterprise using the word "galaxy" — this disparate federation of stars within a family, which captures just how complicated it can be. I'd encourage you to check out some of his recent discussions on that.

On the professionalization side — Dentons has one of the largest family office client bases in the world, and you've published a strong report on this. Can you talk about the shift from single-founder wealth to more process-driven wealth, and how that relates to human capital, external advice, intellectual capital, and professionalizing the family office?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: That's a really important part of the work we do, and frankly it's needed now — not just in Asia, but anywhere wealth has been created in the last generation. The big challenge is transitioning that wealth between generations successfully and with continuity. To me, the single most important factor in doing that successfully is family governance.

Governance is essentially a system — a system to regulate how a family makes decisions together, how it communicates, and how it solves problems. There are different models. Many Asian families are quite principal-directed, with the founder directing things — and there's nothing wrong with that; many families around the world operate very successfully that way. It's a legitimate system of governance, but not a sustainable one, because principals and founders eventually die or lose capacity.

To ensure sustainability, other governance systems need to be explored — family councils, family boards, outside directors to help make strategic decisions and manage disputes. There's no one-size-fits-all model; each governance structure needs to be customized for the family. But the broader point is that this is part of the major shift in the professionalization of family wealth — moving from a principal-directed, often reactive mindset to one with more democratized decision-making, even in how the benefits of wealth are shared.

Technology and the strategic use of external experts matter here too — first to define the family's objectives, then to fulfill them, and to stay current and adapt when needed. No governance or operational system should be static. That's really the essence of a lot of the work we do.

R. Adam Smith: These cross-border, global family enterprise projects can last many months or years — tax planning, generational transfer, charter development. On succession and next gen — I've been thinking the concept of "next gen" is sometimes oversimplified in the family office context, because it presumes the spotlight belongs on transitioning to the children — G2, G3, G4. But often the next gen doesn't want to take on the business, or isn't qualified, or both. I think it's important to look beyond succession itself, toward what's best for the company and what's best for the children — not necessarily keeping their money, job, and company intact, but maximizing the value of the company and the happiness of children who may not be involved in it at all. What are you seeing there?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: It's interesting — one of my heroes is Jay Hughes, and he avoids the term "next gen," calling it the "rising gen" instead. I quite like that term too, because it depends on the family's objectives. If a family wants to be a thousand-year family — and we do advise families like that — then the next generation is no more important than the generation after that, or the one after that.

R. Adam Smith: Well, they also have to have a lot of babies.

Henry Brandts-Giesen: Right. It's really about mapping the stakeholders at the beginning of a project — understanding who they are, mapping the power and expectations they each hold, and then working out how to guide the family through a process to agree on shared vision, values, and objectives. That deep discovery phase is really the first stage of any consulting project we do, before we even think about solutions.

The rising gen is really important — some will want to engage, others may not, and there will be generations beyond them not yet represented. We try to anticipate what they might expect from the family. One challenge is that, for better or worse, many entrepreneurs, founders, and wealth creators are very focused, driven, and controlling — often the secret of their success — so getting them to hand over the reins, or share a bit more information and power than they have in the past, can be a real challenge.

As people live longer, some of these founders are well into their eighties and nineties, while the "next gen," in the literal sense, may be in their forties and fifties — meaning this transition often hasn't even started yet. So we try to encourage early engagement between wealth creators and the rising gen, so we can plan well in advance of when it becomes truly necessary.

R. Adam Smith: I like that. Moving beyond financial capital to human capital and broader social capital — Jay Hughes and the Ultra-High-Net-Worth Institute talk about "total capital" or "family capital" quite successfully. Can you talk about family capital holistically — what that means intellectually, and the soft and hard power elements you see families navigating?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: This is one of the most important things we can add as advisors. One of the most profound shifts in my career, moving from traditional law into consulting, was realizing — something Jay Hughes really taught me — that family wealth isn't just financial capital, the money flowing from the business or investments. There are other qualitative forms: human capital, which is the education, development, and health of family members; social capital, the network of relationships within the family and externally; spiritual capital, the shared beliefs, purpose, and ethical principles guiding decision-making and family cohesion; and intellectual capital, the accumulated knowledge, expertise, and capability within the family.

Historically, lawyers and accountants driving this advice focused only on financial capital. We haven't had that broader mindset until people like Jay Hughes started writing about it — and many advisors and consultants still don't. We buy into the theory that financial capital is the fuel for these other, qualitative forms of family capital. It's obviously important, but it can't be sustained without proper planning for those other forms too.

R. Adam Smith: I love that. We've discussed that softer power on this podcast with guests like Emily Bouchard, Valerie Galinskaya from Merrill Lynch, Christina Wing, Richard Wolowitz, and Jim Grubman — that softer side really can't get lost in the shuffle.

Back to governance — you talk about fundamental questions that drive advice into family councils, charters, and advisory boards around decision-making, problem-solving, and communication. Can you walk through those fundamental questions, and give listeners some actionable principles for family governance?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: Every family has a system of governance, whether they realize it or not. One of the first things we do as consultants is map the stakeholders and how they decide, communicate, and solve problems. For many families, that system works for a time, but most will need it to evolve. Right now we're seeing a real global trend of families moving from principal-directed governance to systems that involve far more stakeholders.

One way we do that is by setting up governance bodies — family councils, family assemblies, family boards. These aren't strict terms of art, but in my practice we define very carefully how someone qualifies for each role and what's expected within it. They may be decision-making bodies around capital allocation or the exercise of power, advisory bodies, bodies with veto rights, or something like a judicial branch of the family.

The important thing is that the system is designed with the specific family in mind, in consultation with its stakeholders. It's easy to pull a playbook off the shelf and impose a system on a family, but that doesn't work in practice, and it shouldn't — each system needs to be genuinely unique to the family, even though there are patterns from other families that work well as exemplars. Ultimately, it comes down to answering those fundamental questions: do we have a transparent process that helps the family make decisions, communicate, and solve problems? If we can answer those three questions, there's a really good chance we can set the family up for intergenerational success.

R. Adam Smith: That's genuinely complex, and I'd encourage people to reach out to you on LinkedIn to discuss it. Is LinkedIn or email best for you?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: I'm pretty active on LinkedIn, so feel free to connect there. My email is also on the Dentons website — happy to exchange information and be of service.

R. Adam Smith: Back to family capital and generational transfer — the next generation, especially millennials, is much more interested in the softer side of wealth, including philanthropy, art, and impact. I often talk about the "social license" of the family office. Can you talk about how philanthropy and impact align with the legitimacy and longevity of a family office, and what you're seeing as systems evolve to incorporate philanthropy, art, venture capital, and passion investing?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: As we opened the discussion, this evolution of private wealth in Asia is highly impressive — it's lifted millions out of poverty and created extreme wealth in some cases, which is both encouraging and positive. But it's also important, if these families are to sustain themselves and retain social license, that they think beyond themselves — especially in a region greatly affected by wealth inequality, child poverty, declining public education and healthcare standards, fiscal deficits, climate change, aging populations, and environmental challenges.

These families are increasingly targeted by media, politicians, and even peers as being part of these problems rather than part of the solution. I think families need to start using their platform of privilege and access to help develop their communities and drive positive systemic change — and many are starting to realize that. Part of our role as advisors is giving them the tools to do so. Every family I advise cares deeply about their communities, but they often don't know how to have the most effective positive impact — so we connect them with the right resources and guide them through that process. That matters not just for doing the right thing, but for being seen to do the right thing. As the world grows more polarized, I think we'll need public-sector wealth and private capital to come together to solve these problems — neither can do it alone, and philanthropy is a big part of that.

R. Adam Smith: I actually run a charity around that exact topic — public-private sector partnership for a stronger economy, called Caring Capitalism. We can talk about that another time.

Let's wrap up on building multi-generational bridges and thinking of the family office as an essential societal organization — incorporating tech, AI, cybersecurity, and governance technology. Can you talk about the importance of professionalization for the industry?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: The term "family office" has proliferated, especially in Asia, driven partly by slick marketing campaigns and tax incentives, which has led to some mislabeling of what are essentially wealth management accounts as "family offices." That hasn't always been helpful and can be confusing. But the good news is that many of these accounts, or offices, are evolving quickly in response to the succession issues we discussed earlier, alongside a maturing advisory network — moving toward more professionalized structures that balance in-house functionality with strategically procured outsourcing, aiming to professionalize family governance, institutionalize family investment, and make wealth truly intergenerational.

Technology is a big enabler here, alongside governance as the most critical piece — whether through AI or consolidated reporting platforms that give a full landscape view of a family's wealth without requiring multiple custodian relationships. This can democratize wealth management to some extent, providing information and functionality that used to be available only through large institutions. I see wealth tech already evolving quickly, and it will be an important part of solving some of these governance challenges.

R. Adam Smith: Great to end on a positive note. I love how governance emerges as the pinnacle of making everything work sustainably, almost like a living thing that includes the whole family — children, lawyers, everyone. That can seem dry, though. Could you share a minute or two on the more human side of wealth, before we wrap up?

Henry Brandts-Giesen: That's the real privilege of working in this industry — we're dealing with humans. It's not like being an investment banker or private equity manager doing purely institutional work. We may be dealing with institutional sums of money and scale of wealth, but behind all of that is a warm-blooded person, or group of people, who live, breathe, and worry about the same things everyone else does.

Because of that, there's a direct connection to a human mindset and belief system. When you maintain that connection, you can make an impact quickly and positively — which isn't always the case within an institution, where there are many stakeholders and considerations at play. That's the great privilege of working in family offices: the ability to connect with the human beings behind the wealth, and the agility to make decisions quickly. The challenge is making sure those are good decisions — as the office or family grows, there needs to be enough process behind decision-making to keep it effective and consistent with defined values and objectives, without so much process that it corporatizes the family and diminishes that human element.

R. Adam Smith: Thank you so much for today, and for sharing more about Dentons — I'd encourage people to learn about the firm and your practice globally. Wonderful firm, and you're doing a great job. Really great to finally have you on the Family Business Audiocast.

Henry Brandts-Giesen: Thanks, Adam. Really glad we could make this work — I'm a big fan of the show, and I appreciate everything you do for our ecosystem.

R. Adam Smith: Thank you. I'd like to thank our esteemed guest, Henry Brandts-Giesen. This is R. Adam Smith, signing off. Please stay tuned for the next episode of the Family Business Audiocast.

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