Family Business Audiocast | Episode 59 | Emily Balentine Barbour

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R. Adam Smith: This is R. Adam Smith, creator of the Family Business Audiocast. I'm pleased to be joined today by Emily Valentine Barbour, Partner and Head of Client Engagement and Family Legacy at Valentine, a leading Atlanta-based wealth management firm. Great to have you today, Emily.

Emily Barbour: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

R. Adam Smith: I'll talk about you briefly, then we'll jump in. Emily oversees the client experience at Valentine and is passionate about helping families navigate the complexities of wealth and long-term legacy — a core theme of this podcast. She's been with the firm since 2010, shortly after its founding, and has served in many roles over the years leading up to her current leadership position, giving her firsthand insight into clients' needs, family governance situations, and the operational side of wealth management.

She's been instrumental in shaping the firm's white-glove, goals-based approach, ensuring clients not only protect and grow their wealth but align it with their personal and family values. Her experience spans entrepreneurs, multi-generational families, and legacy planning, making her uniquely positioned to discuss both the human and financial sides of family wealth. Ready to jump in?

Emily Barbour: I am ready.

R. Adam Smith: Let's start with the firm — one of the leading privately held wealth management firms in the country, serving hundreds of entrepreneurs and families. Tell us a bit about Valentine, its history, and what makes it unique.

Emily Barbour: We're an RIA based in Atlanta, Georgia. For some background, I'm the third generation working at the firm. My father and grandfather founded what was originally called Valentine and Company back in the late '80s, on the forefront of fee-only investment advice at the time. After growing it, they sold the firm to Wilmington Trust of Delaware. Around the financial crisis, my grandfather had passed, and my father and some partners decided they didn't want to be part of a big bank anymore — they wanted to be independent again, and committed to staying that way.

That was in 2010, the same year I joined the firm, when we relaunched as an RIA. We now have about $8.5 billion under advisement, with offices in Atlanta and Raleigh. As you said, we cater mainly to families and entrepreneurs, and it's been an exciting 16 years — we're in an exciting phase of growth right now.

R. Adam Smith: That's amazing. The firm's been recognized with several industry accolades — a top 50 fastest-growing RIA, Atlanta's Best Places to Work, Premier Advisor, and more. I can see the philosophy combines financial management with a deeper focus on soft power, legacy, and human capital. Would you describe the firm as a wealth management firm, a multi-family office, an OCIO, or some blend?

Emily Barbour: Primarily a wealth management firm — we do work with some family offices, but wealth management is our core.

R. Adam Smith: You started in relationship management over 15 years ago, and it's unique to have been part of building a wealth management firm that's also a family-held business — one that was brought back into the family fold, which is remarkable. Can you talk about what it's like working in a family-held firm, and how that shapes your ability to relate to clients and families navigating their own family values and enterprises?

Emily Barbour: My experience is unique in that a lot of people assume working for a family business means things get handed to you, or your path is already carved out. My experience has been almost the opposite — I've called it "reverse nepotism." When I joined, I had no background in finance — never even taken an economics class; I was a psychology major. I remember asking my dad, "Do you think you'd actually hire me?" I went through a rigorous interview process and started as an administrative assistant, moving through a lot of roles over the years.

It's been rewarding to see how, over 16 years, I've had to carve my own path — recently being made partner was a very proud, emotional moment. I'm the only one of three siblings involved in the business. Working alongside families and clients directly has naturally led me to this point. What's fun — and you touched on this — is that we believe the future of wealth management is family and legacy. This is actually a role that didn't exist at our firm a year ago. I play a bit of a dual role: I lead our client experience, and I also lead our family and legacy efforts. My own experience as a rising-gen family member, alongside walking beside clients going through similar things, has really shaped this path.

R. Adam Smith: I love that. Since the whole business is built on client relationships, the art of advising is becoming increasingly complex in this competitive wealth management and family office ecosystem. The most successful firms build trust, and while unique advice, products, and alternative investments matter, ultimately trust and brand are key. Given your firm's return to its family roots, can you talk about how you align advice with client values, and the core tenets of the client relationship?

Emily Barbour: One of the most fulfilling things about working in this business has been seeing my dad lead the company in a way that closely parallels how he's led our family. The same values he instilled in us growing up are the values we instill at work, and that we see in a lot of our clients.

It starts with the employee experience. My grandfather always said if you ask your clients, they'll tell you how to run your business — and I think the employee experience and client experience are so deeply intertwined. Recognizing our own value system before we start the work with families is essential. There's a quote from Roy Disney: "When your values are clear, your decisions are easy." We believe values are the natural starting point for this work — having employees and clients recognize what they believe and what matters to them helps guide every decision that follows.

R. Adam Smith: Carrying those values across more than one generation is genuinely hard, and quite unique for an organization to pull off — especially through the transition to G2 and G3. Let's talk about next gen. What are you seeing with your clients' next-generation members, especially in mid-size family businesses? We've discussed this with colleagues like Emily Bouchard, Elizabeth Bagger, Jamie Forbes, and Christina Wing — the hard power, soft power, the economic opportunity for next gen, but also their personal passions, which may differ from the family business itself.

Emily Barbour: Engagement is really key. There's so much focus on the leading generation and seeing things through their eyes — we talk a lot about seeing the world through another generation's perspective. Everyone's focused on next gen; it's practically an industry buzzword, but it really is important. They have to be willing to do the work — parents can say they want their children prepared and educated, but the next gen has to be willing to lean in themselves.

One area we've had a lot of success with is creating a rising-gen cohort. It's become a bit of our secret sauce as a firm — building a client community where we bring people together and learn from them, not just facilitate. We bring our experience and knowledge from other families, but we also let them learn from each other. Rising gen really values being able to connect with peers about things they say they can't talk about with their friends.

R. Adam Smith: Do you bring next-gen members from different client families together virtually or in person?

Emily Barbour: It started in person, at a multi-generational client retreat, where we'd break out into smaller cohorts by generation. A natural connection formed over those two intimate days, and we've built momentum off that. It's really hard to create that same intimacy virtually among people who've never met — so that in-person retreat was the starting point, and we've grown from there.

R. Adam Smith: On human capital — can you talk about the professionalization of family offices and larger family businesses, particularly around hiring external CEOs into the business or onto family office boards? Wealth creation obviously matters, but so does the continuity and excellence of the operating company that holds most of a family's wealth. What are you seeing, and what do you advise?

Emily Barbour: It's tricky — we talk a lot about "the business of the family" versus "the family business," and how, or whether, you can separate the two. One family we work with is interesting because, in a positive way, there's no successor within the family at all beyond board seats, now at the cousin level. They almost prefer it that way — it puts everyone on equal footing. We advise on this a lot, because it's genuinely tricky: you have to consider what's best for the business, not just what feels best for the family. There's a great book, Tug of War by Kathy Carroll — have you read it?

R. Adam Smith: I've heard of it, but haven't read it.

Emily Barbour: It's really good — it dives deep into family succession and how to navigate it.

R. Adam Smith: Let's come back to wealth management itself, and the firm's structure. How is Valentine organized — who does what, how large is the team, what are the core functions?

Emily Barbour: We have about 65 employees, and it's a very team-based company. Our compensation structure is intentionally built to reinforce that team atmosphere, which also helps when transitioning clients — it's not "I have a guy," it's "I have a team," and we want clients to belong to the firm, not to one individual. Our investment team is separate from our relationship management team, whose primary focus is taking care of clients while staying closely connected to investments. We have offices in Atlanta and Raleigh.

From a servicing perspective, we have two tiers of clients — our wealth management clients, and our multi-family-office-level clients. Part of my role on the client experience side has been ensuring a consistent, yet scalable, experience — not so customized that we can't scale, but not so cookie-cutter that it feels generic. We have the same core pillars across the firm: family and legacy, business advisory, private capital, investments, and wealth management. Depending on which tier a client is in, they still get the same pillars, just delivered differently.

One thing I'm especially proud of on the family and legacy side: what started as a bespoke offering for our top-tier clients, we realized everyone could benefit from. I partnered with — and I'm biased, but I think he's one of the best in the business — Mitzi Perdue... [Editor's note: name unclear in source audio, likely "Mitchell Perlman" or similar — recommend verifying] — a Family and Legacy Advisor, who came in not just to work directly with clients but to train our internal teams to do this work themselves. He can't be front and center with every client, so we've trained our internal staff to lead these conversations and family meetings themselves, so everyone gets some level of this across all our pillars.

R. Adam Smith: I believe I've heard of him — based in Texas, active in the Carolinas too, been in the space a while. Let's move to succession and stewardship. I'm curious where Valentine gets involved in governance, whether that's creation or mentoring, particularly around a major business sale, preparing for a sale, or transitioning the CEO role to next gen. We've discussed human capital and governance — board structure, charters, external advisors — but succession planning at the business level connects directly to multi-generational wealth, whether or not children are involved. What are you seeing, and what are the hotspots you advise on?

Emily Barbour: It's huge. Working with a lot of entrepreneurs, we have a business advisory offering that does exactly this — walking families through governance, helping structure what makes sense for everyone, and identifying the key parties who need to be involved. There's so much overlap between family legacy work and business advisory that we never want to be siloed — there's an orchestration needed around when to bring each piece in. And it all starts with values — understanding what all the stakeholders value, and what the actual goal is. It's not just putting governance in place; it's understanding the intentionality behind it.

R. Adam Smith: What about next gen's actual willingness to take over the business, versus wanting a more relaxed life — the millennial or Gen Z instinct to not work quite as hard and pursue something else?

Emily Barbour: Generalizing here, but there's sometimes a disconnect between the wealth creator and the next generation. At one of our retreats a couple of years ago, a father stood up and said, "Everybody in this room, we're all grinders." His son then stood up and said, "Dad, I don't want to be a grinder — I want to go home and see my wife and kids, and I'm so grateful that what you've built has given me that flexibility." There's a generational shift between the desire to "grind" and appreciating the flexibility the wealth creator's efforts have afforded them to find more balance.

R. Adam Smith: That also helps avoid a lot of the psychological and family tension, imposter syndrome, and ego — accepting children's right to make their own decisions as adults.

Emily Barbour: For sure. Not every parent is wired that way, and some of our work is helping them see that other perspective — because it may not match what mom or dad originally wanted.

R. Adam Smith: Let's move to legacy — a core theme of this podcast, and something we treat as very personal, with room for genuinely different definitions. From the family office client's perspective, how do you typically see families defining legacy, and how does your own firm — as an operating company itself — reflect on that?

Emily Barbour: My dad always says he knows a lot of people with a lot of money who don't have a legacy, and a lot of people without money who left an enormous legacy — like Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King. It's interesting: we tend to discuss legacy in terms of wealth, but it applies to everyone, and it's unique to each individual — you can't offer a cookie-cutter experience; you meet the client where they are.

We have a client right now working on a memoir, and it's genuinely the greatest experience of his life — he's having so much fun with it. We're helping another family build a three-generation foundation, engaging the third generation and helping them put governance and structure in place. It's about presenting a menu of options. We have another client who bought a lot of property in Texas and is building out a dream vision — what do they want it to look like while they're alive, and what does it look like once they're gone? It's all exciting, but deeply personal.

R. Adam Smith: And it's becoming a bigger issue as the next-gen community grows and wealth moves down through this "great wealth transfer" — though I think how much actually transfers to the children is often overestimated. There's a lot of wealth that will get created and moved out of the family entirely through company sales. Looking at the whole family ecosystem, where do you see that wealth going once it hits the family's and children's bank accounts? What are you recommending, and where do you see children going if they're not working in the core family business?

Emily Barbour: Philanthropy is a big part of it. We work with a lot of clients where the numbers may feel small now, and it's much easier to plan these things with two generations and a smaller balance sheet than once it multiplies. A lot of people already have the structures in place — the trust, the foundation — but they don't know how to actually engage with it or use it. So I think people will be looking to move money philanthropically.

Private investing is a big one too — we've discussed building educational programming for the next generation so they can learn how to evaluate and choose investments on their own, since I think they're getting approached by friends about deals, and some want to start their own ventures too.

R. Adam Smith: Agreed — venture capital, philanthropy, startups, and passion projects like art all seem very relevant. We have about ten minutes left — let's talk trends. There's such significant focus now on technology, cybersecurity, and using tech within operating companies to stay ahead — not just cybersecurity, but AI, CRM, and other tools. What kinds of clients do you cover, including technology companies, and what are you seeing at the operating level?

Emily Barbour: AI is huge right now. One of the best internal decisions we made a few years ago was hiring a "tech guy" who has the freedom to just build and create — he's developing agents, and it's transformed our own business. Talking to clients, there's a lot of focus, maybe even fear, about what the workforce looks like going forward.

R. Adam Smith: Right — what's my utility as a professional five or ten years out? Do I stay ahead, or sell the company and get out now, given how fast things are changing?

Emily Barbour: Exactly — even in forecasting hiring needs, will we need fewer people, will technology truly replace certain roles? There's a lot of uncertainty, but also a lot of efficiency that's come with AI.

R. Adam Smith: What is Valentine doing with AI internally?

Emily Barbour: Note-taking has been huge — if you've met one advisor, you've met them all; nobody likes manually entering notes into the system for compliance. I've actually been surprised by how little pushback we've gotten from clients — it's felt like a natural evolution, and people seem to understand it makes us better and smarter.

It's helped with customization too — we can go through 15 years of meeting notes and summarize not just who our clients are individually, but trends across the whole client base: what questions have clients been asking this quarter, which helps us create marketing content, or what kinds of events we should host based on client interest. I use it constantly for HR — job descriptions, reviews — and on the client side it's helping us with analytics on who our clients are and what they want. We've built relationship roadmaps using historical data to figure out what we should focus on over the next two years, without having to do it all manually like we used to. It's freeing up bandwidth for more thoughtful client engagement.

R. Adam Smith: Let's close with longer-term thinking. There's obvious value in tax-efficient, long-term capital and wealth creation, but also in thinking about lifetime client value for the firm, and long-term relationships across generations. Retaining clients in this industry is hard — it's fiercely competitive, with lots of firms after your clients. Talk about that longer-term thinking, and then let's wrap up on what makes your firm uniquely able to serve clients over the long haul.

Emily Barbour: You're right, they want the clients and the employees too. In a world where private equity is gobbling up so many RIAs, it's a genuinely different landscape for attracting both talent and clients right now.

R. Adam Smith: It's a complex question, because a client's long-term interest can be directly at odds with maximizing fees, transactions, or product sales — focusing too much on G1 and not enough on G2, lowering fees, moving beyond a simple SMA fee transaction toward custom services: introducing clients to alternative investment firms, offering coaching, human capital support, and other multi-family-office-style services rather than just an asset management product. That's really the evolution underway.

Emily Barbour: Right — going back to the "next generation" buzzword, engaging them is genuinely important. I'd also highlight the spouse — an underestimated retention tool. People often underestimate who the real decision-maker is, and it's frequently the woman. We actually have more women than men at our firm, and it's important sometimes to have a woman in the room to help read the cues and the dynamics.

Engaging the next generation is also an opportunity to engage our own next generation of advisors internally. We're sensitive to the fact that children don't always want the same advisor their parents have, so it's a great opportunity for our younger teams to build those relationships. Service offerings have to evolve too — the industry went from investment management to a commodity, then to financial planning, and now I think the next big thing, one that's here to stay, is family and legacy planning. I'd call it relationship "super glue." Clients are happy for us to keep growing their money, but if we can help their children, help their family, that's what creates a truly long-lasting client relationship.

R. Adam Smith: Right — which takes a more selfless, longer-term, caring approach to the client rather than a purely transactional asset management relationship. How do we add value to you as a client? That takes time and margin away in the short term, but I think that incremental work wealth managers and multi-family offices do is increasingly essential — and we're seeing it happen across the industry, which is great, because it's what clients genuinely need. It's a harder decision at the corporate level, since it's less immediately profitable, but as competition rises, these additional services become necessary to retain clients — without that soft touch, you'll likely see more turnover.

Emily Barbour: Right — and not to knock private-equity-backed firms, there's an advantage to not being beholden to investors trying to squeeze out margin, and being able to be thoughtful. But we do have to be thoughtful ourselves about scalability and profitability, offering these services broadly rather than only to certain clients. It'll be interesting to see how the industry evolves and what actually keeps clients long-term — does a full turnkey offering appeal more, versus our approach of focusing on our core areas and collaborating closely with a client's CPA or attorney, acting as the quarterback? More firms seem to be building in that fuller offering or partnering with others — it'll be interesting to see if that trend sticks.

R. Adam Smith: What one or two things do you think are going to become permanent fixtures in wealth management going forward?

Emily Barbour: I keep hearing demand for more education, and I don't know that anyone's fully solved it yet — building your own training program takes real time and effort, and it also depends on the next generation's own readiness and willingness to engage. But education is a big one.

And, as I've said, I'm firmly in the family legacy camp. From what I can tell, a lot of firms have it as a marketing checkbox, or maybe one person who handles it, but it doesn't feel woven into their DNA the way we've tried to make it — not a separate service offering, but part of every single client conversation.

R. Adam Smith: That's amazing. Thank you so much, Emily, for joining the Family Business Audiocast today — it's been wonderful having you as a guest. Today we covered the critical link between wealth and legacy, thoughtful client engagement, aligning people's values with financial strategy, and focusing on multi-generational impact, along with the importance of long-term client relationships. Thank you for sharing your journey, and congratulations to you and your family on the continuity of the firm — it's wonderful, and I look forward to working with you and talking more in the future. This is R. Adam Smith, signing off. Please stay tuned for the next episode of the Family Business Audiocast.

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