Febert & Associates – Firm Profile
F&A is managed by its founder, John Febert, a CPA with over 30 years’ experience working with both dedicated single and multi-family offices. We have developed a comprehensive service offering that incorporates the best practices from both dedicated single and multi-family offices. We are committed to developing long-term relationships with our clients based on trust, outstanding compliance and planning, and a level of personal service unmatched in the industry.
“Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” is a traditional saying that reflects the failure rate in wealth transitions to future generations. 70% of wealth transfers between generations fail. The failure rate increases to approximately 90% when you consider the subsequent transfers from the second to third generations. 60% of these failures are attributable to a breakdown of communication and trust among family members, 25% are attributable to inadequately prepared heirs, and 15% are attributable to all other concerns including income tax and estate planning¹. Our family office services are designed to overcome these obstacles and increase the odds of a successful wealth transition for our clients.
Families often bring a myriad of concerns to the table, and we look forward to working with them and their trusted advisors in developing a comprehensive, holistic plan that coordinates the income tax, insurance, cash flow, estate tax, and budgeting into one integrated plan.
We offer an “a la carte” menu of services that includes:
- CFO services
- Bookkeeping & Accounting services
- Income tax compliance and planning
- Bill paying
- Family meetings
- Estate planning
Clients can choose one, several or all of the above services. To the extent clients already have relationships with long-term trusted advisors that provide some of the above services, we complete the client’s advisory team by assuming responsibility for the functions not handled by the other advisors. We have had great success in working closely with clients’ current advisors in developing integrated financial plans using a team approach.
Our ability to serve as a family’s outsourced CFO is one of our most significant value-added services. A family’s net worth often exceeds the value of its family business, but many times only the family business has a CFO. The family’s integrated wealth plan is often left in the hands of a group of advisors who don’t always communicate effectively with the family and with one another. Other times, the family’s integrated wealth plan is left in the hands of the family business CFO who might not be able to devote the time necessary because of his or her other responsibilities and commitments. We will treat your family’s net worth and your wealth transition to future generations as a business, and we will give it the attention that it needs and deserves.
Our compensation is typically structured as a monthly fee based on the family office services selected and the amount of time spent on each account. We will periodically review our fees with our clients to insure that it is a fair arrangement for both parties. The clients are able to add or delete services at any time with a corresponding adjustment to the fee.
(1) Preparing Heirs, Roy Williams & Vic Preisser (2003)