Welcome to the Family Office podcast. In this episode recorded live at our Beverly
Hills Investor Club Summit, we explore how family offices think, their structure,
strategy, and communication methods that actually work. Hear how top investors build
relationships, evaluate deals, and create value through trust and collaboration. Let's
get started.
Very excited about this. My name's John Milanovic. I'm a director here at the Family
Office Club. This is panel number two, the family office focus, structure,
strategies, and communication that works today. We have a great panel. I'd like to
introduce them to you. And perhaps they can make a quick introduction.
And most importantly right now, is if please add, is there a topic or an investment
that you're looking for that would be something that you'd want to take with you
from this event. We act as an outsourced multi -family office for smaller to medium
-sized families that are pre -liquity event. So a lot of what we focus on is the
estate planning, succession, and wealth transfer space.
I specialize in something called private placement life insurance, very crypto
friendly. So we're seeing a lot of interest from family offices in the crypto space.
And utilizing a PPL policy allows those investments to potentially be made in a tax
deferred environment.
Great, thank you. Good afternoon. I wear two hats with different constituencies.
One is as director of Colton Alexander, which is an investment bank focused on
sustainable energy, sustainable materials, and sustainable transportation. So our
clients, our companies. In turn, I am also CEO and COO,
a validation world, which develops models for investors again in these three areas,
sustainable energy, materials, and transportation. For our clients, in that respect,
are going to be investors.
be of interest to someone else that I represent. The best way to contact me,
if you have a pitch deck, in addition to reaching out to me while I'm here at the
conference, would also be through my LinkedIn profile with the web link where it
asks if you have a web link, I have a link to my intake. So you're welcome to
fill out the survey and update your pitch deck there. As far as interests,
particularly speaking on behalf of my family, very interested in the AI space and
tech development there. I'm involved in many different work groups, thought leadership
groups, as well as investing groups, and I'm directly invested in multiple enterprises
in this space. Those of you who had the benefit of listening to the wonderful
fireside chat this morning, you heard that there's a call to action right now for
all of us to pay attention to that technology, also interested in fusion, blockchain,
crypto, and agnostic with respect to other industries. Thank you. Hi,
everyone. I'm the co -founder of Core Family Office, Tax Family Office, and a couple
of other family offices. Just like Steve and I wear a lot of hats. We started this
business in 2017 and since inception we've actually built out nine portfolio companies
which have built out our ecosystem to service our clients. We look at every single
industry. We're a part of a few boards for a couple of startups right now that are
in the ESG space, climate tech, ag tech, blue tech, green tech,
you name it. We're pretty much in it, sustainable data centers. We're looking at
them across the globe right now. We're looking for PPAs with a lot of governments.
We're in talks with 22 different countries currently. That's pretty much my, I guess,
sweet spot right now. Wow. You know, a lot of the time that we talk with the new
members were like you should add value first before reaching out, you know,
add value first to the potential prospect, it helps develop that relationship and
helps you get your deal to the next step. So what does that look like? How does
someone add value, how would someone add value first to you? And do you have any
examples of like someone who's been successful with you doing just that?
Well, one, I think it would be don't pitch too hard because that gets annoying
after a while. The other thing is, show me what you actually have, what you're
actually passionate about. That's what drives core family office to want to actually
work with you, is your integrity, your transparency, and the value that you bring in
your honesty.
If I may weigh in, I also agree, I think relationship building is so critical and
why attending events like this, the high caliber right events are very important
because I have people that I have not yet done a deal with that I've spoken to
for years, and I would love to find a deal that we can collaborate on because I've
started building this relationship, so we're just waiting for the right deal. And
then there are the people that I'm meeting and enjoying to get to know them. And
it works both ways. If you're an investor, you still want to cultivate those
relationships because we want to make money and we want to meet others and we want
to co -invest with others and we want to be part of exciting projects. So definitely
build those relationships. We're looking for subject matter specialists and experts,
because the area that we focus on is ever -changing and has levels of complexity,
but we need to speak to people that really have a sense of what the subject matter
is. And when we talk to someone that has that kind of expertise, it creates the
opportunities for synergies that otherwise wouldn't be. It's not merely a question of
business, it's a question almost of figuring out where the business is in terms of
what the subject matter is and how it has commercial likes and to do that we need
to see need to talk to folks and have a sense of the full picture somebody on one
of the earlier panels said that there's just you know deal flow is everywhere I
think it goes back to And I think a lot of people in the room need to remember
that there's always somebody more successful and there's already somebody wealthier
than you. So when you're sitting down with anybody, don't try to prove something in
the first five minutes. I think, you know, it's based on relationships. I don't like
you. I'm going to pick up and try to figure out how to go get a cocktail. I
mean, at the end of the day, you know, if I sit down and enjoy talking to you,
we may never get to the opportunity that we're talking about in the first
conversation, but I guarantee you we will in the second, third, and fourth. And so,
you know, for me, you know, the Rolodex is large, but, and I'm happy to add some
people to the Rolodex, but it's got to be specific in terms of why I'm adding to
the Rolodex. And there's a number of my colleagues in here that I see around town.
And, you know, this is an amazing room that you guys have built. Thank you. That's
great.
Thanks for joining us. In our next episode, we'll look at how family offices pass
those values forward, bridging generations, building legacy, and teaching the next
generation to lead with purpose. Stay tuned.