by: George Brown

There is no single person that can claim credit for the creation of Prestige Family Office University.  The University is a compilation of the research performed to analyze and report on the best practices applied by many specialists in the law, business, finance, accounting, risk management, wealth management, family relationships and succession, and other matters that affect the daily lives of Christian families who operate one or more business enterprises.

The curriculum of PFU is a result of research performed on the practices of hundreds of specialists who serve family offices, sprinkled with actual experience by dozens of such specialists who often work as team members in dealing with myriad problems faced by family offices.

Just between Dan Dougherty and me we have 100 years of connections with people in virtually every aspect of family-owned businesses.  We’ve made all the mistakes and have learned from most of them.  So we know when a specialist has a good solution.  Technology is introducing new solutions every day.  In the past few years AI has taken over the industry, and most family businesses are still falling short.  That should be our next school.

The fundamental source for wisdom, governance and practice that is common among the Christian families and those serving these families is The Holy Bible.  This is the Standard Operating Procedures Manual inspired by God.  As you will see, PFU utilizes this SOP throughout the curriculum, embellished by other man-made SOP’s directed at specific circumstances, but still based on God’s SOP.

An important part of the curriculum is the case study.  These are the “Before and After” circumstances with which most families have to handle.  Most families actually live in the “Before” and therefore the “After” is disruption at the very least, and family break-up in the worst case.  Every one of our “specialists” has dealt with their own failures.  Some have had a minor effect, others have been catastrophic.  If you haven’t failed, you haven’t tried anything, so say most of them. They’ve learned from them   What’s important is that they all are first accountable to God, then to family, clients and other stakeholders.  The message here is that PFU will help people learn and to forecast the consequences of bad decisions, without having to experience the negative results.

On a personal basis, I feel that the work I am doing in organizing PFU is inspired by God. I have no other reason for a 92 year old man to do this.  I label it as my legacy, following 70 years in engineering, manufacturing, marketing, banking, wealth management, charitable planning, estate and trust planning, insurance, serving families and family offices. Serving in the US Naval Reserve as an officer, sailing aboard naval and merchant vessels to various ports around the world, owning half a dozen different single engine airplanes for business and pleasure, cruising Chesapeake Bay under power and sail, operating a fleet of 21 cruising rental houseboats in NJ, MD and FL, all these things, and being saved by Jesus Christ on August 8, 1992 at the age of 58, all contributed one way or another to who I am and what I do. My preference is to not be very visible to the public and students, and to give prominence, if at all, to younger members of the team.

Over a year ago one of my estate planning and business consulting clients asked me if I would help him establish and run a family office for him.  I asked him if he knew what that meant?  He said he did not, and asked me to write up a plan.  It turned out to be a 698 Standard Operating Procedures Manual.  Having it in hand, I didn’t know what to do with it. People had many suggestions, but the best was that I could use it to train others.  What then started out as an online course rapidly turned into a “university”.  That’s how PFU got started.  With the assistance and inspiration from ChatGPT, we now have a polished curriculum.  I was very encouraged along the way by my partner in Prestige Strategies LLC Virtual Family Office Service, Dan Dougherty, and also by my good friend Dr. Charles Travis, Founder of Aidan University, a Christian Institution.  Also Dr. Jonathan Smith encouraged me.  He is President of Aidan and he agreed that Aidan will offer to qualified students at PFU the opportunity to apply credits toward Bachelor, Masters, and Doctorate Degrees.