Advising the 100Fold CFO

A Thought Experiment and Seven Questions for the Charitable Family Officer Advisor

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David A. Sims, JD PhD AIF® CKA®
Ordinary Time, September 24, 2024

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Imagine this.

You’re the trusted gatekeeping advisor to two billionaires.[1] All advice and all other advisors, whether lawyers or accountants or investment and wealth managers or insurance agents, only get through your client’s gate by going through you.

Why? Because your client trusts you, and you’ve genuinely earned their trust. That’s a good feeling and a good thing. It’s just about the highest level of fiduciary responsibility there is.

Imagine also that you’re a genuine Christian. Born again. Blood-washed, Jesus-and-the-gospel centered, faith-driven, passionate about doing your part in expanding God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. You take the Bible seriously. You see it as God’s Word inscripturated (i.e., written) by the Holy Spirit through holy men centuries ago. You love God, your neighbor, and your siblings in Christ.

For you, the Bible bears authoritative and final witness to God’s Word incarnated, Jesus Christ, the uniquely begotten Beloved Son in whom God is ultimately well-pleased. It shows you the path to follow in life to true worship of God (what biblical theologians call “orthodoxy”) and to true love of neighbor as oneself (what biblical theologians call “orthopraxy” or “orthopraxis”). You know the Bible says that you can’t have one without the other. You cannot say you love Jesus and not do what he says, in other words. You know that it’s impossible say that God’s love abides in you if you “have the world’s goods” and see your “brother in need” but close your “heart against him.” You know you must love in both “deed and truth” and not just “with word or with tongue” (1 Jn 3:16-17).

Right?

Now imagine that one of your billionaire clients is a believer in Jesus and the gospel of his death, burial, and bodily life after bodily death and the other is a non-believer. And let’s say each of them ask you, their most trusted advisor, the following question: “If you had my money, what would you do?”

What do you think of this response?

If I had your money, I wouldn’t be talking to you, or anybody else. I’d build a castle on an island with a moat and make sure I was left alone. That would be the ideal lifestyle for me. But that might make you miserable, so let’s focus on your life and the outcomes you want to achieve. It doesn’t matter what I would do. What really matters is what’s best for you, your family, and your business. So let’s talk through how each of the different possibilities affects your life. Then you’ll be able to choose the possibility that will work best for what you want to achieve.[2]

I’m guessing you’re thinking what I’m thinking: “That’s not what the Bible would counsel me to say. And I certainly wouldn’t express my vision, freedom, and responsibility for such wealth like that!”

But here are a few questions for us trusted gatekeeping advisors to ponder:

  1. What vision do you have for your life, whether you have that wealth or not?
  2. What would you do with the freedom and responsibility that comes wich such wealth?
  3. What does the Bible counsel me to say in response to such a question?
  4. Does the Bible counsel me to say one thing to the believer and another to the non-believer? If so, why? And where? What texts would you use?
  5. What response would please God most?
  6. How would Jesus respond?
  7. What is my greatest risk as a Christian advisor in getting the answer wrong?

My next essay explores answers to these questions from Scripture with Jesus and the gospel in view as the sun in the solar system of life.

Ora et labora, brothers and sisters advising the wealthy!

 

[1] Or, say, to someone who has a 9, or an 8, or a 7 figure net worth. In relative terms, High Net Worth persons or couples (HNW) have between $1M and $10M of liquid or investable net worth. Very-High Net Worth persons or couples (VHNW) have between $10M and $30M of liquid or investable net worth.  Ultra-High Net Worth persons or couples (UHNW) have over $3OM of liquid or investable assets. Opinions vary regarding billionaires, but obviously to be a billionaire you have at least a net worth of $1B (combined of both liquid such as cash and investments and illiquid assets such as real estate). Billionaires are described variously as “Super Rich” or “Uber Net Worth” (UNW) planetary inhabitants. In the United States, they are esteemed as integral members of the American upper class, the American elite. According to the last count by Forbes, “there are a mere 735 billionaires in the U.S. The millionaires are more plentiful—almost 22 million.” https://www.forbes.com/advisor/retirement/how-many-billionaires-and-millionaires-live-in-the-u-s/.
[2] This is precisely the advice that the self-proclaimed and self-aggrandizing “Expert Private Wealth Advisor P. J. DiNuzzo” commends in his book, The DiNuzzo “Middle-Market Family Office” Breakthrough: Creating Strategic Tax, Risk, Cash-Flow, and Lifestyle Options for Successful Privately-Held Business Owners and Affluent Families (New York: Morgan James Publishing, 2022 Kindle Edition), 59.