Featured Advisory Board Member: Teresa Leigh
Featured member Teresa Leigh, founder of Teresa Leigh Home + Family Office, specializes in household risk management. She is featured in an upcoming webinar on Successful Hiring Practices and dives deep into that topic and more with UHNW Institute Podcast host Russ Haworth. Leigh shares her insight on the industry and impending changes she sees ahead.`
- As it pertains to UHNW client needs, what are the most significant trends you’re seeing now?
From my perspective, there are several trends prompting stress and challenges within our industry. One is the use of AI by candidates seeking family office and household employment to create dubious work histories and references. This ranks among the more complex problems our industry faces now and in the future.
Another is the slow disappearance of master craftsmen, artisans, and highly skilled technicians. From master carpenters to tile and flooring specialists to expert electricians and landscapers, so many of the gifted artisans and experts who provided exceptional quality and precision seem to be retiring without having someone with the same level of expertise and character ready to step in and fill their roles.
- Due to those needs, what are the biggest changes happening NOW within the industry, and how will they impact the families we serve?
There seems to be a shift to automate and accelerate several types of important services. Take the example of using an online database to vet a hire. We know from experience that this “button push” policy does not offer the accurate intel required to make a long-term safe hire, whether it is a candidate or a company. When we add the use of AI, as mentioned in my response to question one, we begin to see the danger of this trend.
My belief is that when we bring these concerns to light, our responsibility is to swiftly provide viable solutions and continued education without bias.
- Keep looking into your crystal ball. How will the wealth management industry be disrupted, or how do you envision this industry will be disrupted?
That disruption is happening now. In order to stay ahead of the competition and to provide enhanced value to their services, wealth management firms are desperately seeking unparalleled expert lifestyle advisors for their clients. This is one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish because so much is at stake with the client relationship. How do wealth managers find empathetic, profoundly client-focused advisors who provide hands-on, personalized services that consistently deliver beyond expectations? The Institute could make these connections easier through research and continued education.
- How can the Institute support the pending industry changes rather than be blindsided by them?
Education is the key to transcending the issues our industry faces. In my work, I’m in a unique position to discern how the personal lives and the business lives of clients intersect. The Institute can provide a high standard of education that allows wealth managers and advisers to serve as a bridge between all aspects of clients’ lives. Those who work with UHNW clients need access to educational opportunities that deliver expertise and insight that far exceed the norm.
In regard to the issues expressed earlier, wealth managers need to know, among other things, where to seek talented artisans, technicians, and other qualified candidates in a variety of fields, what to look for, how to cultivate relationships with those who oversee apprenticeship programs, how to thoroughly vet applicants when online databases aren’t reliable, and how to research each specific field to find the best.
- When looking for talent, what are the three key traits you look for?
Narrowing down the plethora of skills and traits we seek to only three presents quite a challenge. Those that top my list are authenticity, substantial problem-solving abilities, and consistency of skill and personality.
Authenticity: If someone is being disingenuous in an interview, they aren’t likely to behave with integrity, honor, and honesty in their work positions. Our clients deserve the best, so authenticity is crucial.
Problem-solving abilities: Many diverse challenges and problematic situations arise in the lives of UHNW clients, and new hires need to be able to rise to the occasion, to weigh options, and to address issues with effective measures and well thought out solutions.
Consistency of skill and personality: Aptitude and experience provide clients with superlative assistance, so I definitely only hire someone with outstanding skill levels, but consistency of personality is equally important. I look for the qualities of loyalty, dependability, steadfastness, levelheadedness, thoughtfulness, discretion, and discernment.
- What mistakes regarding hiring do you find firms or families make that can be easily avoided?
Six problematic factors stand out. Whether hiring for a family office or a household property position, the most frequent issues that arise stem from placing too great a value on the candidate’s likability, the absence of a well-defined job description with the required skill sets, not taking the time to speak with authentic work references, not knowing the specific or revealing questions to ask, hiring too quickly or out of desperation, and underestimating a candidate’s ability to hide mental illness.
- Share a time you/your firm ‘missed the mark’ or failed, and what did you learn from it?
When I first started my firm, vetting candidates and service providers was simpler and to a large degree done by personal referral with never more than two to three degrees of separation. Vetting today takes more time and expertise. I can remember a case years ago when we were advising a newly made UHNW client regarding a Chief of Staff role and almost let something fall through the cracks. We had interviewed our top candidate at least five times. They passed the skill testing, and by all accounts the references we contacted were good. But something kept nagging at me to reinterview their references one more time and go deeper, this time asking them to let us speak to other employees who had worked with this candidate. That’s when we discovered the real reason this applicant had left their most recent employment. The time we spent researching and cross-referencing their work history again and again saved the client and us from a potentially bad hire.
- Why did you join the Institute?
When I was asked to join the Institute, I knew doing so would offer opportunities to explore my passion for research and education. Through the years, I’ve had numerous speaking engagements with groups who valued the expertise and insight that come with decades of experience in this field. My own mission in many ways blends seamlessly with the Institute’s, and my work aligns with our shared vision.
- Share one fun or interesting fact about yourself that few people know.
I am a lifelong horse person, and a few years ago I bought a young blue roan mustang from a cowboy in Texas. Little did I know at the time, but this mustang turned out to be an incredibly smart horse. After realizing that, I found mentors to guide me in how to work with him. After extensive training and with a lot of patience, he is able to understand and execute close to 150 commands, and I am now an amateur trick horse trainer.
