The following article on family offices and art investments is by Randall Willette, who is managing director, Fine Art Wealth Management, a specialist firm in the sector.
The following article on family offices and art investments
is by Randall Willette, who is managing director, Fine Art Wealth
Management, a specialist firm in the sector. He is also a member
of the editorial advisory board of this publication and has
written several articles about these issues in recent years.
Recent trends point toward increased and continued exposure to
direct investments in art particularly among family
offices. Since 2009, family offices have become
significantly more interested in making direct investments
following the profound impact of the economic crisis.
According to studies carried out by Wharton Family Office
Alliance, a unit of the University of Pennsylvania”s Wharton
School in Philadelphia that focuses on wealthy families and their
businesses, families have almost doubled their investment
allocations to direct investments in companies and property.
More recently, this trend has extended to art supported by
the latest Art & Finance Report just released by
Deloitte/ArtTactic. In a survey of wealth management
professionals 53 per cent stated that the challenging economic
environment has been the main motivation for their clients to
include art in their overall wealth portfolio in 2012 (up from 28
per cent in 2011). A large majority (60 per cent) of wealth
managers believe this trend will continue even stronger in the
future.
