Stage one
Understand
We examine the firm's foundations, operating reality, decision-making, trust and authority, and find where strength still depends on a few individuals.
McK'sPrivateAdvisory
Increasing the long-term economic value of the private wealth firms we advise.
Competition has shifted.
Capability no longer defines the leaders.When every firm offers sound planning and capable advisors, capability stops being the reason a family chooses you.
"The firm may be operationally strong, but institutionally weak."
The next era belongs to the institution itself.
Trust that follows a person is a risk the firm carries.
Clients often trust an advisor rather than the institution. It holds until one of four moments arrives.
Growth
More clients and more advisors stretch standards that used to live in a founder's head.
Advisor turnover
When a senior advisor leaves, relationships built on the person can leave too.
Leadership change
New leaders inherit a firm whose authority sat with the people before them.
Wealth transfer
Heirs choose an institution they trust, not their parents' advisor.
The McK's System
A structured institutional transformation programme that moves critical sources of value from individual dependence into institutional capability.
Stage two
Redesign
Those strengths are deliberately translated into an architecture designed for the firm's future.
Stage three
Govern and evolve
Governance, leadership mechanisms, institutional standards and strategic oversight, embedded into daily operations so the design never drifts.
- ClarityEveryone describes what the firm stands for in the same words.
- ConsistencyA family gets the same firm, whichever advisor answers.
- InevitabilityChoosing you feels obvious, not compared.
- DisciplineStandards hold at the moments trust is won or lost.
- AuthorityThe firm's view carries weight beyond any one person.
- IntegrityWhat you promise and how you operate stay the same thing.
- ContinuityRelationships survive retirements and the next generation.
- AdaptabilityGovernance that keeps the design current as markets move.
How much of your firm's value belongs to the firm?
Eight questions, one for each pillar. Answer for the firm as it runs today. The lion fills as your institution does.
About two minutes. Your answers stay in this browser.
Keys 1 to 5 answer
Built to make the institution the source of strength.
"Ensure that the institution itself becomes a source of strength, capable of sustaining trust, attracting opportunity, and increasing the long-term economic value of the firm."
McK's Private Advisory was established to help leadership teams in private wealth management deliberately design and govern the institutions they lead. As firms grow, they come to depend on individuals rather than on the strength of the organisation. We work with established wealth firms to change that.
Mac GoundenFounder and lead strategist, Johannesburg
