WHAT’S UP
The week, distilled
UHNWI
Four years, six heirs, and a €10 billion buyout to settle what Leonardo Del Vecchio left unresolved. With Leonardo Maria now emerging as Delfin's dominant shareholder, the succession is closing. The governance paralysis, hopefully, with it.
#familybusiness #succession #legacy #nextgen
WEALTH MANAGEMENT
Ocorian's 2026 Global Family Office Report maps a sector navigating geopolitical fractures, succession tension, and the AI imperative, while quietly grappling with a question no governance framework can fully resolve: what happens when wealth outlives its founder's vision?
#familyoffice #industryshifts #specialistservices
WEALTH MANAGEMENT
Family offices manage billions but often can't answer basic questions about their own cybersecurity, and two industry veterans have decided that a nonprofit, not a consultancy, is the only structure with enough trust to actually fix that.
#familyoffice #cybersecurity #iconiq
INVESTMENT
When Apollo Sports Capital writes a $225 million check, it's not betting on a trend, it's declaring it over. Pickleball is now the fourth most-played sport in America, and at a $750 million valuation, the only thing still surprising is that anyone is still surprised.
#sportinvestment #pickleball #privateequity
INVESTMENT
The dot-com names are back. Intel, Dell, Cisco, Western Digital: stocks that spent two decades recovering from the 2000 crash are now breaking all-time highs, powered not by irrational exuberance but by the one thing AI can't run without, infrastructure..
#techinvesting #liquidmarkets #equities #techinfrastructure
COLLECTIBLES
A museum in deficit doesn't usually hire an economist, it cuts costs. Whitechapel is doing the opposite, betting that the deeper problem isn't the budget, but a cultural narrative that treats art as expenditure rather than public investment.
#assetclass #artmarket #artgallery
WHAT’S THAT
This week’s visual clue.
USB - Global Next Generation Report 2026
$83 trillion is already in motion, and UBS's report makes clear that the families navigating it best aren't the ones with the sharpest legal structures, but the ones that started talking earliest.
Responsibility transfers before assets do: nextgen members are drawn into governance, investment meetings, and business decisions long before any formal handover, and those who begin these conversations in childhood or adolescence tend to experience markedly smoother transitions. The families that struggle are those still treating wealth transfer as a single event rather than a decades-long dialogue.
The generation stepping into stewardship is globally mobile, institutionally minded, and quietly reshaping investment priorities from the inside (nearly half are building exposure to sustainability and impact). But what the report ultimately reveals is a deeper tension: how to honour a legacy you didn't build while forging an identity that's genuinely your own.
WHAT’S ON
This week’s pick of entertainment
ATTEND
FRIEZE New York
May 13th - 17th
New York, NY, USA
Frieze New York turns 15 at The Shed and its defining statement is geographic: Latin American art takes center stage across both the main galleries and the Focus section, a recognition that what was once a niche market has become structurally central to the contemporary canon. Beyond the booths, partnerships with the Whitney, Dia, and Counterpublic push the fair into the city itself.
LISTEN
Inheritance: Samsung
BBC Podcast
From fruit stall to global empire, and then, inevitably, to the boardroom as battlefield. Samsung's succession story has everything: a dynasty built on ambition, an heir thrust into the spotlight by his father's failing health, and a scandal so large it brought down a South Korean president. The BBC's new 10-part series is a reminder that behind every world-changing company, there's a family trying not to destroy itself in the process.
WHAT ELSE
Wealth, off duty.
The Rothschild Dynasty Survived Wars and Crises. Will the Epstein Files Tear It Apart? - WALL STREET JOURNAL
The remarkable revival of eBay - THE ECONOMIST
The martini is making a comeback - THE SPECTATOR
Why Almost Everyone Loses, Except a Few Sharks, on Prediction Markets - WALL STREET JOURNAL
Paulin, Paulin, Paulin Revolutionized Furniture. Music Is Next. - HIGH SNOBIETY
