Leaders List interview: 60 seconds with Annamaria Koerling

Date: 13 Mar 2024

Ashleigh John

This week’s 60-second piece is dedicated to Annamaria Koerling, Managing Partner of Delfin Private Office.

Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.

I am Managing Partner of Delfin Private Office. We are an FCA regulated, independent owner managed business which advises families and their family offices on governance, investment and operational matters. We have an established track record not just of giving unbiased advice of the highest standard
but delivering practical solutions with efficiency and pragmatism.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Our client base is international and diverse, which means that every day is different. It can range from reviewing investment portfolios and managers to discussing the potential sale of a family business or who should serve on a client’s protectorate board or investment committee. I could be in Hong Kong one week and Cayman Islands the next. There is no one single family office model out there and no standard
solutions. Our role is to bring our expertise but ensure that we listen and design models that fit the clients not the reverse. The good thing is that several team members have worked in family offices and they understand how different it can feel from the inside and how to ensure that our recommendations work in practice.

Tell us about some recent, interesting client instructions you have received.

We have helped a couple of clients redesign and redomicile their family offices to different jurisdictions recently. These were particularly challenging as you are working with teams of advisors in different jurisdictions and dealing with potentially conflicting interests. It is like solving a puzzle, you have to try different pieces in different positions until you get to something that works. It is hugely rewarding when you see it working well and both of them are now running smoothly. We also have acted as expert witnesses helping to deal with disagreements, where you really have to combine technical expertise with an understanding of what is likely to be acceptable to different parties. We offered some creative solutions which helped the different parties to arrive at a compromise.

What challenges do your clients face and how are you helping your clients to overcome them?

Family wealth creators generally want to pass on at least some of their wealth to future generations while at the same time achieving the dual goal of protecting their descendants while spurring them on to contribute in a positive way to the family P&L of the future. This is a tricky tightrope to walk and families often find that the enemy from within can be more destabilising to the long-term health of the family wealth than external factors. We work with them to develop a plan and put in guardrails in the form of family governance to maximise the chances of them achieving their goals.

What is your proudest professional achievement?

This is difficult to say. There have been many professional milestones over the years from navigating the GFC where we crammed 10 years of experience and stress into one year, to stewarding wealth management at C Hoare & Co. to be a high performing business trusted by its clients to do the right thing. I would have to say that creating a family office ecosystem of services through Delfin which help
families achieve resilience and thrive into the next generation and beyond has been the most rewarding.

What do you consider to be the most important attributes for a leader?

The best leaders are the ones that aim to build a healthy business that flourishes without their constant intervention and recognise that it is not about them. As one family office leader said to a new appointed CEO, congratulations and who is your successor? This is something we should always have front and centre of our minds.

Who do you most admire and why?

I admire those with the ability to inspire others and also to reinvent themselves. Life throws you curve balls that you don’t expect and I admire those who don’t let circumstances define them. My parents lived through the 2nd World War, they had to adapt and rethink life. They did it without bitterness and with eternal optimism, something that inspires me and for which I will always be thankful.

Where was the last place you travelled to for work or pleasure?

I have just returned from a business trip to Hong Kong and even though Beijing has tightened its grip on HK in recent years, there is not disputing that Hong Kong is still a global financial hub and the feeling that everything is possible is still tangible. I love being exposed to different cultures and learning from all of them. It is one of the great privileges of my job.

If you weren’t in this industry, what else might you be doing?

I love the problem solving aspect of my role. My daughter has just embarked on a career in tax and this is what she says she enjoys too. If I weren’t in this industry, I would be looking for something which combines the science of the job in my case investing with the art of communicating and understanding human motivations. One of my great passions is travelling and being exposed to different cultures, who
knows I might have been a travel writer or an anthropologist!

How do you relax after a long day?

I always have a book or two on the go. Audiobooks are great as you can listen to them on the go. My daughters and I always share our audiobooks and spark off each other in this. We also have regular Zoom dates to do the Times crossword or cook a recipe together. We started this when we were separated during Covid and still do this as we are often in different countries. There is nothing more calming than rituals like this with close family and friends.

You can view Annamaria’s profile on the Leaders List here.