Citywealth Leaders List, 60 seconds interview – Kim Kamin, Gresham Partners LLC, Chicago
This week’s 60 seconds Citywealth Leaders List interview is dedicated to Kim Kamin, Chief Wealth Strategist, Gresham Partners LLC, Chicago.
Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.
Gresham Partners is an independent boutique wealth management firm that for almost 30 years has been serving ultra-high-net-worth families, (primarily US-based,) as their multi-family office. We now have a team of more than 80 professionals supporting approximately 130 families and managing more than US$13 billion on their behalf. As the firm’s Chief Wealth Strategist, my role is to lead wealth planning services across four areas: (i) estate planning, (ii) trust and estate administration, (iii) philanthropy, and (iv) family learning and RisingGen engagement.
What does a typical day look like?
There really is no typical day. I tend to be on the road for work about 20 or more weeks of the year. With clients across the country, a full speaking and teaching schedule, and a range of other industry commitments, it often feels like every hour of every day is new. That variety is one of the things I most enjoy.
What challenges do your clients face and how are you helping them to overcome them?
Many first-generation wealth creators face the challenge: of navigating the mark they want to leave on the world and what they want their legacy to be. After selling a business they have to decide how they want to spend their time and resources (and sometimes they learn that lightning won’t strike twice). A recurring tension is the desire to make their descendants’ lives easier while not wanting to deprive them of the independence, purpose and sense of accomplishment that can come from making one’s own way.
We help families think through how to structure wealth transfers that can enhance well-being without discouraging individual motivation across generations. The goal is for inherited wealth to enable individual achievement and promote the family’s philanthropic objectives. A common theme in my work is encouraging clients to preserve flexibility for an uncertain future and empower future generations to live their own lives and pursue their own dreams. These conversations often lead wealth creators toward structures
that give future generations room to define success for themselves.
Are there any top-of-mind themes?
A few themes right now. Here are two of them: Premarital Planning, Nuptial Agreements and New Spouse Onboarding. I’ve been very focused on the tensions inherent in premarital planning. On one side the desire to encourage marriages that are true partnerships and built to endure. On the other a family’s understandable wish to protect family assets in the event of a future divorce. Getting that balance right can be challenging.
Estrangement and Disinheritance. Another theme I’ve been researching and writing about is disinheritance. I’m concerned by the levels of family estrangement on the rise and questions about whether the estate- planning process always includes sufficient safeguards before an irrevocable decision is made to disinherit a child. I am co-authoring an article coming out this fall that includes a suggested Disinheritance Checklist for attorneys, a practical tool designed to encourage a thoughtful and well-documented process before drafting instruments that disinherit children.
What is your proudest professional achievement?
My proudest moments come in two forms. The first from feedback when a client tells me that something in their life is meaningfully better because of the work we did together. Or when a former student or junior colleague, tells me that I made a difference in their career or their life. I know my life is short and my scope is limited, so the ability to have a lasting positive impact on the people around me is what I care about most.
What do you consider to be the most important attributes for a leader?
Honesty, integrity, clarity, authenticity, transparency and genuine care for people. Beyond those foundational qualities, I think the best leaders set clear expectations, establish ambitious stretch goals, find the right balance between delegation and close support and genuinely care about the development and well-being of their
team.
They communicate with humility, take real responsibility when things go sideways, and ask first what they themselves could have done better. While not everything is within a leader’s control, I think leaders should be more inclined to examine their own role than to blame the team. And critically, a leader should never
ask their team to work harder than they are willing to work themselves. I believe strongly in leading by example.
Whom do you most admire and why?
I most admire my parents. They have been married for 63 years and counting, and the unusually stable, and loving foundation they built for my brother and me is something I’m grateful for every day. They put family first, de-emphasized consumption and extravagance, and valued education, kindness and hard work.
I especially appreciate the confidence they placed in me to make my own decisions, handle things myself and figure things out, while always being there when I asked for help. Even now, as they get older, that dynamic holds. We are incredibly close, and I make a point of being there for them and helping as they age.
Where was the last place you travelled to for work or pleasure?
My most recent trip was to Boulder, Colorado, for the Purposeful Planning Institute’s Rendezvous. A wonderful gathering of professionals deeply committed to the human side of wealth planning.
If you weren’t in this industry, what else might you be doing?
I think my most likely other career path would have continued been to continue with my psychology path and pursue a PhD, and work more directly in that field (much the way thinkers like Adam Grant, Jonathan Haidt
and Sonja Lyubomirsky have). My focus likely would have been positive psychology, human flourishing, maximizing human potential, and finding ways to bridge differences and counter division. Many of those themes, I realize, still show up in my work today.
How do you relax after a long day?
After talking, reading, and writing all day, I love to relax by catching up on television. According to my recent search history while hunting for new shows based on prior favorites, my tastes apparently run to deeply emotional romances, sun-drenched mysteries, psychological thrillers and witty, fast-paced period pieces. I’m not entirely sure what that eclectic combination says about me.
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