Managing family and wealth in concert

Our Mission - To oversee and coordinate the complex scope of legal, tax and financial services required by the family of wealth in a manner that accomplishes near term and multi-generational goals based on its core values and shared visions.

• Adhere to the tenets of trust, confidentiality, and integrity as the cornerstones of every client relationship
• Ensure that all decisions and recommendations are consistent with your family's strategic goals and visions, and
• Align the firm solely with our clients' interests, i.e. totally free of conflict, offering no products and receiving no compensation from any other source.

Our vision

The live oak tree, native to the southeastern Atlantic seaboard, is a beautifully proportioned tree. Reaching heights of 100 feet or more with a branch spread exceeding 150 feet and a trunk circumference that can exceed 30 feet, it is a sturdy tree well grounded by its roots. Beginning at about twenty years of age, acorns produce both new trees and food for squirrels and birds. The live oak can live hundreds of years but, to reach maturity it must survive disease, inclement weather and other outside forces. If it does so, it dominates the forest. Interestingly, the person who plants a live oak will never see its full beauty at maturity; nevertheless he plants it with the knowledge and hope that future generations will enjoy it also.

Metaphorically, the live oak is much like a family - many spreading branches of the family; well grounded in its heritage; producing offspring and providing for its community. With proper planning and nurturing, a family can prosper for centuries as well. Like the planter of the live oak, the family member who initiates multi-generational planning will not see the end result but does so with the confidence and faith that this beginning will result in a process which can guide the family well into the future.

Inspired by and adapted from Jay Hughes' book Family Wealth: Keeping It in the Family. With permission.

Managing Family and Wealth in Concert

Coordination and oversight of: All aspects of your day-to-day finances Transfer strategies for the family and community Multigenerational goals and family legacy

Live Oak Family Offices manages the process of managing wealth. We help families of wealth ensure the preservation and growth of their family heritage and financial assets. A select and limited group of families share our assistance in managing a wide array of assets and issues - planning, investment management, asset protection, cost control, financial education, family philanthropy, and a host of other needs. By collaborating with each family's other trusted advisors, Live Oak provides a full complement of life and wealth management services, delivered in a seamless integrated package. You have but one call to make for a solution to any problem.

Recently one of our clients sent an introductory letter to a few of his friends. What we do for our client families and the attendant value of our services is well summarized by these excerpts from his letter:

"His role in my personal life is very much like the CFO of a business. He integrates day-to-day oversight of my financial affairs and is also addressing longer term estate planning for my family - those areas where I lack the necessary time, expertise or attention to detail. I just make one call:

• He coordinates the involvement and advice of my attorneys, accountant, money managers and risk managers to craft the best solution as issues arise;
• He takes care of details that might otherwise slip through the cracks;
• He acts as a buffer between me and the many sales people who call on me;
• He and I wrote an investment policy that offers both near term and long term guidance for our investment decisions;
• He oversees our money managers, objectively assesses their performance, and analyzes new investment opportunities; his strategic focus is producing returns more in line with our goals and risk tolerance, and it certainly gives me comfort that we are on the right track;
• He has initiated an estate planning review that will more adequately satisfy our intent for both family and community;
• In addition to our touching base most days, his local presence allows us to meet face to face whenever necessary, a luxury I was not afforded with my previous advisor;
• And most importantly, he has no allegiances except to me; he sells no products and is not part of a larger entity, so his advice is strictly aligned with the best interests of my family.

Whether viewed as a necessity or luxury, his involvement is an attractive value proposition for me. His involvement has given me a level of comfort that is well worth the annual cost, and I am positive my family is better off because of the effort."

Management and ownership

H. Thomas Platt III is Managing Member of Live Oak Family Offices, LLC. A sixth generation Jacksonville native, Tommy is a graduate of Princeton University. Since 1981, he has worked continuously in securities brokerage, managed accounts consulting, and trust services. In 2003 he left his position as Senior Vice President and head of Investment Counseling & Trust Services at a local banking institution to establish Live Oak Family Offices.

Since 1989, he has held the professional designation of Chartered Financial Analyst. According to the Institute of Private Investors' Report of 2002, the CFA designation is the most respected of all professional designations by 78% of its family members.

At the time he left the bank, he was President-elect of the Trust Executive Committee of the Florida Bankers Association. He is 2005-06 President of the Estate Planning Council of Northeast Florida, a member of the Community Foundation's Professional Advisory Committee, a board member of Riverside Foundation, and chairs the Planned Giving Advisory Committee of The Bolles School.

Tommy is an active member of the Rotary Club of West Jacksonville, for two years serving as chair of its Charity Grants Committee. He has been very involved in volunteer leadership roles at daniel, a local child serving agency, and is an Elder and Trustee of Riverside Presbyterian Church. Tommy and Carol have been married since 1977 and have three daughters.

Alternative investments

Live Oak has personally vetted every manager listed. Every manager we recommend is either personally known to us or was introduced by a trusted friend, client or associate who has done business with them.

When appropriate, a modest commitment to one or more of these managers can reduce overall portfolio volatility while significantly enhancing returns.

View in PDF  

ADV Part II

Download the ADV Part II form

contact us