Christina Lewis, founder of Beatrice Consultants, has a portrait of her father, Reginald Lewis, hanging in her home office.
Cindy Johnson
Christina Lewis had her first asset allocation meeting with a wealth manager when she was 13 years old.
“I remember this meeting clearly,” Lewis said. “It was a turbulent time for my family. And (the counselor) was the only one who had the information I needed and (knew) how to talk to me about the new world I was living in.
That new world brought tragic loss and sudden inheritance. Her father, Reginald Lewis, founder of food giant TLC Beatrice International and the first African-American to create a $1 billion company, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 50. Christina left behind a fortune but few answers.
Over the next 30 years, Lewis would work with 6 different institutional wealth managers and 12 different relationship managers. Her experience and success in forming her own family office and running two foundations led her to a new venture: a multi-family office targeting the next generation, people like herself.
“It’s about families and their assets and how you view them,” she said. “When you are inclusive, when you look at different perspectives, when you empower women, when you empower your children, when you educate your clients, when you allow them authority, autonomy and independence, that’s better Lifestyle. Your family will be healthier, wealthier, happier and more productive.
Lewis’ company is called Beatrice Advisors, Aiming to change traditional business Manage the wealth of the rich and heirs. With more than $84 trillion expected to be passed down from older generations to younger ones over the next 30 years, according to estimates from market research firm Cerulli Associates, Beatrice aims to be at the forefront of managing heirloom wealth.
Beatrice Advisors aims to prioritize education and convenience because many young heirs are new to managing wealth, Lewis said. It will welcome a more racially, ethnically and gender diverse group of wealth holders. Lewis said it would take a “holistic approach” to families’ assets, taking into account not just their money but their values, skills and life paths.
Because today’s younger generation is more technology-focused, the advisory firm spent several years building a high-tech dashboard that provides families with an up-to-date, unified view of their portfolios and assets.
“We build dashboards and advise customers, but they drive the cars,” she said.
Multi-family offices like Beatrice combine the ultra-personal and confidential approach of a single-family office (managing a family’s wealth and logistics) with the shared costs and resources of an investment firm.
In addition to managing investments, multi-family offices often handle tax, trusts, family governance, philanthropy and legal issues. Given their expertise in family wealth dynamics and governance, an increasing number of ultra-wealthy families are turning to multi-family offices for intergenerational wealth transitions.
Lewis’s own personal investing education began when she was 7 years old, helping her father manage his stock portfolio. In addition to owning his own company, Reginald Lewis also maintains a personal stock portfolio and appoints Christina as his “broker.”
“I’ll read the stock chart in the newspaper in the morning,” she said, “and then at the end of the day, after the market closes, I’ll make a phone call to find out what the evening’s close was. I have this notebook where I record everything.
After her father passed away, she worked with her first wealth manager to pick stocks and build an active portfolio. Her stock picks include: disney and limited “because we discussed investing in things I know.”
Over the years, her wealth advisors have been in constant flux: The firm has been acquired, and her account managers have changed from year to year. It’s difficult to find an asset manager “who has your best interests at heart and is not just an adjunct to another entity,” she said.
Eventually, she created a family office, BFO21, and hired her own team. Beatrice will be separate from BF021, but it will have common team members and will share best practices, investments and expertise.
Meredith Bowen, a former partner at Seven Bridges Advisors and now president and chief investment officer of Beatrice, said the advisory firm will place a strong emphasis on tax efficiency and customized tax structures.
“We’re really trying to create an investment infrastructure that’s tailored to individual taxpayer circumstances,” Bowen said.
Beatrice is targeting clients with net worths between $25 million and $300 million, although Bowen said “the largest families are going to get a lot of benefit from us.”
An active philanthropist, Lewis founded All Star Code, a nonprofit that provides young people of color with basic networking and coding skills. She also co-founded Giving Gap (formerly Give BLck), a searchable database of vetted Black-owned nonprofits. She is also Vice Chairman of the Reginald Lewis Foundation.
Lewis said that by providing wealth advice to a more diverse and younger population, she hopes to help more families like hers.
“When I’m looking for a company, I want to be consistent with the client’s values and style,” she says. “I felt like (Beatrice) was going to be diverse and inclusive from the beginning.”
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