Mark Wickersham, Host 0:01

All right, Charmaine. Welcome to the Well Tech Podcast. I am happy to have you on the pod. You are the CEO of Orker's America, that is the uh North American disidiary of Orca. I'm really excited to talk to you about the technology and how it is finally catching up to the complexity that family offices have. Before we get into talking about the tech aspect of it, I'd love to talk to you about your origin story. I think you have a really interesting background in terms of coming from Wall Street and then converting over or transitioning to technology. Having been an investment banker working for some of the most respected wealth management firms in the country, love to get your understanding about that, your career path, how your background has helped you in your tech career and why you had made the transition and a leap into tech.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Great. Thanks, Mark, for having me. Such an honor to be here with you. Um, really looking forward to this conversation. Um, yeah, happy to share my background. Um it starts actually in New York City, which I where I was born and raised. Um I'm actually a native daughter of Queens, New York. And um the story begins actually uh during high school. I was trying to make money for prom. And I worked, my my high school uh Stuyvesant was actually in New York City, Lower Manhattan at the time. And I worked as a file clerk um at what was then called Morgan Guarantee Trust Company, which was JP Morgan's back office. And so I'm 16 years old, and my job was to open pneumatic tubes and file government bond trades that were printed on paper with dot matrix. So that kind of dates uh what year this is. And one day I looked at my boss and I said, Where are these trades coming from? What's a QCIP? Started asking questions. And that boss said, Hey, come on, kid, let's go across the street. I'm gonna take you to trading floor. It's a big New York accent. So we crossed the street to 60 Wall, JP Morgan's front office, and I saw the fixed income trading floor for the same first time. It was unbelievable. Um it just electrified me. And so I knew, you know, how do I get there? And, you know, that was just sort of the the inspiration point. And so yeah, as it goes on, I went to CERN NYU, uh study finance and accounting, and was fortunate to land in the investment bank at Morgan Stanley and the tech. Boom, uh, mid to late 90s, I worked on the equity capital markets desk and I worked on some phenomenal um IPOs, secondaries, on you know, everything from I've worked on Netscape, I worked on the Amazon um secondary, uh, the Pixar IPO. And, you know, one of the funniest stories is that I I like to say I was the bottom of the totem pole at the time. And um during the Pixar IPO, I was actually the analyst who fetched uh raw almonds for Steve Jobs. So I did meet Steve Jobs, which I'm super proud of. Anyway, fast forward, um, pivoted, yeah, pivoted that um into equity research, also covering tech and media and telecom. So I just always loved tech. Like that was just something I I was fascinated by. Um I love the future. I I just really um found it to be a really fascinating time. I'm Gen X. And so, you know, I started life with an analog phone. And, you know, I was in college when the internet was born, and just just seeing that was always super exciting. Um, but I did pivot. Um, I often get the question how I landed in the family office space and the private banking side. Um personal reasons, moved to Dallas, Texas. I'm married to a Texan, my children are Texan, and uh landed at the JP Morgan Private Bank, which was where I first brushed with uh family office clients. And it was really a very cool part of the career, right? To go from institutional level equities in New York City to actually working with families. And for me at that point in time, I was a young mother. Um, I come from a big family, and I never knew in a million years that I could blend being a family person uh with finance. Um, so that that was fascinating. But yes, the number one question I do get is how did I meet Orca? Um, and I'll share more about what Orca is, but Orca is a family office uh technology founded by 10 founding families um from all over the world. And I had met Orca founder Tomas Herchik through a mutual family office contact, an executive from the East Coast. Um, I saw the demo, I was blown away. Tomas said he was coming to Dallas because one of the founding family offices was based in Dallas, and coincidentally I knew them as well. And so that's kind of the rest was history. And I joined Orca, gosh, at this point almost four years ago, and it's been quite a riot. And yeah, that's the story. I mean, I I think at the end of the day, I I love to learn. I and the future excites me, which is why I I gravitate to technology throughout my career.

Mark Wickersham, Host 5:13

I love this. I love the story. I love the fact that Orca is one of those solutions uh that you see that's born specifically from a family office. I think um you're seeing a lot of uh family office specific solutions now in the marketplace that have high viability. I I think in in the past there was too much retail software, or you had to take software from maybe the investment or the RA industry that didn't quite meet the needs or the complexity of the family office. And um now you're seeing lots of family office-specific solutions that are born from you know real struggles uh within a family office. So I think that's great. Talk to me a little bit about Orca. Um, I think it's kind of a unique product. I don't the category that would fit in, would you call it entity management? What would be uh the fit and how does Orca fit in with an overall tech stack within a family office?

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Yeah, great question. So, yes, I'll frame it again. Orca is now uh a nine-year-old company, almost 10 years old, um, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Uh it's a the inspiration is actually our founder's wife. Uh Tomas Herchik's wife uh comes from a fifth, she's a fifth generation family member, very large European family, all kinds of uh private businesses, operating companies, publicly held businesses, real estate zoned and so forth. And um, when she went to marry uh Tomas, it triggered a series of we'll call it legal tax and compliance uh events, uh changing jurisdictions, chasing uh the family office was actually kind of sent into a tizzy when the fifth generation uh came through the ranks because she and her, we'll call it six or seven siblings, moved to different jurisdictions. And so a lot of the family office, uh the family office had never experienced that where they had left the mother country. But yeah, to answer your question where Orca sits, it's what we call dynamic entity management. But what's important to think about in a typical family office, when you think of a tech stack, typically a performance reporting system, call it an ADAPAR, a black diamond, a CIO tool, right? Ticks and daily um valuations, things like that. You will usually have a GL right accounting system, could be a SETA, it could be uh Sage on one end or QuickBooks. Many family offices kind of sit there. And we like to say we sit up here in the legal tax compliance um area. So our power users tend to be a general counsel, a chief operating officer, principals um use it. And so that's that's important to know where we sit there. Um we like to view ourselves as you know a single source of truth for entities, trusts, two-legged individuals. I think what's where it is important too about Orca is that it's a visualization tool. Um to many, you'll see that it's a PowerPoint structure chart uh on steroids, people say to us, but it's more than that. Um we go from what we call the 30,000 foot view, which is is the picture that's quite dynamic, to the 10,000 foot view, which is sort of the validating events uh or transactions that undergird the ownership uh structures, and then down to the the the final document that truly validates it. So um really, really important, and again, really important also for um people to understand, you know, the complexities we're seeing in family offices, uh especially in the US, where we are entity happy, um, knowing what you own, how much you own of it, and that you can prove it. While that sounds simple, it's actually quite complicated when you start looking at at these multi-gen or even G1 family offices that have amassed quite a lot of assets.

Mark Wickersham, Host 9:03

Yeah, family offices do love their entities. Um, let's talk a little bit. Obviously, one of the things that your product kind of helps solve towards or helps insulate against is is institutional uh key man risk and kind of institutionalizing knowledge within a family office. You recommend that family offices run kind of a tabletop exercise, a kind of a death audit that kind of triggers off kind of a near crisis or or uh what would happen, or what if scenarios. Talk to me about that particular exercise, why family offices should go through that that particular exercise and what is good look like when when a firm goes through that exercise.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Yeah, I mean, you you nailed it, the the idea of key man, key person risk is real. Um, a lot of our family offices, I mean, they're decades old. Um, and in some cases, we work with some that are over 120, 150 years old. So the the data that's been amassed and information is ranges from paper to things in people's heads, principals, paralegals who have been at the firm, you know, 30, 40 years. We see this quite often. So we we call it, it's important from a governance and and transition standpoint. Uh, you know, we we also call it the hit by a bus scenario, right? A key person who holds out that knowledge, God forbid something happens to them. Or even see, you know, oftentimes they just want to retire. You know, I want to see my grandkids. You hear that a lot. So anyway, that, you know, combined with what I would say a generational shift, right? Generational shift is not just the family, it's actually the executives, the staff, the team. Um, so you put all of the confluence of that together. And so it's it is important to have what we would, you know, call a death audit, right? Call it a simulation of what happens um when a principal passes or there's a shift of some sort that's pretty meaningful in a family office. I'm gonna do a shout out to um Carrie Scott, uh, she's the CEO of Mount Vernon uh investments, a orca client of ours on our website, phenomenal. And, you know, in her her speaking as well as articles she wrote on in crane currency, you know, the death audit, you know, some clients call it Project Redfile, whatever it may be, knowing soup to nuts that the team knows where to find things, what the steps are, um, that's really, really important because you you don't want to be reactive. Um, and if you're not prepared, it can trigger just, as I mentioned, a multitude of legal fees, you know, errors. Um yeah, it's really, I think when people have things all in their head and there's no processes, um, that can be really, really hard for family office. So that's I would say that it that's a uh how do I say a hard stop? That's something that all family offices should should think about, implementing.

Mark Wickersham, Host 11:57

Better to figure that out and get the whatever adjustments you need to make when you're not in a crisis mode, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Totally, totally.

Mark Wickersham, Host 12:03

I see family offices too, like when it comes to the software buying decision, single family offices. Like, I I call it a it's an irrational buying behavior that it's you can go to a family office and have a great conversation about we'll save you time, you don't have to add said staff, whatever. And sometimes that doesn't move the needle because they're a little bit more risk-averse, cost centers. Um, but then you know, they tend to be event driven on on their purchasing behavior. Something something happens.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

The uh oh, and I would just say, I mean, one of the big premises of Orca too is like, you know, the secure we call I like to call it like a Swiss secure digital vault, right? So a lot of it is keeping it somewhere safe, keeping it, you know, it's like a in the old days, like a safety deposit box, but picture modern and digital and you know on the Swiss cloud, right? Somewhere safe. So yeah, 100% exactly.

Mark Wickersham, Host 12:57

Yeah, something happens, right? That Excel spreadsheet that you've been using gets corrupt, or you missed a tax deadline, or you know, the person that had all knowledge in the head about that that Excel spreadsheet retires, or Lord forbid, uh, you know, something worse happens to them, and uh principal um the death of a principal, all these type of things can trigger um kind of a buying uh process or journey, which is really not the best situation to be doing that. I mean, I think family offices should always be kind of evaluating technology and understanding what's out there and um versus just try to uh do it under kind of a crisis situation. But let's talk a little bit about um AI security conversations. I know one of the things that you're having conversations with with clients quite a bit on is you know, family offices around they want to adopt AI, but righteously so, they they they're concerned about privacy, they're secure secure uh about security. Where are family offices in this uh journey in terms of adopting AI? Where where are the concerns lying with security and privacy and and how has this conversation shifted um that you've been having over the the past say 12 months?

unknown 14:16

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah, it's it's actually breathtaking. Um, you know, Mark, you and I hosted uh a gathering of family offices in New York, and you know, we do them consistently um across markets and to see the the transition and change and change in mindset from even 18 months ago, even four months ago. Um I would say, you know, call it a year, a year and a half ago, family offices were in that sort of wait and see environment. Um maybe it's almost two years now, it all kind of blends, but a wait and see and understanding what are you all doing and oh, what are you doing? A lot of that sort of collaborative conversation, seeing what peers are doing. And then what happened was I mean, the reality is, you know, AI was here. And so the mindset shifted to the fear of being left behind or the fear of you know not being on pace with others. Um, and so I I like to call it the penguin effect, right? So it's sort of one or two were starting to jump in and they talk about it, and then next thing you know, everyone's jumping in, not to call family offices penguins, but I love penguins. Um, and then now, I mean, it's remarkable, right? Now you have family offices. We we did an event in Houston and you know, we asked who's using Claude. I mean, Claude is a huge game changer, and literally almost every hand went up. And so we continue to move at such a rapid pace. And um, yeah, I'm really excited to see where the future brings because it it literally changes by the minute. But overall, um, yeah, massive change to a place of sort of wait and see, a little bit of, you know, sort of distrust in that. And I think where I see it going that's really important that keeps coming up is the governance and creating um a structure around how family office staff, executives, principals use AI um in a safe, secure way, and putting sort of rules around that um now that this Pandora box has opened.

Mark Wickersham, Host 16:10

Yeah, I think it's it has changed so rapidly. I mean, Claude is changing so rapidly, but the the technology tools, the the capabilities, the use cases, uh, I mean, three months feels a little bit like a lifetime with with AI in the way it's evolving. I I think too, you're starting to see kind of there was a little bit of a bifurcation in the market. I think that the smaller family offices, maybe fruit of necessity, they're more nimble, we're kind of uh adopting that and and experimenting with AI, and larger ones were uh a little bit more cautious and a way to see approach. Now, everybody, that event you saw, like it was, you know, the the vast majority were not only using AI in some case, but it were using Cloud in particular. Which is great to see.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

I'd love to share. Yeah, I mean, I I totally forgot, yeah, at the event you were there. Um, you know, see it depending on the group uh or sort of the functional area inside of Family Office, like certainly we're seeing it and they're talking about it on the investment side, right? You know, getting a thousand deals a year and being able to set rules and have your AI, you know, just sift through that very intelligently. That's really sped up. I've also heard clients on the investment side as they're presenting to principals investment ideas to be able to create presentations and sort of what they used to spend time in PowerPoint instantly. So that velocity in um vetting investments is certainly there. We definitely see it in the legal side. So GCs, uh paralegals, but mostly GCs, um, real estate families are able to quickly uh cut down on outside counsel costs, right? Just, you know, quick document review, um, just getting some of that work done ahead of um engaging outside counsel as well as in general, you know, basic contract formation and things like that. So you're definitely seeing it um on the legal side as well. I think the other thing that's really cool that's happening is inside a family office and sort of the inside of that environment, how um they're gonna use, you know, LLMs to get smarter and smarter. And I think, yes, there's concerns about security, but also there's, like you said, inside a family office, sort of inside that that that ecosystem and keeping that knowledge in there and being able to make sure you have all of that in there and be able to not just preserve it, but uh think strategically with the information you have, you know, as you look at future investments or trusts and generational trace uh changes. So it's it's a really, really cool and a little scary time for everyone.

Mark Wickersham, Host 18:46

Yeah, I mean, it's so great, especially for like unstructured data. I mean, so much of what a family offices have to deal with is is in documents. I mean, the investments, the alternative investments in particular, are are the when you look at the deal flow that family offices can see, you know, they sit on a mountain of data. Can they harvest that data, you know, based on their particular uh investment approach has been difficult for them in the past, but now you're real seeing the the real scalability come in there. Obviously, I was gonna chip and chime in.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Yes, I call it the uh it's the human in the loop, right? So there's a lot of questions about that. You know, again, it the the human in the loop is necessary because the models, you know, we were on a product call this morning, you know, isn't the model hallucinating, or you know, they're just things that humans still have to look. And I think the the this you know, the senior general counsel, you know, it's the SNF test, they know what looks right and wrong. Those things are really important. Um, you touched on this sort of document, you know, the OCR and the document extraction of structured data. That is a obviously a very huge use case. Um, Orca, we have, we call it ORCA sonar, and essentially not just simple sort of document extraction, but also tying it to the intelligence is to tie it to you know what that means in ownership and what are the trickle effects from just um pulling from documents. And so documents, the way we think about orca, documents actually the undergirding source of truth, right? The document preserves what do you own, when did you buy it, what's in there, right? That is the validation, and then we we go upwards. And that's a really big sea change for us, both from onboarding clients, but also just how quickly um you're able to pull critical data um and and do something with it, right? Strategically and safely.

Mark Wickersham, Host 20:34

So that's some real document intelligence, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:36

So totally, totally.

Mark Wickersham, Host 20:39

Um, let's talk about the the big problem that AI does not fix and it's kind of the universal, you know, garbage in, garbage out, data hygiene, data governance, um, the lack thereof, in particular family offices, right? That you need to have good, high quality data, you need to have reconciled data. If it's financial accounting data, for example, you need to have kind of the the most current and finalized version of uh of documents on the other side. Why is this so underappreciated? I think it has resulted in a lot of family office maybe being disappointed with some of the results they've gotten from AI, but you know, what does poor data hygiene actually cost the family and what what is kind of good look like in this case?

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah, I mean, it's it's a real thing. I mean, there's a whole cottage industry of this now, right? So garbage what you said, garbage in, garbage out. Um, you know, a family office is investing significant dollars and time into tech stack, you could have the best stack in the world, but if that data is is is poor quality, it's it's just it's detrimental. I mean, it creates risk for the family, um, especially as you put them into the model. So I think you know, it's really important um taking that time on the front end. And you you also mentioned it, right? Documents alone, that making sure you have the final, final version. those things so um you know i think some families what good looks like it's it's it's an imperfect it's a tough question it's different for every family but you know as best as you can to have true correct data um it's a big lift for family offices for sure um it takes a lot a lot of time but i think they come out the other side feeling much better um you know like i said it's a big risk issue because if you're feeding you know low quality or uh not hygienic data into these models um it just has ripple effects like literally for everything the family office does going forward yeah i think the problem with ai too is like the results kind of sound plausible yes you know yes close but not exactly yeah exactly could almost like it in Canada takes you know there's still a need for that human in the loop that has that experience that can kind of be exactly us that can kind of do that but you know I think it's even more dangerous with you know in previously other situations with bad data you just got a bad result or you didn't get a result because you know the database didn't have uh required field or whatever now it's like ai is like yeah it's kind of you know looks kind of good right so yeah really important and well we were at you were there too actually I don't remember it's my our Houston one or New York but it's funny because then you go into Claude and Claude will naturally affirm oh yes good thinking right and so I totally love one of our family and one of our family offices says you know I purposely put in the prompt don't compliment me tell me the hard truth and so it's interesting because then Claude talks to him much more um critically so it's just again things like that are are you know these are nuanced but that's why the human in the loop is incredibly critical.

Mark Wickersham, Host 23:44

Um family offices obviously uh not only do they love entities they love alternative investments they have high exposure to that that those exposures to continue to go up with you know many family offices and 50 uh percent plus range in in private investments with over half your portfolio in uh private investments what does that do to the operational requirements of a family office and what does that how does that alter the needs of their tech stack? Yeah I mean you you see it right liquid you know we just say uh marketable securities you know liquid investments um they're there um but the the appetite for private deals directs co-invests you name it um that's truly what the family offices are are looking at um and as you know they're patient capital right so there's definitely um huge appetite for that and that's a how a lot of them made their money right is private company um building building wealth that way so they can leverage those skills that they had um the other asset class that's massive right is real estate you know that is a very big chunky part of a lot of family offices portfolios in fact we have you know in New York alone you know clients where that that's that's the wealth right and so that whole real estate operation entity happy move clients with north of thousand you know 1500 up to 5000 entities right because they've built so much um real a big real estate portfolio artwork collectibles as you called them esoteric assets you know clients with vehicles aircraft uh passion assets cars wine things like that and then you layer on top of that's the asset side but then the lending right there's like you know interfamily loans intercompany loans loans against these assets art loans very very interesting so imagine the specialization expertise required in that whether it's from an inventory system valuation right you know you're seeing uh you know art art um technology coming into play just very specialized um coin collection type things i mean i think what it brings is you know with with so many different asset classes you know operational requirements really interesting again i i did the hands on the tech stack right so you know we'll we'll give at a par or or black diamond a sort of uh a performance reporting tool for private public real estate type assets but you know there are art equivalents of that that go really deep you know I have a uh again a client in we'll just say Palm Beach you know art collection north of 10 000 works of art um and that's being capped in an Excel spreadsheet so obviously there's you know these families just amass very esoteric assets and at scale so um I mean just to put a fine point on it it's like you know the the governance around that there's a big opportunity to get all of that in a safe secure place um again you know keep person risk um the there's gonna there's typically like in that family office in Florida there's there's um executive assistant who has been with the principal literally 40 years and there's a spreadsheet that houses the you know 10,000 plus works of art um and they're going through a real um real exercise to get that in a safe place in a you know a place that is sustainable um well beyond the principal and and her um tenure at the family office yeah I I I think there's um there's this is where family offices or the the needs at alter high net worth really vary from uh high net worth individuals or mass effluent i i think a lot of firms on the multifamily office side the RA side where they love the idea or the concept of being able to have a you know a a client of significant means but really what ends up happening is that the these operational requirements that they do have because they are heavy in real estate they are heavy in alternative investments the systems that you need to be able to properly you know track collectible arts and have the insurance and the appraisals and um the cash flow needs right give you mention the client the the entity that that's making the investment may not be the entity that has the the actual cash and how do you uh balance that out so that it becomes really really complicated really really fast I think this is where you get kind of really the needs of being able to manage that type of client are very different because of the complexity because of these things that are driven by the amount of entities the amount of unstructured information the esoteric and and kind of unique assets that they hold and and how to do that properly so um let's talk about technology I often like to say that there's a quote out there that the the future's here it's just not evenly distributed and I think you see that with AI in particular but and I really think maybe five years the way the technology is moving is is way too fast. But you know let's take a look you know three years out how can family offices you know kind of future proof their business what do they need to think about to be able to make sure that they don't get left behind yeah I mean it go it goes back really the foundational pieces you talked about the data hygiene right just having that that base um that that base case to work with um in terms of I I would say it's it's future proofing and also recognition of of the secular trend right in family offices so layer the technology but also the transition of these teams um I think it's also important to think about these teams getting uh leaner in many ways right the trend towards outsourcing uh the trends towards you know technology freeing up team members to their highest and best use right the the the mitigation of manual tasks I mean there are great things about AI um you know I think a lot of the the challenges to in pro future proofing is creating a a I was talking about this the um again at at a recent lunch is you know setting up you know workflows uh governance standards security standards processes right the the sort of operational backbone um that everyone can sort of all be in the same boat and be rowing in the same direction because again right now the challenge is now people are using AI but there's the guardrails around that um have to be established and it's hard right again how do you control um how do you control it now that the Pandora's box is open.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

So anyway to answer your question you know everyone will feel I mean I I myself you feel left behind because things are just moving so fast. But it is important to have sort of that foundational strategy for the family office. But frankly a lot of it is just staying on top of all the the new technology and staying on top of how those use cases are are unfolding. The family office community is quite um you know very private. But I think these ecosystems and these you know these conversations for example that we had recently with the SETA and file forms in Orca, you know, these safe spaces where the families feel comfortable um with with their like-minded peers um to talk about this this is a really un unprecedented time um for everyone and imagine for family offices which generally you know I would say are quite quite uh traditional and guarded by nature.

Mark Wickersham, Host 31:27

So yeah I mean you look at the transition to the cloud and how that took like 20 years and really took the pandemic to really gotta finish that trend and how slow that one moved now you see AI which you know 20 years is really done in two years with with with AI and that the the acceleration of change is probably one of the one of the constants I think that uh peer community peer access is so important groups like Forge or the ability to to be able to have your own I know there's a bunch of regional networks that are that are out there that allow kind of family offices to come together. I do think there is you know a little bit of grain of salt with that that I know that family offices should and and do talk to each other but sometimes a family offices you know operational requirements can be you know really different. You know if you have a real estate family office versus uh you know maybe something that was a recent liquidity event like their tech stack's going to be a lot different who they use and what they use and how they use it's gonna be different. But uh certainly I think staying abreast of the technology changes uh kind of always I maybe not always being in a buyer's journey but always being out there and being aware and talking to vendors uh can be certainly uh helpful um and I just think that you know with AI too that the AI adoption it's a fine line right I mean that that policy needs to protect the privacy and data the family office but if it's too restrictive you can end up with kind of shadow usage that you know either the family member or the the staff is getting on their phone and on Claude and putting in way more information than they should be right yeah absolutely yeah there's I mean we could go on nauseum into the whole cyber and how families um and security right like security is no longer just physical security it's it's it's digital security it's it's social media i mean goes on and on but yes exactly I couldn't agree more with what you said yeah I think that's what I think you talk about outsourcing I think every family office should outsource their cybersecurity um because it's so specific it's so up to date in terms of the changes that are going on certainly AI is having a major impact on it um I mean a lot of it is Mark you know education right education and establishing that inside a family and again it's not just staff it's the family members I mean that that's a really hard piece um because you start thinking about children and teens and you know um senior generation and and to your point you know it's hard to establish guardrails but perhaps kind of as you raise I I think of this I'm a mother right you eventually send your kids out into the world so you can only hope that you know you've you've instilled values and rules and they can make good decisions. It's not to say that family offices are children but certainly I it it's it's on the person ultimately uh to make well yeah I mean they're there to protect ultimately protect the the family and the and the and the wealth of the family and and people press on those values for that family. So I I think that it's not the worst analogy. You donate your time to a a number of different charitable organizations. Is there a cause that's important to you and why?

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Great question. You know I'm the product of of of immigrants and two uncles that were served in the US Navy um so I just am so proud I mean often I'm I I just wake up very grateful um participate I feel like I I'm living the American dream. You know it's a tough time right now what's really hard for me and hurts me in my husband's heart so this is very dear to us you know I I work in this top.00001% I did not grow up like that and it's very exciting the wealth creation because I think there are huge opportunities um for for impact right in a community but what makes me sad is the bottom right this barbell and and and this really a massive massive gap um so very dear to me you know the the basic needs right health um hunger education um people you know we're in a country one of the wealthiest in the world and to see we we're we're we're spawning billionaires like crazy right I mean we just had the space at X IBI I mean just the number of people up here but I think dear to me is are the causes that really help with trying to bridge that gap um equity providing opportunity for the underserved populations um is really important. And again it goes back to you know I I did not grow up with money in fact I grew up kind of here and I really you know want to give back because um I think everyone deserves a a chance at at least the basic, you know, the basic needs being addressed.

Mark Wickersham, Host 36:22

Good point I I think when you look at um what's going on obviously the wealth inequality is getting greater that the environment's um around immigration is not great I do think what makes America great is immigration. I think it's one of our unique um superpowers.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

I think when you talk about American exceptionalism are you I'm scared what happened I I do a lot of bike riding and I don't do a lot of stretching oh you're back comedy I got scared I was like I hope you're not having like you're safe okay I was like oh my god did I send it no I I'll I'll talk I'll talk um you know I think our country I still believe I mean the country is the greatest in the world it's that the melting pot right that is what makes America so uniquely America I I love our country I mean we're at our 250th anniversary and I every day I feel blessed we're here. I think we uh me personally I mean I serve on the Southwestern Medical Foundation one of the biggest medical foundations in the state of Texas and this is a big initiative right to um health equity is important to your point education changed my life right the access I had I had a full ride to NYU Stern right I mean that changed my life on I got I went to a magnet high school I'm a product of the New York City public schools. So being able to provide education equally um to to people regardless of of where you come from game changer right so access to those things and like I said food insecurity is real as well. I've served on the Texas Women's Foundation for almost 10 years and our our big focus was women um and children uh having economic stability and the base of that is health education childcare right a mom can't make a living if she she doesn't have childcare and can't feed her kids right is a vicious signal. So kids can't really learn and study in school if they're hungry.

Mark Wickersham, Host 38:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

If your stomach's hungry you can't regard so yes those are the things and to your point I that is you know if I look at the rest of my life and and what I focus on and my husband's the same in our family it's it's it's you know it's paying it forward you know and I think these opportunities have gotten slimmer and slimmer and slimmer for for immigrants these days and just the population in general and and it's not just immigrants you know often it it's rural populations. You know the opportunities that yeah they're getting left behind. And so we just need to solve that because we really have this this inequity um you know I don't want to go down the road of of revolution and and unrest in the population but it's it's certainly there. You know it's it's it's it's a real issue we have to address.

Mark Wickersham, Host 39:12

I mean at the end of the day it's humanity right we're all people we're all humans and if we don't care take care of each other you know what's it all about right we have to take care of each other you know love thy neighbor love it let's let's leave it there Charmaine this has been a great podcast I really appreciate your time and your insights thank you for having me it was it was a pleasure and an honor. All right Mark thank you thank you for listening to this episode of the Wealth Tech Podcast brought to you by Seta AI Seta is on a mission to modernize the family office. I really appreciate you listening and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Talk to you soon