When Denny Chared brought his conference business to Canada, someone told him not to bother. The families were too private. The people worth knowing already knew one another.
Chared wrote the man's name on a board and got to work.
He recounts calling the founder of Four Seasons and asking him to speak at his first Toronto conference, held at the hotel. Afterwards, he sent photographs to the person who had doubted him. Canada, he says, became a strong market for the business.
From reporting to building
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Before founding DC Finance in 2003, Chared was a financial journalist covering Wall Street for Globes. After reporting on other people's businesses, he wanted to build his own.
“I was tired of writing about other great people. I wanted to become one myself.”
He left without another job lined up. He began raising money for other organizations' conferences, then started producing his own events in corporate finance and institutional investment.
Reading about family offices gave him a more specific direction. In Israel there was no family office conference at all. A wealthy family could fly to Switzerland for a conference run by UBS, the Swiss bank, he says, “but then you would have heard what UBS wants you to hear. It wouldn’t be a neutral conference.” Two next-generation members of prominent families had time to help him organize the first conference. In his recollection, the queue stretched from the street into the hotel.
DC Finance now reports a community of more than 6,000 families, with approximately US$1.2 trillion in combined investing power. That is the company's description of its community, not assets it manages.
Choosing the guests
The journalist's instinct stayed with him. Chared wants to understand who someone is, what they do and why they want to attend. A well-known surname does not answer those questions.
Someone representing their family's interests brings a different purpose from someone selling a fund or service. Both may have a place in the business, but their roles need to be understood. Chared describes vetting attendees and limiting attendance by service providers so families can speak with one another.
His typical conference, he says, has 80 to 100 people. Smaller club dinners can bring around 15 together. In these smaller groups, entrepreneurs can discuss succession with established families, while family members can learn from people building new businesses.
What he is building now
That work continues through DC Finance's conferences and the Family Office Circle, launched in 2023 and chaired by Lisa Silverstein of Silverstein Properties. His podcast, All in the Family Office, explores family wealth and the people behind it.
The travel brings him into different cities, cultures and industries. He enjoys the variety, even as he acknowledges its demands. He says he has little time left for playing guitar and writing music.
He is alert to why wealthy families can seem guarded: many of the people approaching them want something. His work depends on giving them a reason to relax that guard.
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