(Bloomberg) — The head of a family office group owned by the parent company of Fidelity Investments has stepped down as competition intensified among money managers for access to the investment firms of the ultra-wealthy.
Jennifer Richardson, who began working as a consultant for Forge Community almost a decade ago before becoming its head in 2022, is now an independent trainer for business leaders and family offices, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Richardson did not respond to a request for comment. An automated response from its email account said, “Fidelity has decided to go in a different strategic direction with Community leadership,” and referred all future questions to a senior Forge employee.
The US fund giant plans in the coming months to announce a new head of the group, whose membership includes more than 1,700 family offices, according to Fidelity spokeswoman Anjelica DePhillis. The new executive will also oversee Interacta similar community serving financial advisory professionals, she said.
Forge caters to family offices, the usually discreet managers of the financial affairs of the super-rich who are increasingly playing influential roles in global business.
The non-profit group, which focuses on the US, grew out of Fidelity inviting eight family office leaders to meet together in 2011. Forge has since expanded into a network for exchanging ideas, accessing industry research and participation in the event, with members required to sign a code of conduct to maintain confidentiality and not solicit investment from each other.
That initiative helped position Fidelity in the family office business over the past decade, but Wall Street giants like Apollo Global Management Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have also attracted deep-pocketed investors, increasing competition. A UBS Group AG study of 320 family offices this year found that each represented an average of about $2.6 billion in private wealth, with roughly half of their portfolio tied to North American investments.
Forge is also facing a growing number of rivals within the family office industry, including the SFO Alliance, a London-based group set up in 2020 to discuss investment opportunities that has grown to more than 1,000 members worldwide the world.
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Earlier in her career, Richardson worked in business development roles at corporate travel firm Carlson Wagonlit Travel and WebMD, according to her LinkedIn profile. She became head of Fidelity's so-called Center of Excellence overseeing its Forge and Finteract communities in late 2023.
Other Forge executives in recent years include Brian Broadway, the former head of a US family office, who joined in 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile.