In “The Economics of Experience,” the conversation shifted the idea of luxury ownership away from assets and toward something more elusive: time, flexibility, and the quality of shared experiences. Moderated by Worth Media CEO Josh Kampel, the session brought together Karey Finch of Exclusive Resorts and Carolina Tarazona of Maybach Ocean Club to discuss how affluent travelers are rethinking traditional ownership models. Kampel suggested that “rather than think of this as alternative ownership models, we should be thinking differently about how we spend our time,” and both speakers embraced that framing. For them, the future is less about owning more things and more about creating access to the right experiences, with fewer burdens and greater intentionality.

Finch described Exclusive Resorts as “a membership travel club,” not a fractional model and not a substitute for a second or third home. “It is a supplement. It is a vacation strategy,” she said. That distinction was central to her argument. The appeal is not simply access to luxury residences, but the ability to adapt travel to the changing rhythms of family life. She shared that she first joined the club when traveling with four young children made hotel rooms impractical and a single vacation home too limiting. Over time, the value of the model only expanded: “Sometimes you want to travel with the kids, sometimes you want to travel with friends, sometimes you want to travel with your girlfriends or a golf trip.” In that sense, the club is designed to evolve alongside its members. More than anything, Finch framed the offering as an investment in scarcity itself: “It’s investing in what you don’t have a lot of, and that’s time.”

Tarazona echoed that philosophy from the sea. Maybach Ocean Club, she explained, is “basically shared ownership,” capped at 300 members, with each receiving four weeks of usage aboard a highly exclusive vessel. But like Finch, she emphasized that the concept is “not a replacement. It’s an addition.” Even owners of private yachts, she said, are drawn to the model because it removes the operational headaches (crew management, logistics, planning) while preserving the lifestyle. The biggest misconception, she noted, is that Maybach is a cruise product. “We’re not a cruise,” she said. “We’re a members club that floats.” Unlike a cruise ship with a fixed itinerary and mass-market access, the Maybach model is built around curation: a limited membership, intentional destinations, and a community of travelers who “understand and value luxury.”

That emphasis on community became one of the strongest through-lines of the session. Both speakers argued that, especially after COVID, people are prioritizing connection as much as comfort. Finch described year-round member events, local gatherings, dinners, golf outings, and travel-based experiences that help members form relationships beyond the trip itself. “People are craving that interpersonal connection,” she said, noting that these communities often create both friendship and, occasionally, business opportunity. Looking ahead, both speakers see continued growth in these membership-based models as travelers increasingly prioritize personalization, service, wellness, and meaningful experiences over traditional ownership. As Finch put it, “People now are not accumulating wealth like they used to. They are accumulating experiences.” Tarazona took that one step further, arguing that the next phase of luxury will be defined not just by living longer, but by “living better.”

At the Beyond Wealth Summit, the conversation around “Family Offices: Setup, Strategy, and Evolution” centered on a fundamental shift in how ultra-high-net-worth individuals are thinking about managing complexity, not just wealth. Justyn Volesko, Partner & Co-Head of Family Office at Cerity Partners, emphasized that the decision to establish or join a family office is less about hitting a specific net worth threshold and more about the growing intricacy of a client’s financial life. “The decision isn’t solely triggered based on an amount of net worth,” he noted. “It is triggered based on the complexities of the needs of the client.” As wealth expands across investments, entities, and generations, so too does the need for coordination, strategy, and time reclamation.

At its core, Volesko framed the family office as a central command center—“the spoke in the middle of the wheel” or “air traffic control tower”, designed to unify what is often a fragmented advisory ecosystem. Too often, he explained, clients rely on multiple advisors operating in silos–CPAs, estate attorneys, wealth–each optimizing for their own lane without a cohesive, top-down strategy. The result is inefficiency at best and costly blind spots at worst. “It’s not about being able to provide each of these services,” he said. “It’s really about integrating all of that.” This integrated approach, particularly when applied to tax strategy, can unlock significant value. Volesko pointed to tax optimization as one of the most overlooked opportunities, noting that many clients are “paying taxes that don’t necessarily need to be paid” due to a lack of coordinated planning.

The conversation also highlighted key inflection points that drive families toward a family office model. Often, the catalyst is reactive (a liquidity event, dissatisfaction with an advisor, or a planning failure) but increasingly, it’s proactive, driven by a desire for simplicity, control, and strategic alignment. Volesko also addressed the evolving landscape between single-family and multi-family offices. While single-family offices offer bespoke, 24/7 attention, they come with significant cost and operational burden. In contrast, a well-structured multi-family office can deliver comparable personalization with added advantages: shared insights across families, access to a broader investment ecosystem, and the ability to aggregate capital for better deal terms. “We strive to provide that single family office experience in a multi-family office setting,” he said, pointing to both efficiency and enhanced opportunity.

Beyond structure and strategy, the discussion turned to the human dimension of wealth, particularly as a historic generational transfer reshapes priorities. Volesko underscored the importance of next-generation education and intentional legacy planning, noting that wealth transfer presents “a potential opportunity for things to go very right, or very wrong.” From early financial literacy to preparing heirs for visibility and responsibility, family offices are increasingly tasked with shaping not just financial outcomes, but values. This extends to philanthropy, where aligning charitable vehicles with a clearly defined mission is critical. “It provides an opportunity to leave a legacy for future generations,” he said, emphasizing the role of structured planning, from trusts to letters of wishes, in ensuring that both capital and purpose endure.

In “Investment Infrastructure and Planning in the Age of Tech-Forward Family Offices,” Worth Media Group President Paul Stamoulis sat down with Clear Street’s Jud Howson for a practical discussion about what actually powers a modern family office behind the scenes. While much of the day focused on mission, legacy, and how families deploy wealth, this conversation turned to the systems required to preserve and grow that capital in the first place. Howson, who described Clear Street as a “tech-enabled financial services firm,” framed his role as both strategic and consultative, helping family offices and other clients build infrastructure that supports growth without unnecessary complexity. As he put it, the work is ultimately about “enabling everything that’s been talked about here.”

A central theme was the transformation of family offices from passive allocators into more active managers of capital. According to Howson, the sector is in the middle of an identity shift: “Are we an asset management firm? Do we have to invest in all this infrastructure?” That question has become more urgent as family offices proliferate and as newer generations become more directly involved in investing. He pointed to a clear trend over the past several years: more families want greater control over their portfolios, particularly in public markets, driven by frustration with generic fund structures, limited customization, and traditional fee models. “That movement from being an allocator… to thinking about how to take on board the ownership of that management” is one of the defining changes in the space, he said. But Howson cautioned that building that capability does not mean recreating a hedge fund from scratch. The smarter path is to be deliberate, lean, and highly selective about where to build versus where to partner.

That distinction became one of the sharpest takeaways from the session. “Build what makes you different and you buy what doesn’t,” Howson said, offering a simple principle for family offices tempted to overengineer their platforms. Too often, he noted, families hire people from institutional firms who then “build a hedge fund” inside an organization that does not actually need one. The result is expensive infrastructure, unnecessary complexity, and misalignment with the office’s actual mandate. Instead, he argued for a rightsized approach: own the decisions that matter, but outsource the machinery that does not need to be proprietary. “Don’t own the factory, but own every decision in it,” he said. In practice, that means leveraging prime brokers, outsourced trading, data tools, and trusted partners to help a small senior team operate with much more sophistication and speed.

Technology, especially AI, is accelerating that shift. Howson was careful not to oversell it, but he was clear about its impact: “I don’t think it’s helping family offices make better decisions. It’s helping family offices make faster, better decisions.” In his view, AI is compressing the research funnel, allowing lean teams to process more information, evaluate more opportunities, and “punch above [their] weight” without adding layers of staff. Still, the conversation ended where it began: with clarity of purpose. Infrastructure should serve the family’s mission, not overtake it. The best family offices, Howson suggested, are the ones that know what they are trying to become, invest in governance across generations, and “own what they should own and not own what they shouldn’t.”

In “Redefining Luxury” interior designer Carla Guilhem offered a revealing look at how the meaning of luxury is changing for today’s ultra-high-net-worth clients. Speaking with moderator Shari Liu, Guilhem—whose studio works across high-end residential, condominium, and yacht projects—described a market that is moving beyond aesthetics and status toward something far more personal: spaces designed around health, longevity, and deeply individualized living. While design conversations once centered on “the new trend,” materials, or sustainability, Guilhem said that what clients want now is different. “There is a shift in how they want to experience the spaces,” she explained, and that shift is transforming both the function and feeling of luxury interiors.

That evolution is especially visible in the growing overlap between design, technology, and wellness. Guilhem said clients are increasingly asking for homes, yachts, and even aircraft interiors that support better sleep, better recovery, and better overall health. She pointed to circadian lighting as one example of how AI and intelligent systems are beginning to shape interiors in more meaningful ways: “How we can have the same kind of lighting that you have in the day, in the morning, at noon, at night, so when you go to sleep, you sleep better.” For Guilhem, these are no longer niche features. They are becoming core to the design brief. “They are all focusing on longevity,” she said, describing clients’ growing interest in cryotherapy, hyperbaric chambers, lab spaces for peptides and testing, IV infusion areas, infrared elements, and other biohacking tools. In her view, “this is the luxury” – not just beautiful surroundings, but environments that help clients stay “well and healthy” and, in a sense, buy back time.

As she made clear, that demand has fundamentally changed the design process. “It’s not more just see what is the type of fridge that you put in the house,” Guilhem said. Today, her work requires understanding emerging wellness technologies, spatial requirements, technical constraints, and how these systems integrate into daily life. She spoke about studying machines for “reset for your cells,” designing larger spa environments, and collaborating with doctors and wellness consultants to ensure those spaces are both functional and personalized. In South Florida, she noted, that trend is already reshaping residential development. Projects in Surfside, Sarasota, Hollywood, Jupiter, and Atlantic Fields are expanding well beyond traditional gyms to include full wellness-focused common areas, salons, saunas, cold plunges, infrared features, and larger spa environments built into the fabric of the home.

At the same time, Guilhem emphasized that true luxury design remains deeply human. Whether creating a yacht interior or a private residence, she sees her role as understanding the client’s life at an intimate level. “We are almost a psychologist of our clients,” she said, explaining that great design depends on knowing how a family lives, travels, stores belongings, and spends time together. That means setting aside ego and designing not for personal taste, but for the client’s reality. “I need to understand real life, not my life,” she said. Even when she disagrees with a request, her approach is to guide rather than impose: explain the implications, respect the client’s preferences, and ultimately create a space that reflects how they want to live. In Guilhem’s world, luxury is no longer about decoration alone. It is about creating highly customized environments where beauty, wellbeing, and experience work together seamlessly.

At the Beyond Wealth Summit, “Aviation and Yachting — Experiential Mobility” offered a lively look at how private travel has evolved from pure luxury into something more personalized, strategic, and experience-driven. Moderated by Jim McCann, the conversation with Tim Morley, Founder of Morley Yachts, and Steven Ciancio, Senior Vice President of Magellan Jets, underscored that in both aviation and yachting, the real value lies not simply in access, but in expertise. Whether arranging a family yacht charter in the Mediterranean or coordinating private aircraft for a complex business itinerary, both speakers made the case that high-end mobility today is about matching the right asset, crew, and experience to the client’s specific needs. As McCann put it, the session moved from the business of making money to the art of spending it well.

For Morley, that expertise is grounded in firsthand experience. Before launching his brokerage, he spent three years working as crew on yachts in the Caribbean and Mediterranean, a background that continues to shape how he advises clients today. “You can have a pretty ropey old yacht with a fantastic crew and have an amazing vacation,” he said. “And the inverse is true.” That insight became a central theme of the discussion: in yachting, the vessel matters, but the crew often makes the experience. Morley emphasized that knowing how a captain plans, whether a crew is great with children, or how formal or relaxed a boat feels can be just as important as the yacht itself. He also highlighted standout properties in his portfolio, including the charter favorite Aquilla, which he described as “one of the best yachts,” and the legendary Christina O, once owned by Aristotle Onassis. With 17 guest cabins and capacity for 34 overnight guests (or parties of up to 120) Morley positioned Christina O as uniquely suited to multigenerational travel, milestone celebrations, and once-in-a-lifetime group experiences.

Ciancio made a parallel argument on the aviation side, describing private flying as a highly consultative business rather than a one-size-fits-all service. Magellan Jets, he explained, works to understand not only where clients are going, but how they like to travel, who is traveling with them, and what level of service or aircraft is best suited to the mission. “We want to know how you’ve flown before, who you’ve flown with, what type of equipment you like to fly, the destinations that you travel to, [and] the experience that you’re looking for,” he said. From ad hoc charter to jet cards to ownership alternatives, Ciancio laid out a flexible model that can often outperform outright ownership, especially for travelers with varied routes or multiple simultaneous needs. “You do not need to own one,” he said of top-tier aircraft, noting that ownership comes with maintenance downtime, usage thresholds, and operational limitations that many clients underestimate.

Together, the two executives painted a picture of experiential mobility as an interconnected ecosystem, where private air and sea travel increasingly complement one another. The conversation touched on everything from Chinese demand in the yacht market to bundled journeys that fly travelers directly into remote adventure experiences, including a superyacht-based Antarctica trip that Morley described as “the experience of your life.” But beneath the glamour, the core message was practical: exceptional travel depends on thoughtful curation. Whether that means sourcing the right aircraft for a same-day corporate mission or finding the yacht whose crew is best suited to a multigenerational family vacation, the differentiator is not just access, it is judgment. In a market defined by abundance, Morley and Ciancio made clear that trusted guidance is what turns luxury travel into something truly memorable.