Michael Thrasher on Muck Rack

Michael Thrasher

New York
As seen in: Modus Newsletter, MSN Ireland, Forbes, MSN UK, Wiley Online Library, Sky News, Yahoo Finance, The Sunday Times, The Christian Science Monitor, VentureBeat, NewsBreak and
Founder & Editor @ModusNewsletter, weekly independent journalism for family-office professionals. Prev @iimag. Send tips & quips: michael.thrasher@modus.news
Back to Michael Thrasher’s profile

Articles by Michael Thrasher

The New Arch CTO Has an Explicit Mandate: Unlock AI Insights for Its Customers

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Arch, a software used by big banks, wealth management firms and single-family offices to manage their private investments, named Keith Soura its new chief technology officer this week and his primary goal is one that is proliferating in the industry: to use artificial intelligence to turn reams of information into insights for customers.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Multi-party politics merry-go-round

|
By Professors Colin Rallings, Michael Thrasher
| Local Government First
Reform UK gained three seats from the Conservatives, but two others moved in the opposite direction. The Liberal Democrats and Greens each inflicted defeat on the Conservatives, but the outcomes of those contests point to local rather than national circumstance. More parties are contesting local elections, but the withdrawal of Independents is also affecting the distribution of electoral support.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Novel Insurance Policy for Nefarious Trustees Hits the Market

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
The jig was up for Edward Miller. In 2014, the then 58-year-old attorney in New York was named the trustee of a trust belonging to someone known only as “M.P.” in court documents. Inside the trust were real estate assets, including a commercial building in New Canaan, Connecticut, that M.P. instructed Miller to manage. With his new legal authority, Miller did as he was told, collected rent from tenants, oversaw the building's maintenance, paid bills, and distributed funds accordingly.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

A Surge in New Family Offices—Fueled by Mega IPOs—Will Spark a Total Software War

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
The SpaceX IPO and the anticipated initial public offerings of Anthropic and OpenAI will make thousands of their employees and investors dramatically wealthier, leading to a surge in new single-family offices in the near future, and intensifying the already fierce competition among software companies that court them as customers. For the venture- and private-equity-backed software companies, the opportunity to grow is greater, but the stakes are higher, founders, executives and consultants say.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

A Family-Office Website Has a New Mystery Operator

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Programming note: Today’s newsletter is short because I was out of the office for much of this week. New subscribers—welcome! Check out the Modus newsletter archive, technology map and allocation index. And reply to this email to say hello, send tips, and share what you want to read more journalism about.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

A Paradox at Goldman Sachs’s Apex Family Office Symposium

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Tuesday this week, 200 single-family offices gathered for the annual Goldman Sachs Apex Global Family Office Symposium, the one-day gathering at the bank’s headquarters in New York. It is always a hot ticket because, in addition to each other, family offices get to hear from and mingle with sought-after speakers and bank leaders, including Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

A new electoral politics

|
By Professors Colin Rallings, Michael Thrasher
| Local Government First
Before the 2025 local contests, Conservative and Labour councillors together represented some 70 per cent of local electors. Two electoral cycles later, that figure has plunged to less than 45 per cent. Reform UK, whose councillors could once be numbered on the fingers of one hand, now represent nearly 20 per cent of the electorate. There is a similarly stark fragmentation at local authority level.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Allocation Alterations, Dollar Fears and Fewer Direct Investments: The Aberrant Findings in UBS’s 2026 Global Family Office Report

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Worries about geopolitics, the solvency of the United States and the strength of its currency, and missing out on the returns of rising markets have single-family offices acting unusually. Half of the wealthiest private investors think we’re headed toward harder times, and more of them than ever before are planning changes to their strategic asset allocations, yet portfolios generally remain “risk-on,” according to UBS’s 2026 Global Family Office Report.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Addepar’s AI Is Already a Hit. The Cost Will Get Sorted Out Later.

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Addison, Addepar’s own artificial intelligence tool that debuted in March, is already a hit, leaders at the software company said Thursday at its annual AddeConf gathering in New York City. Now, the firm is focused on improving Addison’s capabilities, creating AI agents and making it central to operations at family offices, institutional investors and wealth management firms. How the costs associated with that are shared will be determined later.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Chicago Booth’s Family-Office Ambitions

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business took steps this week toward its goal of becoming the preeminent academic institution for single-family offices. On Monday, the Booth School appointed Robert A. Stover Jr. as the inaugural executive director of its Family Office Initiative, an effort started in 2024 to provide more education, research, and networking opportunities to current and future leaders at family offices.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Rallings & Thrasher: How Labour fell to historic defeat

|
By Colin Rallings, Michael Thrasher
| Local Government Chronicle Verified
Reform almost doubled the number of seats it captured last year while the Green party made a net gain of 440 seats, write psephologists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher. The local election results provide further evidence of party system fragmentation as the two main parties struggle against challengers from across the political spectrum. After 11.4 million votes were counted, the combined seat totals for Labour and Conservative fell short of the number acquired by Reform and the Greens.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Two Skills That Could Land You That Family-Office Job

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
The gap between single-family offices hiring and the pool of qualified job candidates is wide and hard to close. But the finance professionals with contrasting and increasingly important skills will stick out in the crowd.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Labour Party on course to suffer one of its worst-ever electoral defeats

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Roch Valley Radio
The extent of Labour's eventual losses will not be explained away by simply asserting all governments experience setbacks at the parliamentary mid-term. Labour's argument that many of its supporters stayed at home sits uneasily with the fact that turnout has increased. The big gainers are Reform, once again. Follow our live election coverage here Having devastated the Conservatives last year, Reform UK has marched into Labour's heartland areas and inflicted heavy losses.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Labour Party on course to suffer one of its worst-ever electoral defeats

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Manx Radio Verified
The extent of Labour's eventual losses will not be explained away by simply asserting all governments experience setbacks at the parliamentary mid-term. Labour's argument that many of its supporters stayed at home sits uneasily with the fact that turnout has increased. The big gainers are Reform, once again. Follow our live election coverage here Having devastated the Conservatives last year, Reform UK has marched into Labour's heartland areas and inflicted heavy losses.
Open in Who Shared View Duplicates (34) Issue with article?

How to follow the election results - an expert guide

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Manx Radio Verified
The circumstances that saw both main parties take heavy seat losses in the May 2025 county council elections continue. Current polling shows a collapse in support for both Labour and the Conservatives, relative to 2021 and 2022 when most of the council seats up this time were last contested. Council by-elections too show Labour defeated in almost four out of every five seats, with the Conservatives doing little better, losing two in three vacancies.
Open in Who Shared View Duplicates (23) Issue with article?

Justin Baer Spent Years Reporting on Fidelity Investments. A Book Became Overdue.

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Note to subscribers: Modus occasionally sends newsletters in addition to its weekly Friday dispatch. When you think of Fidelity Investments, what comes to mind first? For some, it might still be Gerald Tsai Jr. or Peter Lynch, the firm’s star portfolio managers of the past. To others, Fidelity is a custodian, a vital partner to their own investment firm.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Back in a CIO Seat, What Stamp Will Beata Kirr Put on Northern Trust’s Global Family Office?

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
You quit your job at a hedge fund in 2010 to start Santangel's Review. Why? I noticed a gap in the market that I couldn't stop thinking about: the best investors are sometimes the ones least focused on raising capital, meaning they end up running small, under-the-radar funds that allocators never hear about. At the same time, family offices, endowments, and foundations are drowning in pitches from funds that are often better at marketing than investing.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Multi-party politics makes results difficult to call

|
By Professors Colin Rallings, Michael Thrasher
| Local Government First
The fact that 63 of 136 councils have all-out elections also makes it more likely that new leadership teams could emerge. As in 2025, both Labour and the Conservatives could lose seats and council control, with a range of parties (and Independents) on both the left and right poised to take advantage.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Winners and losers

|
By Professors Colin Rallings, Michael Thrasher
| Local Government First
The first quarter of 2026 reveals a new record – 68 per cent were lost with all parties featuring among the winners and losers. Labour and the Conservative are bearing the brunt of losses as the two-party establishment erodes. Since last May’s local elections, Labour has lost almost eight in 10 of its by-election defences; the Conservatives are faring better but still losing two in every three of theirs.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

A New Foundation Has One Mission: Close The Yawning Cybersecurity Gap at Family Offices

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
When Ynez Arce arrived to work at her first single-family office in 2007, there wasn’t much talk about ransomware and spear phishing. At the time, most people had email and were familiar with worms, viruses and hacks sometimes done only for bragging rights in the dark corners of the internet. But those things didn’t seem to happen often, including at family offices.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

A Lesson for Single-Family Offices From Wealth Management Firms: Discipline

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Programming note: This week’s newsletter is short because I’m on vacation. Modus will be back to normal next Friday. The shortcomings of private wealth management firms are part of the tribal lore of single-family offices. After all, that’s why most offices exist in the first place: to meet genuine needs—and perhaps satisfy some unreasonable wants—that commercial organizations can’t or won’t. While family offices pooh-pooh wealth management firms, they can still learn at least one lesson from them.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

A Family-Office Recruiter’s AI Experiment Has Not Gone As Planned

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
After a decade leading Palo Alto Staffing, an executive search firm in Silicon Valley, David Chie decided in 2024 to start a new company alongside it called Maple Drive, an “AI-first” platform that would be better for recruiters, candidates and clients alike.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

The Funeral Home of New York's Celebrities and Ultrarich Has a Message for Family Offices

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
It’s 8 a.m., and the principal of your family office doesn’t come down for breakfast or show up at work. The worst has happened; they died unexpectedly. What do you do? That’s the first question that William Villanova, president of Frank E. Campbell, the New York City funeral home favored for a century by celebrities and the ultrawealthy, asks when he meets with people from a family office. And after he asks them, there is often a long, uncomfortable pause. They don’t know the answer.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

The Investment Bank Hiring Family-Office ‘Apprentices’

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Over the past 20 years of his investment banking career, including nearly a decade at J.P. Morgan, Nader Afshar has seen progressive specialization. Groups of bankers focused on one sector have grown, been split into more subsectors, and further divided into product experts and sub-product experts. The evolution might be beneficial to clients and banks alike, but once bankers start down their chosen—or designated—path, they, “unfortunately, just see part of the whole equation,” Afshar told Modus.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Goldman Sachs’ Top Family-Office Whisperer Leaves Apex Group for Ayco

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Sara Naison-Tarajano, the Goldman Sachs partner who formalized and led Apex, the group of investment bankers dedicated to large single-family offices, has a new job at the bank.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Comparing retention rates

|
By Professors Colin Rallings, Michael Thrasher
| Local Government First
Reform took control of Durham County Council at last May’s elections, winning 65 seats with an overall vote share of 37 per cent. Shortly afterwards, it faced by-elections, following resignations of two of its newly elected councillors. The first seat was lost to the Liberal Democrats, but the other was held. Following another resignation, Reform selected Theo Bell as its candidate this time, with Labour returning to Julie Griffiths, the defeated councillor last time.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

In the Epstein Files, a Pointed Email About How Family Offices Invest

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
In 2024, Deloitte published what remains the most-cited report on single-family offices. From 47 pages of research, the consultancy highlighted eyebrow-raising estimates: There were 8,030 family offices worldwide, up from roughly 6,130 in 2019, and there would be more than 10,720 by 2030. The firm also estimated at the time that offices managed a total of $3.1 trillion in assets and projected that number would reach $5.4 trillion by 2030.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

The Next Chapter of Tamarind Learning

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Tamarind Learning, the online education platform affiliated with the family-office consultancy Tamarind Partners, is offering a limited number of lifetime subscriptions and has begun raising a $5 million round of capital to continue its growth and develop an artificial intelligence platform. In 2006, Kirby Rosplock’s wealthy family sold the gargantuan Florida ranch they had owned and operated for nearly a century, and she and her husband founded Tamarind Partners.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Addepar Releases Its AI Platform ‘Addison’ to All Users

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Every SaaS company is rushing to bolt on AI features. But an AI layer on top of a static system of record is still a static system of record. The private markets are driven by complex reasoning that legacy platforms were never designed to capture: Why you sized that position differently What made those terms acceptable Why you chose one manager over another That institutional knowledge is your edge. And it’s been leaking through the cracks of disconnected tools for years.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Is the Modus Family Office Tech Map Doomed?

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Liquidity forecasting, finally built for complex portfolios like yours. Why are family offices still playing guessing games with liquidity risk? Unlimited.ai’s Liquidity Modeling tool gives investors clear answers to the most important questions about their portfolio liquidity—all in one interactive dashboard.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

We are in a new era of multi-party politics

|
By Michael Thrasher
| MSN UK Verified
This is a parliamentary by-election result for the ages, one that sets the tone for its time. It is the first by-election gain by the Greens at the 87th time of asking. Only once before has the party polled above a tenth of the vote let alone gained a seat. Follow live - politics latest Hannah Spencer's 40.7% share of the vote is 27.5 percentage points higher than the party polled at the last general election.
Open in Who Shared View Duplicates (33) Issue with article?

The Access Myth and Everything Else John Samuels Must Explain to Family Offices

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
The private markets are driven by context that never gets captured. The complex reasoning behind critical decisions — why you sized that position differently, what made those terms acceptable, why one team was preferable to another — fades into the inbox abyss once an investment is made. And in an era of increasing talent mobility, institutional knowledge has become institutional risk. Patchworks of single-point solutions that don’t communicate context produce risks you no longer have to tolerate.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Former BlueMountain Exec Brings Allposit, His Personal Family-Office Software, to Market

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Stephen Siderow, the former president and co-founder of BlueMountain Capital Management, the once high-flying, multibillion-dollar hedge fund that became renowned for a huge winning bet related to JPMorgan Chase’s London Whale, has good investment problems. Even as BlueMountain’s performance faltered during the 2010s, the firm made money, and Siderow was a beneficiary.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Multiple challengers affecting election outcomes

|
By Professors Colin Rallings, Michael Thrasher
| Local Government First
A key feature of last year was multiple challengers; in more than a third of cases, ballot papers listed between six and eight candidates. The average percentage of vote share required to win a seat dropped to just 44 per cent, and more than a handful of seats saw the winner poll less than three in 10 votes. Results were often close.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Family Office Access, a Database With Thousands of Professionals, Sells to ISS Market Intelligence

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
ISS Market Intelligence, a company with data, analytics, insights, media, and events businesses, announced this week that it acquired Family Office Access, a database of thousands of professionals working at single-family offices, multifamily offices, private foundations, and wealth managers. The two companies reached an agreement in 2025, and the all-cash deal closed this month. No other terms were disclosed.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

In J.P. Morgan’s Latest Family-Office Report, a 'Delta' Between Objectives and Actions

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Streamline Your FinTech Evaluation Process with Dynamo's Due Diligence Checklist Selecting the right FinTech provider for your alternative investments can be overwhelming. Dynamo Software's Due Diligence Checklist simplifies the process by highlighting the five essential areas to evaluate: company history, system compatibility, pricing, security, and client support. This comprehensive guide ensures you ask the right questions and make informed decisions in 2026.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

The (European) Family Offices Paying CIOs the Most

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Streamline Your FinTech Evaluation Process with Dynamo's Due Diligence Checklist Selecting the right FinTech provider for your alternative investments can be overwhelming. Dynamo Software's Due Diligence Checklist simplifies the process by highlighting the five essential areas to evaluate: company history, system compatibility, pricing, security, and client support. This comprehensive guide ensures you ask the right questions and make informed decisions in 2026.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

The Family Offices Paying CIOs the Most

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Investment executives at single-family offices are all handsomely paid. But the total compensation for chief investment officers at certain offices is especially lucrative, a new report shows.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Alumni Ventures Is Teaching Future Family-Office Leaders Startup Investing

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Alumni Ventures, one of the most active venture capital firms, with about 1,400 portfolio companies and $1.4 billion in assets under management, has created a program to teach startup investing to future leaders of family offices. The program, called NextGen Family Office, is designed to help younger generations of ultrawealthy families learn and build confidence in venture investing by doing it.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Undermining the established order

|
By Professors Colin Rallings, Michael Thrasher
| Local Government First
Each of the final three quarters of the year saw more seats change party control than were held. This level of volatility has only been recorded nine times, and never before over such a long sequence. Seat turnover in the final quarter reached 62 per cent, matching the previous record set between January-March 1986. The latest contests further underline Reform UK’s capacity to undermine the established order as the party took seats from Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Independents.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

When Family Offices Should Invest in 2026 - According to the Stars

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
The reporting, notable dates, and horoscopes below are by Erika W. Smith, an award-winning writer and editor based in Chicago. She was previously the senior astrology editor at Cosmopolitan, has worked for numerous other publications, and is the author of the book series Astrosex. Astrologers often repeat a line credited to financier John Pierpont Morgan Sr.: "Millionaires don't use astrology.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Modus’s Family-Office Predictions for 2026

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Nearly half the nation’s DAF assets run on Ren. For almost 40 years, Ren has powered flexible philanthropy, from charitable trusts to DAFs. Today, we power more than $180B in charitable assets and enable $30B in annual grant distribution. Here’s how Ren-powered DAFs via Renaissance Charitable Foundation help families give smarter: Simplify sophisticated giving Whether it’s private business interests, real estate, alternatives, or other non-cash assets, our solutions are built for UHNW complexity.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Modus Turns One

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
When I left Institutional Investor magazine in October 2024, my plan was to take a break from work, refine my idea for a new family-office newsletter, and start sending it a few months later. The sabbatical I envisioned never happened. Knowing my plans, the family-office group at Armanino, an accounting and consulting firm that counts over 60 billionaires as clients, invited me to a one-day event it was hosting at the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

iPaladin, Amid Litigation With Orca, Is Raising Capital From Investors

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
The software company iPaladin, which is suing its competitor Orca over alleged patent infringement, recently sent notices to 12 additional companies that it believes may also have copied its system, and it has begun raising capital from investors. The notice letters and fundraising, two material developments related to iPaladin and the expanding software ecosystem surrounding family offices, have not been previously reported.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Multi-party politics

|
By Professors Colin Rallings, Michael Thrasher
| Local Government First
Twenty-seven of the 41 recent contests we recorded saw a turnover, with the winning candidate in 15 instances receiving less than 40 per cent of the total vote. Reform UK gained 10 more seats over the past six weeks, though it did lose the one seat it was obliged to defend in Worcestershire. On occasion, as in the Salford Priors and Alcester Rural ward in Stratford-on-Avon, it squeaked over the line by a handful of votes.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Notable Aspirations in the 2025 UBS Billionaire Ambitions Report

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
A reminder: Modus occasionally sends timely newsletters in addition to, or in place of, the regular Friday newsletter. The 2025 UBS Billionaire Ambitions Report was released a few hours ago, a per se study of family offices among the growing number of reports published by banks, asset managers and other organizations. Some findings in the eleventh edition of the UBS report were expected.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

The Family-Office Agenda of Addepar’s First Chief Client Officer

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Among Addepar’s more than 1,300 customers are huge investment firms with practically unlimited technology budgets — at least compared to single-family offices. Most family offices, even those responsible for assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, have lean teams and total budgets to match, in the low single-digit millions of dollars. Salaries consume the majority of that money, leaving only a portion for technology.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?
|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
Ren powers over $175B in DAF assets and enables $25B in annual charitable grants through leading financial institutions and many of the country’s most sophisticated family offices. As a charitable strategist, here are the three questions I hear most from family offices about DAFs: How do DAFs fit into our broader governance and multi-generational structure? Family offices want charitable vehicles that align with their existing architecture.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Asseta Raises $4.2 Million Seed Round Led by Venture Firms Nyca and Motive

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
StavPay was built for complex businesses to automate the business spend and expense allocation process from procurement to payment. More than 120 alternative asset managers and family offices with over $2.4T of AUM collectively use StavPay to manage their vendors, contracts, invoices, expense allocations, accruals, budgets, services, legal matters, 1099 filings, inter-entity reimbursements, time tracking and payments. Your family office deserves software built for complex businesses.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Less Government Funding, Tax Changes and a Higher Stock Market Build Momentum for Giving Season

|
By Michael Thrasher
| Modus Newsletter
StavPay was built for complex businesses to automate the business spend and expense allocation process from procurement to payment. More than 120 alternative asset managers and family offices with over $2.4T of AUM collectively use StavPay to manage their vendors, contracts, invoices, expense allocations, accruals, budgets, services, legal matters, 1099 filings, inter-entity reimbursements, time tracking and payments. Your family office deserves software built for complex businesses.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?
Show More
 •  Privacy  •  Terms  •  Security and Legal  •   •   •   • 

© 2026 Muck Rack

SOC 2® Certified