Catherine Grum

Spear’s Review

Following a very successful time advising family offices at KPMG and BDO, Catherine Grum has set up her own firm, Catherine Grum Consultancy. She tells Spear’s that the purpose of the firm is ‘to advise wealthy individuals and families who are starting with quite a purposive approach to their wealth. Helping them to think through what it’s actually for, what their goals and dreams are, and then how that wealth supports them.’

Grum specialises in advising the next generation, who see her as a counterpart rather than ‘their parents’ adviser’. She understands that, for the next gen, things like philanthropy and social responsibility are not ‘in a different bucket’ from wealth management, and helps them achieve a more ‘integrated approach’.

‘I enjoy working with next gens, and I think it’s a mistaken notion that they have different priorities to the old guy at the head of the table with the silver hair,’ she says. ‘The older generations care about the same issues, they just articulate it differently. Of course, if something like sustainability isn’t on the family’s agenda, there’s absolutely no chance that someone in the younger generation won’t mention it.’