Dr. Jim Grubman has provided services to individuals, couples, and families of wealth for over 40 years. With an international reputation as a valued family advisor, he has often been consulted in situations of complexity where psychology, law, finance, medicine, and business all come into play to varying degrees.
In recognition of his prominence in the industry, Jim has been honored with several major professional honors. One is the prestigious 2024 Family Wealth Report Lifetime Achievement Award in the wealth management industry. Another is the 2024 Richard Beckhard Practice Award from the Family Firm Institute, the top practitioner award granted each year to an individual who has contributed significantly to the fields of family business consulting and family wealth consulting. Jim is also a past recipient of the 2021 FWR Award for Outstanding Thought Leadership with his longtime collaborator, Dennis T. Jaffe, PhD.
Jim is the author of Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations, a now-classic book discussing how individuals and families adjust to the opportunities and challenges of wealth. He is co-author (with Dennis Jaffe and Kristin Keffeler) of Wealth 3.0: The Future of Family Wealth Advising, a remarkable look at the history and future of the wealth advising field. In addition, he is co-author with Dennis Jaffe of Cross Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations, describing the unique adaptations of wealthy families around the world in various cultures. His work has been discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, CNBC, and The New York Times, among other publications. He has published widely in Trusts & Estates, the Journal of Wealth Management, the International Family Offices Journal, Journal of Financial Planning, STEP Journal, and many other media.
A dynamic sought-after speaker, Jim has presented at national and international conferences including the STEP Global Congress, the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning of the University of Miami School of Law, TIGER21, the Family Office Exchange (FOX), and the Family Firm Institute, among many others. He was a collaborator on the Hundred Year Family Enterprise Project, studying the practices of global families who have successfully made transitions through at least three generations. He has also served as academic director for the Family Legacy and Wealth Program at the John Molson Executive Centre of Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, as well as a similar program at Queens University in Kingston, ON, Canada.
Activities in Thought Leadership, Training, and Education
Jim is a leader in the nonprofit think tank, the UHNW Institute, where he helped oversee content and curriculum development for the industry and for families. As a faculty member of the McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley University (2004 – 2008), Jim developed and taught the first graduate-level-only course in the United States about the psychological aspects of financial advising. He has been a subject matter expert for the Certified Private Wealth Advisor (CPWA) program of the Investments & Wealth Institute (IWI – formerly the Investment Management Consultants Association) where he helped design the Family Dynamics and Legacy Planning section for the CPWA credential.
Professional Affiliations
Jim is a Fellow of the Family Firm Institute where he holds the Advanced Certificate in Family Wealth Advising and the Certificate in Family Business Advising. He also holds Fellow status in the Purposeful Planning Institute, a professional organization emphasizing integrated approaches to estate planning and wealth management. He is one of the very few mental health professionals among nearly 20,000 members in the internationally-based Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). A former member of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, he maintains a specialty interest in families of wealth with ADHD and other learning and cognitive disorders.
Jim has a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Vermont. His consulting practice is based in the Boston, Massachusetts, area in the US.