106: Chapter 106 Family Office

After the meal had progressed through several rounds of drinks and dishes, Chen Ze and Yu Chen didn't resort to their usual business maneuvers, focusing instead on sincerity. As for Su Ye's situation, Yu Chen and Chen Ze had certainly looked into it, and Chen Ze had already shared his own conjectures with Yu Chen.

The meal lasted from past six until past eight. This was mainly because the three people present were no simple characters; whether it was emotional intelligence or the art of conversation, they never let the conversation fall flat.

Feeling that they had eaten and drunk enough, Su Ye glanced at the butler nearby. The butler, being very tactful, exited the private room and gently closed the door.

He pulled out a pack of Heshentianxia Zunshang 5000 cigarettes, offered one to Chen Ze and Yu Chen, lit his own, took a deep drag, and said, "Brother Ze, Brother Chen, since we're all brothers, I have a question I'd like to ask you."

After lighting his cigarette, Chen Ze glanced at Su Ye with dissatisfaction: "Ye-zi, just say what's on your mind. Given our relationship, what's with all this 'asking for advice' nonsense?"

Yu Chen also nodded from the side, clearly feeling that Su Ye was being too polite.

Su Ye smiled and apologized: "Can't help it, I'm a civilized person who promotes new traditions."

Chen Ze shot a disdainful look at Su Ye and chuckled: "Who was it that kept bringing up family members and ancestral trees the last time we played games together?"

Su Ye's mouth twitched. This is why being too close to someone isn't necessarily a good thing; being too close means they hold onto quite a bit of your dirt.

"Alright, alright, let's talk business. I've been thinking about setting up a Family Office recently, so I wanted to ask you two brothers to help me brainstorm how to get started."

Yu Chen flicked the ash from his cigarette: "Ye-zi, you're still so young—are you already planning to just lie flat and give up?"

Su Ye feigned anger and said: "Brother Chen, what do you mean 'give up'? I'm enjoying life. Don't you find it exhausting living like you two?"

Yu Chen had nothing to say. After all, if it weren't for the mindset of the older generation, he really would have liked to set one up himself; it would save so much trouble.

Chen Ze took a drag of his cigarette, exhaled a long dragon of smoke, and said: "Ye-zi, you know the requirements for setting up a Family Office, right? Which level are you looking to build?"

Su Ye had, of course, looked into the Family Office. There are usually certain requirements regarding the scale of assets managed by a Family Office. For example, the assets managed are typically calculated in the hundreds of millions. Generally speaking, anyone who can set up a Family Office needs at least several hundred million to a billion in net worth to even afford to play the game.

Furthermore, Family Offices are divided into three levels: small, medium, and large. A small Family Office usually requires about 4-8 people, while a medium-sized one typically has over 10 people. As for a large Family Office, it's a major team of 30 or more people.

Keeping these people on staff is indeed expensive. Every member of a Family Office earns a salary comparable to that of a senior executive; the annual salary for a regular member is around 300,000. Even for a small Family Office, the annual payroll would be two to three million, and with other expenses, it would basically be around five million—not to mention medium and large Family Offices.

According to what Su Ye knew, the core of a large Family Office—the CEO—currently commands an annual salary of over 2 million, plus various bonuses and benefits.

Logically speaking, given Su Ye's current assets, setting up a relatively large medium-sized Family Office would suffice. However, Su Ye considered that setting it up takes time; building it from scratch would likely take at least one or two months to perfect. Two months later, when the system recovers, his assets would certainly enter another period of rapid growth, and he might even break the 10-billion mark this year. If the Family Office couldn't keep up by then, it would be troublesome. Therefore, it was better to just set up a large Family Office directly; Su Ye could afford the ten or twenty million a year.

"Brother Ze, I want to set up a large Family Office. I plan to do it all in one go."

Upon hearing Su Ye's words, Chen Ze was stunned. He didn't even react as his cigarette burned down to his fingers until the searing pain hit him, at which point he dropped the cigarette butt on the floor.

Yu Chen, sitting nearby, was also shocked. He then spoke up: "Ye-zi, do you know what a large Family Office entails? Let me put it this way: my current scale is just about right for setting up a large Family Office; your Brother Ze is still a bit short of that. It's not that the more people, the better; you need to ensure their workload is saturated."

Chen Ze nodded in agreement, not refuting Yu Chen's words. After all, even though he had taken over 43% of the shares of the Chen family in the Chaoyang Group, he still didn't need a large Family Office.

Su Ye smiled and said: "You two brothers don't need to worry about that. I know what I'm doing. It might be a bit short for a large Family Office right now, but not by much."

Chen Ze and Yu Chen exchanged glances.

Yu Chen shot a questioning look: Didn't you say Ye-zi only had a technology company worth one or two hundred million?

Chen Ze returned a questioning look: Exactly, we talked about this when we ate together a while ago. At the time, Ye-zi was even worried about funds.

"Hiss!" Yu Chen took a deep drag, letting the smoke fill his lungs, and confirmed with Su Ye: "Ye-zi, your brother doesn't mean anything else by this, but there's really no need to play with a large Family Office unless you have assets of twenty or thirty billion. It's a total waste of money. We should save where we can and spend where we must. Wait until you have enough capital later."

Chen Ze nodded from the side: "Exactly, exactly, Ye-zi, let's just start with a small one for now."

Su Ye looked at the two older brothers who were genuinely looking out for him and said with a smile: "Don't worry, you two. Yuanda Logistics and Red Star Supermarket are mine, and there will be a few more companies arriving later. If I don't set up a large office, I'm afraid it will be troublesome later on; after all, finding people and getting them to work together takes time."

Yu Chen looked at Chen Ze: This is the technology company worth one or two hundred million that you were talking about?

Chen Ze didn't speak, just silently picked up his glass and drank a cup by himself. What did I say before? I don't know? I didn't say anything!

At the same time, a monstrous wave was churning in his heart. Previously, he had been thinking about ways to take care of this good brother of his, but he hadn't expected that his good brother was now on the verge of surpassing him—no, wait, if it weren't for the fact that he had just received the shares yesterday, he would have already been far surpassed.

After relighting his cigarette, Yu Chen decided not to persuade him further. There was no need to persuade him; just as Su Ye said, he now had the strength to set up a Family Office.

"Three words." "Find!" "Look." "Poach."

Su Ye asked curiously: "Brother Chen, can you elaborate on that?"

Yu Chen placed his cigarette on the ashtray stand: "It's actually quite simple. A Family Office is much like a company. Generally, the most important thing is the CEO, and finding a CEO is the issue. There are three ways to do it. The first is to find a headhunter. I recommend Guangyao Headhunters; they have a lot of experience in the Family Office sector."

"The second method is industry summits. The Family Office industry holds several summits every year, which you can view as a recruitment market for high-end talent. The next one is in December."

"The third method is to screen people from your current companies or your circle, or get recommendations."