For many people, being named a crewmember aboard an America’s Cup boat is considered the pinnacle of sailboat racing. These sailors are among the world’s best of the best, having earned their spots on board after years—sometimes, after decades—of honing their skills and knowledge in fierce competition out on the water.
Then, once they have reached that pinnacle of the sport, they have to learn all kinds of things anew. In 2012, foiling sailboats became part of the America’s Cup for the first time, requiring the athletes to learn how to fly. In 2018, the creation of the AC72 required lessons involving yet more new sailing techniques. For the 37th America’s Cup, which is scheduled to be raced in 2024 off the coast of Barcelona, Spain, sailors are out on the water right now, learning everything they need to know about the AC72’s smaller sistership, the AC40.
As the boats are evolving, so are each of the systems on board. Think about the technology you carried around in your pocket a decade ago compared with what you have available at your fingertips today. Now, extrapolate that exponential increase of power and features into the highest of high-tech equipment on board America’s Cup boats. Imagine being tasked with fully understanding every last bit of it, with a depth of knowledge that allows you to make smart, split-second decisions.
Even the most experienced, celebrated sailors in the world are always learning something new. That’s how life works—not just for them but for us all. All day, every day, we are growing, learning and changing.
We all need help to manage and simplify life’s ever-changing complexities. Sometimes, we need more, or different, help than others.
As the Whittier Trust team knows firsthand, it takes a full crew working in practiced unison to make sure all the moving parts continue to move in the right directions.
In fact, Whittier Trust built its whole business on being able to give clients anything they need as their own needs and desires change, and as the world’s complexities shift all around them. The company’s focus is on helping generation after generation of a family achieve their goals, simply and efficiently, regardless of what those goals might be.
From their roots as a single-family office in 1935 for the Whittier Family, and now as a multifamily office for a broader client base, Whittier Trust has a singular, refined focus on the business of wealth management. The company’s breadth of services includes everything from investment advice to managing family office needs, family trusts, philanthropy, real estate and more. Whittier organizes the right team of advisers from the start, matching their skills with the client’s needs and dreams to simplify day-to-day decisions.
And those advisers are always learning and growing their skill sets. No matter what areas of expertise a client requires and no matter how those needs change over time, Whittier maintains a ratio of just 25 clients for every adviser on the team—a level of personalized service that is unmatched anywhere else.
The result for the client is a lot less stress about life’s complexities. Just as with an America’s Cup team, where each crewmember is personally responsible for a daily check of, say, the boat’s electronics or wing controls, the Whittier Trust team members are each accountable for managing their corner of a client’s life balance sheet.
If you listen to interviews with sailors who have won the America’s Cup (especially those who have won the Auld Mug a few times in their lives), they often talk about how, throughout all the races, their team improved. Maybe their boatspeed got faster each day, their turns got tighter with each run or their grinders pushed that much harder with each crank. Whatever they realized they needed to do differently to win, they learned and grew and did it. That’s what makes champions.
It’s also what the Whittier Trust team aims to do for each of its clients: help them simplify life’s complexities so they can succeed at whatever new thing they choose to try next. It’s a winning strategy that’s served Whittier Trust clients well for over 85 years.
For more information about Whittier Trust, visit whittiertrust.com.
