- "Why not throw in the kids' private tuitions," says compensation expert Graef Crystal. "Where is the line between your wallet and the company's?"
- The need for a "family office' to manage one's billions is what's known as a high-class concern, and Fortress Investment (NYSE:FIG) helped out with that issue for principals Wes Edens, Peter Briger, Randal Nardone, and Mike Novogratz, taking care of $902K in expenses connected with family office staff in 2012 and 2013.
- A little less egregious than at first glance, the $902K does not actually represent checks cut to the group, but that money instead is the share of company overhead used by family office staff - it seems they do at least some of their work at the Fortress offices and on Fortress computers. "To be clear," says a Fortress spokesman, "most of these costs would be incurred by Fortress, even in the absence of employees serving in family office roles.”
- Representatives for Blackstone, Carlyle Group, and KKR said those P-E firms do not cover family office costs for executives.