Show of hands, anyone else spend time with family over Labor Day weekend? Between scheduling activities, meal plans, rentals, and saying “no” to frivolous expenses like novelty kettle corn, I joked to my significant other, “Do we need a family office?”

It’s a question Kellogg’s Matt Allen hears more and more often from his students. This week, Allen offers key elements to consider when deciding whether to open a family office.

Plus, recent research from new Kellogg associate professor Letian (LT) Zhang shows why soft skills still matter—perhaps now more than ever.

The family office plan

Global interest in family offices has increased, and Deloitte Private estimates the number of family offices in the world will grow 75 percent between 2020 and 2030.

But there are many different kinds of family offices. There are embedded family offices, virtual family offices, single-family offices, and multifamily offices. Newer definitions eliminate the “family office” term altogether in favor of the concepts of private-investment offices and wealth-management firms. So the question “Do we need a family office?” may not be quite right, suggests Allen, a clinical professor and executive director of the Ward Center for Family Enterprises.

“Families would be better served asking themselves questions around need, purpose, sophistication, and preparedness,” Allen proposes.

For starters: What prompted the question in the first place? If current structures and processes for addressing family-resource management or family needs are suboptimal, asking what underlies these issues can help families change.

Next, what do you hope a family office will do? Is the purpose more focused on meeting family needs or adding strategy or sophistication to resource management? Intent helps.

Then consider how much the family is willing and able to commit. The cost of a formalized office means families need to consider their resources—on average a single-family office can run as high as $10 million annually, so costs may not justify derived benefits.

And lastly, ask yourself, is everyone aligned? A family office should serve the whole family, not just individuals. There needs to be a common understanding of the purpose.

Get more advice from Allen in Kellogg Insight (originally published in Inc.).

The firm power of soft skills

As AI continues to reshape work, it’s understandable why many people think pursuing greater technical competence will help ensure a long and lucrative career.

But according to new research coauthored by Kellogg’s Letian (LT) Zhang and former Kellogg faculty Hyejin Youn, soft skills will never go out of style. The research team found that foundational skills like collaboration, mathematical thinking, and adaptability can be much more important for individuals and companies.

To help leaders understand, Zhang examined the ways soft skills shape long-term performance, adaptability, and advancement. Their study found that people with reading comprehension, basic math, and communication abilities tend to learn faster and will master more complex abilities over time.

Zhang and coauthors likened these findings to the NBA draft: “Teams don’t always pick the top college scorers. Instead, they look for players with high potential—those with the right foundations like speed, agility, ball control, positional sense, and shooting form.”

And the same logic applies in the workplace. For example, workers with a broad range of skills can adapt to industry changes. This is especially crucial as specialized skills can rise and fall. (Hello, “AI tidal wave.”) But people with adaptability can ride out new trends.

So what can leaders do to tap into these talents? For one, hire the right people and screen for foundational strengths like problem-solving, adaptability, and communication. Don’t be afraid to develop your people early, because aforementioned foundational skills are much harder to build later in life. And as always, lead. Managers should reinforce their teams’ skills in day-to-day work. Peer feedback and mentoring are just a few of the soft skills that should become part of your culture.

For further advice, read more about Zhang’s research in Harvard Business Review (paywall).