“Heirlooms on Video”: Keeping the Voice of the Collector Alive
Co-Founder and President Julie Gustafson blends expertise in wealth management and fine art to create heritage stories for future generations
On this edition of “We Are Pleased to Host on Our Radar” is Julie Gustafson, a Chicago wealth management professional whose journey took her from guiding the many tentacles of clients’ accumulated assets to documenting the complex stories of family heritage – with an intense focus on art and collectibles, considered by many a passionate asset class, which holds pride of place in the wealth management ecosystem.
In its 2019 Art and Finance Report, Deloitte detailed how global wealth ballooned to $68.1 trillion in 2018, a statistic that makes the case for the projected historic transfer of wealth over the next decade – wealth that consists not just of assets and money, but of heritage based on unique personal family history, culture and values. Documenting these important pathways to success entails collecting testaments of business startups and stops, of pivots and growth, of challenges and resilience.
This is Julie Gustafson's domain today. The information and stories portrayed in her legacy films are not meant for the general public; rather they present perfect opportunities for families to share stories, which in the end can serve as instruments to create enduring legacies; to document innovation and economic survival; and to serve as roadmaps to ensure that wealth transfer reaches its desired destination intact.
Gustafson has become an expert in intergenerational stewardship. The Co-Founder and President of “Heirlooms on Video” spent nearly three decades in banking and wealth management with several leading international banks before focusing on a special category of inheritance: collections of artifacts whose pedigree and value go far beyond stock performance.
“I never managed investment portfolios per se,” she remembers of her banking career. “My role was more about oversight of the ‘big picture’ for client relationships among a team of experts: banking and credit, investment management and trusts, philanthropy.” Her specialized knowledge of lending, including art-secured credit, resulted in Gustafson’s co-leading a Fine Art Initiative offering a full range of financial services for art collectors.
Life After Banking
By the time Gustafson had left the banking world at the end of 2016, she was equipped with a compelling dual expertise in wealth management and fine art, along with a new passion: a deep personal interest in philanthropy, creating family legacies and responsible stewardship. Gustafson continued to keep abreast of the art market while considering career options, attending art fairs (Art Basel, the Armory Show, and EXPO Chicago among others) and maintaining her contacts with museums, galleries, artists, art world professionals and former clients.
However, it was a lunch with longtime mentor and friend Robert Jordan – a veteran award-winning former Chicago TV news anchor and reporter – that prompted a career decision. “Bob had founded ‘Video Family Biographies,’ specializing in the creation of documentaries for wealthy families and business owners, after retiring from his decades-long broadcasting career,” Gustafson recalls. “I was looking for advice from him on which job offer to choose when he said to me, ‘Julie, your face simply lights up when you talk about three things: working with families, philanthropy, and art. What do you think about launching a new company with me, producing PBS-quality documentaries for private collectors and others in the art world?’” A week later, she began her steep learning curve in television production, and “Heirlooms on Video” was launched.
In its first three years of business, “Heirlooms on Video” has produced several projects of between 30-45 minutes’ duration. The videos cover the whole story of a collection; not just interviews with principals about the origins of the collection, but also insights from the team that helped build, preserve, protect and advise in the process. Thus, a typical video features interviews with the collector(s) as well as with fellow collectors and selected professionals specializing in additional purchases, conservation and repair, and risk management.
Past is Present
The videos create a basis for decision-making for the next generation, who may not share the passion or fully understand and appreciate the collection. “It’s an opportunity for the collectors to share their insights and specific hopes for the next leg of the collection’s journey,” Gustafson explains. “The videos are full of compelling stories: about how and why and where specific pieces were collected.”
A video’s purpose is not to replicate an object’s fully-documented known attributes, but to present stories and information that doesn’t appear on the back of a painting or in an appraisal, and to go beyond provenance – to capture previously unshared or documented facts and personal stories and to enhance what is already known. “We can present inside knowledge about the collection that may not have been explained fully in person but can be of vital importance,” Gustafson points out.
The finished product may indeed resemble a PBS documentary (at about the same cost), but these personal stories are usually shown to private rather than public audiences. “Who wouldn’t cherish a living keepsake of a loved one talking about something that matters so much to them? And being able to replay it over and over?”
Gustafson prompts collectors to think of the video as a kind of living will for their family, while “Heirlooms”’ stringent client confidentiality agreements ensure that the films remain the private property of the collectors. Still, some clients can be a bit uncomfortable with the filming process. “Once we get started and they become used to the presence of cameras, they do relax and enjoy this opportunity to travel down memory lane, often recalling new details or things they might have forgotten,” she notes.
Producing the films involves face-to-face, on-camera interviews and filming on-location where the collections are held. Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has created constraints. Production has been put on hold, but Gustafson and Jordan maintain contact with prospective clients through video meetings such as Zoom, and hope to be able to resume work in-person in the new year.
As the person in charge of tapping new collector-clients for “Heirlooms,” Gustafson has her work cut out for her these days. But the importance of the work has not faded. “Life is unpredictable,” Gustafson points out. “Having these stories on video keeps the voices of the collectors alive.”
Acknowledgements:
- Interview contributions by Shellie Karabell, Journalist
- Editor: Ellie Meek Tweedy
- Visuals are compliments of Julie Gustafson