Reverence for the curator of a museum is rarely equal to that for the artists whose pieces are displayed. However, without proper care, a Picasso or a Monet can easily fall into decay. Maintaining their work is a fine art all unto itself—the art of stewardship.
Arlington has created artful structures in alignment with our promises to serve not only your family, but your children and grandchildren. Arlington Trust Company now serves as your central client service entity, the axis through which we will continually expand operations of care.
It is our perpetual purpose model (PPM) that establishes continuity of values—ensuring intentions for your family today become enduring pillars of guidance. The PPM introduces an unending timeline into the fabric of Arlington. We (and therefore your family) are not for sale.
As 2025 begins with these structures in place, and as we reach $15B in assets under stewardship, we now sharpen our focus towards the stewards of tomorrow—thoughtful professionals who will not only honor and maintain the processes that serve you best but keep our promises. People, and people
alone, can sustain our mission. People drive sustainability and create new strategies to meet new challenges.
In this annual letter, we will explore the metrics, mechanics, and mission to identify and develop such individuals—the future leaders of Arlington. While we are fortunate to have so many capable professionals on board and ready to serve, the search is unceasing. Excellence demands we never rest from seeking and preparing talent.
Within these pages, we discuss not only the importance of learning but also examine the quiet mastery of tacit knowledge where skill emerges absent formal teaching.
The art of stewardship deems those in charge of the art as important as those who created it.
We remain honored to serve you. The joy of our past experiences is only exceeded by our optimism for the future.
Kenneth H. Polk Founder and CEO
ARLINGTON BY THE NUMBERS
Founded to help families flourish for seven generations and beyond, Arlington is a legacy-focused f irm that invests for decades, plans for centuries, and serves for generations.
Our team of expert specialists works closely with a select group of families to provide best-in-class investment, trust, philanthropy, tax, and human capital services on the journey to Build a Better Family. Purpose-driven and values-led, Arlington is managed by a dedicated group of partners who are committed to enduring success and stability.
Entrepreneurialism
Innovation and creativity foster enduring organizations (and families). Many businesses lose adaptability and originality as they grow. They become bureaucracies. We are determined to stay true to our entrepreneurial origins.
Independence
Our independence is to be protected by the absence of external shareholders. Strategy, operational decisions, and culture should be formed by active owners and those closest to the families we serve.
Long-Term Thinking
We think beyond the short-term and focus on decisions that are sevengeneration principled. This allows Arlington to be purpose-driven and values-led. And, it underpins the thinking that lies at the heart of successful investment performance.
TACIT KNOWLEDGE
The power of experiential wisdom and craft accumulated over time
By Stephen Rowe, President
This will be an odd request. Travel over to YouTube and type in “Horowitz plays Mozart piano concerto 23 2nd mov.” Now, listen to the first 60 seconds. I will wait and meet you back here…that was Vladimir Horowitz, who many argue was the finest classical pianist to ever live. Why does this matter to Arlington and our families? It matters because on display is something edifying to our mission.
If you consume 50 more recordings of this same Mozart masterpiece played by other excellent pianists, the notes will be precisely the same; however, the feeling will not. Horowitz brought to each performance music that was not on the page. I am referring to the unteachable notes of the heart. He brought tacit knowledge, the most valuable form of mastery on Earth.
While your material wealth is quantifiable, what allows the same to flourish forever is not. More than businesses, assets, and real estate holdings, the foundation of a lasting family legacy is knowledge. But what many families may not realize is that the most powerful knowledge is also the most personal—and the most difficult to transfer. A predicament has been formed.
This hidden dimension of tacit knowledge refers to the unspoken, experiential, and intuitive insights and abilities individuals accumulate over time—the true mastery of craft no school can teach. To further complicate its definition, some are born with tacit capacity just like some are born with the physical characteristics of height and size. Imagine trying to teach someone how to be tall. The lunacy of such a suggestion highlights
the difficult nature of transferring this type of internal expertise.
Think of knowledge as a mountain. The base is explicit knowledge: information easily written, shared, and stored (like manuals, case studies, and presentations). Implicit knowledge builds on the foundation of knowledge by applying it, such as a graphic designer who has studied the principles of design and applies these principles in their creative work. At the top of this mountain, tacit knowledge compounds personal experience, intuition, and appropriate application. This explains why one designer intuitively “gets” your company’s brand aesthetic while you must explain it to others at the bottom of the mountain.
Mastery flows from tacit knowledge. The potential for this kind of knowledge is vast—but it can easily be wasted if it never expands beyond the individual. Our predicament remains. How do you teach someone to be tall?
Arlington has and continues to benefit from the learned and tacit knowledge of our people. That is part of the “recipe” we use to serve our client families. Within Arlington, tacit knowledge shows up as our internal guidance system—a deep, confident knowing able to reduce complex matters into simple solutions and then to communicate the same in understandable ways. The integrity of our commitment to serve clients for multiple generations necessitates working hard to transfer not only our recipe, but the spirit behind it. Remember those wrinkled hands covered in flour? As children, we experienced the smell, the feel, and the warmth. I am referring to
THIS
HIDDEN
DIMENSION OF TACIT KNOWLEDGE
REFERS TO THE UNSPOKEN, EXPERIENTIAL, AND INTUITIVE INSIGHTS AND ABILITIES INDIVIDUALS ACCUMULATE OVER TIME.
walking into the kitchen while grandmother was cooking. The memory makes us smile before we even realize it.
The ingredients were co-stars to the family meal. What we tasted was her love, her understanding, her acceptance, and her hope for our future. The ability to measure a cup of this and a pinch of that was needed, but relatively inconsequential. Because in the end, the food grandma made tasted like a relationship, and that was all we desired.
The best way to train those in our ranks who will one day be the next “chefs” of Arlington is to have them in the kitchen with us as much as possible. For us this means engaging in collaborative work, experiential learning, and creative whiteboard sessions. It means pushing down both opportunity and responsibility (including client contact). And it also means continually sharpening our focus on culture, mentoring, and intentional feedback. We work so hard at all of this because our team—our Arlington family—represents one of the most important responsibilities we have to our client families. Simply put, we must transfer the care we have for you. In this way, our team will operate from a powerful place of understanding when they are one day at the helm, and at the helm they will be able to stand tall.
These same principles apply to families. Families, like organizations, who find a way to unlock the ideas and instincts that rise from the tacit dimension will face the future with more resilience, depth, and innovation. Tacit knowledge is shared the same way it is acquired: through immersive experiences and frequent interactions over time. Your hands must be in the flour.
Grow family knowledge
Nowhere is mastering knowledge management more important than within a family. James “Jay” Hughes, Jr., a leading family wealth advisor, author, and friend of Arlington, puts it like this: “A family’s wealth consists primarily of its human capital (defined as all the individuals who make up the family) and its intellectual capital (defined as everything that each individual family member knows), and secondarily of its financial capital.”
Share what you have learned
A family’s knowledge is wealth, and it must be cultivated and passed on. If you want your family legacy to last for generations, you must transfer the wisdom that created and transcends the wealth. The most successful families understand this fundamental dynamic and build intuitive opportunities for family members to illuminate, identify, and share their deepest wisdom and learning.
Capitalize on the power of time
Tacit knowledge, more than any other type, compounds with time as experiences and insights grow. Relationships with trusted advisors will become more valuable over the years as they develop their own tacit knowledge of you and your family, learning to intuit and respond to your needs. Time also pays dividends when you spend it with the next generation. Immerse your family’s younger members so they can glean from the unspoken wisdom of others and develop their own through hands-on experiences.
Live out your legacy now
Finally, as you build with your eyes fixed on tomorrow, do not forget what matters most: what is thriving around you right now. Your routine choices and everyday interactions will accumulate over time, grounding your family in a deep, confident knowledge of your love and shared values. They will develop their own tacit understanding of what it means to be part of the family. Paying attention to the knowledge you are imparting—spoken and unspoken—is a significant responsibility, but a rewarding one. You are laying a foundation of meaning and purpose that can support your family’s flourishing for years to come.
Dedicated to our past, present, and future clients, without whom Arlington would not exist.
The Spirit of Wealth Preservation
KEN POLK
Are you saving your best thinking for your business or your family?
This question echoes throughout the pages of The Spirit of Wealth Preservation. Arlington’s Founder and CEO provokes readers to think differently—unraveling the oftencomplicated practice of wealth management and shifting the focus from building better portfolios to building better families. In this book, you will find candid conversations on the non-monetary value of wealth and how to become not only the benefactor of your estate but also a steward of purpose.
FOLLOWSHIP
The next two articles delve into the closely knit areas of teaching and mentoring at Arlington, highlighting the importance of both disciplines in delivering impeccable service to our families into future generations.
Client service at Arlington requires an intersection of philosophy, teaching, and practice that allows us to deliver world-class support to our client families. Curating this intersection is Peter Barber, who serves as the Managing Director for our Family Wealth Management team. Peter’s unusual gifts of deep listening, humility, and empathy have shaped our approach to service. The example of his craft—in particular his ability to tailor his approach to match the most thoughtful of service ideals with the actual needs of the families he serves—creates an environment where excellence is normalized.
Peter teaches intentionality by offering not only seasoned advice but also the nuances—the tacit knowledge not so easily transferred.
Spend a day with Peter and you will realize the power of his approach is found in one word: followship. The followship philosophy refers to a passionate commitment to closing the gap between what our families imagine can happen and what actually occurs.
Footsteps
While technical expertise in Arlington’s core service areas powers our daily operations, this technical knowledge is a baseline. Followship requires being sensitive enough to hear what families do not quite say and see what they may not yet have clearly shown us. Peter teaches our team that if we listen well enough and follow close enough, we can step into our families’ footsteps to understand them better.
Through followship, each advisor also learns that what works for one family may not work for another. True service must serve —it must be carefully tailored to fit each family’s unique needs. The shape of their footprints must equal the shape of our service.
Peter teaches intentionality by offering not only seasoned advice but also the nuances—the tacit knowledge not so easily transferred. The “recipe” for followship can be scripted, but the spirit behind it cannot. That spirit is based on a simple but powerful truth: “It’s not about us.”
This is a phrase Peter often uses to maintain our course of excellence, reminding us to shift the conversation away from what we can do and toward what the client needs done. The two can be very different. Keeping this correct focus helps us to anticipate risks and concerns, and to remove burdens and complexities, before they arrive.
Growing together
Peter’s example reminds us why we serve, who we serve, and how we serve—helping us to manage our ambition while keeping our mission center stage. However, we are still only at baseline, because followship and the blocking and tackling of technical knowledge require one more ingredient. We must grow together.
Growing together is the next level of service. It connotes an alliance—a commitment to support, encourage, facilitate, and advise each other at par. Growing together ensures that we not only fulfill the desires of our families today, but also cultivate the requisite skills to execute on our promises for tomorrow. Our team must know what it means to go beyond reactive service and into preemptive service—to be so attentive that we are able to expand hints into clear ideas and general comments into specific directions.
To prepare ahead, we must continually deepen the relationships within our team and with
our families. We must have more than head knowledge, but heart knowledge. We must focus on how current decisions affect the next series of decisions to be made.
Growing together is the next level of service. It connotes an alliance—a commitment to support, encourage, facilitate, and advise each other at par.
Growing together means Arlington is as committed to refining ourselves outside of the presence of our client families as we are to understanding their needs when we are together.
For us, service is a team sport. Every team member trusts those around them to do their job. This trust makes us stronger. When we ask you to tell us your story, just know it does more than inform us of where you are today—it inspires us to anticipate and prepare for the needs that will one day arise.
THE LIST
Rummage through those loose papers in the kitchen drawer and you are sure to find one— a note with the following words: ‘to-do list’— important actions yet to be taken. Most lists have an accompanying timeline for completion, maybe a day, a week, or even a month. The goal is to finish one task before moving to the next. Simple enough. But now, imagine adding one more action to this common manifest, and this action says, “plan for the next seven generations.”
The very thought is aggressively overwhelming. How would you start such a plan? What would be your approach? At Arlington, this grand objective can be seen throughout our to-do list. On behalf of our families, we must plan far beyond our lives. We must plan for a time that is a century away. Thankfully, this is not a new concept: it is called the Seventh Generation Principle (SGP). In essence, this
principle says the decisions we make today should work to create a sustainable world seven generations from now, which, by most estimates, is somewhere between 140 and 210 years upstream. At Arlington, we engage in mentorship to translate this lifetime of work to a day-to-day item on our to-do lists. And we honor those who lead our team in this practice.
Many of us at Arlington lean into this responsibility. None more so than Bill Levant. Since joining Arlington 18 years ago, Bill’s mentorship has helped shape not only our investment strategy but our future investment team leaders. A quiet commitment to developing younger associates has earned him a reputation for quality guidance. Chad Brand, a Family Investment Advisor, says it this way, “Bill has helped me learn how to ‘see around corners,’ to anticipate what a client may need before they need it.”
With 35 years in the financial industry, Bill spent the first part of his career in mergers and acquisitions before transitioning to advising families. At Arlington, he helps our client families codify their vision, values, and objectives into their portfolios—an external alignment with internal principles.
But inside Arlington, the power of his work can be found in a commitment to lead by example. “Lessons are often caught, not taught,” Bill
says. “Words mean little without alignment of action. We must help team members reach their potential—not just as professionals, but as human beings. We must show them more than just how to solve problems; they must know how to avoid them altogether.”
The next generation of Arlington leaders will be ready because those leading them today are thinking ahead—seven generations ahead.
Chad Brand and Bill Levant
Few things get our team talking like a great book or podcast. Perhaps more than anything else, the love of learning unites the people at Arlington. We are a serious group of readers and thinkers, always eager to explore ideas that help us see the world in a new way. We are happy to share a few of this year’s most thought-provoking books and podcasts. We hope you will find them as stimulating and enriching as we did.
Invest Like the Best
With Patrick O’Shaughnessy
It is no surprise that conversations with some of the world’s most successful business leaders and investors produce powerful insights for how to better invest your time and money. Host Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s thoughtful questions explore innovative strategies, big ideas, and timeless principles that leave listeners inspired.
Hannah Basik Director of Trust Operations
PODCASTS BOOKS
Ben & Me
By Eric Weiner
Easy to pick up, hard to put down—this humorous and thoughtprovoking book applies Benjamin Franklin’s timeless wisdom to modern life. Blending history with personal anecdotes, Weiner reveals how Franklin’s practical advice on happiness, success, and resilience remains profoundly relevant, offering lessons for living meaningful and impactful lives.
John
Lueken
President,
Arlington Nashville
Acquired
With Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
A masterclass in business strategy, innovation, and leadership. Hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal go deep into the stories behind the world’s leading companies. Their extensive research and insights uncover how iconic brands rose to prominence, offering valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and business enthusiasts alike.
Chad Brand
Family Investment Advisor
The Rest Is History
With Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook
Who knew history could be so gripping? Historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook bring their sharp wit and expert insight to each episode of this entertaining, enlightening podcast as they examine history’s pivotal events and enduring mysteries.
Richard Pearson
Chief
Compliance Officer and
Associate
General Counsel
A Bit of Optimism
With Simon Sinek
Author and speaker Simon Sinek wants to inspire you to build a better world. That is the goal of his illuminating, conversation-centered podcast, where he unpacks life, leadership, and personal growth with some of our time’s brightest minds and leaders.
Elliot Robbins Chief Fiduciary Officer
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
By Jonathan Haidt
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt investigates the decline of adolescent mental health by charting the shift from a “play-based childhood” to a “phone-based childhood.” His clear-eyed analysis identifies the complexities and challenges of the era of big tech, social media, and smartphones—and then offers a powerful plan of action, with four steps to restore a healthier childhood.
Justin Cureton
Senior Manager,
Tax Services
Gratitude
By Oliver Sacks
Described as “the poet laureate of medicine,” the late neurologist Oliver Sacks pens a moving, meaningful collection of four essays in the last years of his battle with cancer. Reflecting on life and mortality, Sacks expresses deep gratitude for the beauty of living, the joy of curiosity, and the uniqueness of every human being.
Emily Vanlandingham Chief Operating Officer
The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond By George Friedman
Provocative and prescient, this analysis from noted geopolitical forecaster George Friedman examines Americas cyclical socio-economic and institutional changes, predicting a period of upheaval in the 2020s. Friedman argues the turmoil will pave the way for innovation, reform, and a more resilient nation. Exploring how change impacts everything from the size of the federal government to the future of our economy, Friedman will keep you turning pages.
Stephen Rowe President
STEWARDS OF TOMORROW
Since our founding, we have understood that we are stewarding much more than wealth. We are helping you pass on the values that matter most to you and your family. Our team is equipped to help you shepherd this generational transfer because our advisors not only bring world-class technical expertise across disciplines, they also develop deep experience and insight into the families we serve. Arlington remains committed to assembling and developing a talented team rich in knowledge and ready to evolve as your family does. We are proud to highlight a few colleagues leading the way this year, from our newest hires to newly promoted leaders.
Celebrating our newly promoted leaders.
RICHARD PEARSON Chief Compliance Officer
MEGAN WILSON Director of Fiduciary Services
WILLIAM COOK Senior Investment Analyst
BROOKE BRUNER Senior Manager, Client Accounting
REBECCA OGLE Senior Family Wealth Coordinator
SHANE HESTER Senior Trust Specialist
CHAD BRAND Family Investment Advisor
ROXANNA KRANNICH Senior Manager, Internal Audit
COURTNEY IVES Staff Accountant
ETHAN SANDERSON Tax Manager
DREW BERG Family Investment Advisor
Drew calls himself a “process engineer at heart” because, like the team at Arlington, he is committed to continuous learning and improvement. With a long, diverse career spanning market research and strategy, financial technology, and wealth management, Drew brings deep experience in managing large investment portfolios and communicating complex ideas to clients. An avid cyclist and lifelong hockey player, Drew prioritizes spending time with his family, being outdoors, and serving on the board of Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee.
AMY BRUNSON Securities Operations Manager
With over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Amy is excited to join Arlington’s Securities Operations team. “The advanced technology and workflows within operations are the best I have ever had the privilege to work with. It seems as though every type of reporting or automation I could have dreamed of in past roles is now at my fingertips,” Amy says. She also appreciates Arlington’s emphasis on work-life balance, giving Amy more time to spend with her family and her creative pursuits.
MATT BRADFORD Chief Technology Officer
Like so many of his colleagues, Matt was drawn to join Arlington because of the people. After leading the IT department for Jemison Metals for years, Matt launched his own technology consulting business for clients across a range of industries, including Arlington. Today, he brings that diverse experience to the firm, saying: “I’m excited about the pivotal role technology will play in Arlington’s future, from streamlining operations to developing cutting-edge solutions tailored to our clients’ needs.” In his free time, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and four children and playing the rare round of golf.
MACKIE SHEETS
Investment Operations Manager
Mackie Sheets worked at several investment management firms and developed expertise in alternative investments, portfolio management, and operational efficiency before joining Arlington’s investment team in 2024. “What inspires me is the firm’s principled, values-driven culture. It’s the only place I’ve worked where the depth of knowledge may only be overshadowed by the depth of character,” he says. Outside of work, Mackie enjoys live music, reading, and spending quality time with his family and chocolate lab.
Arlington Nashville Office (Franklin, TN)
MAKING IT COUNT
At Arlington, we have always recognized the power of philanthropy. For our families and advisors, giving is much more than a financial plan or strategy. It is a purposeful expression of a family’s deepest commitments—and it can be one of the most enduring, engaging legacies connecting multiple generations. Of course, that does not mean that our philanthropic efforts are not strategic. In fact, we work tirelessly with families to ensure just the opposite: that their philanthropy is as effective and impactful as possible.
As with any aspect of the support we provide families, our team is constantly seeking out and evaluating new tools and resources related to
philanthropic engagement. In some cases, a need is identified but no existing or sufficient solution can be found. In those circumstances, we work to develop the tools we know our families need. The result of our recent efforts is an exciting new solution, the Arlington Donor Advised Fund, to make purpose-driven giving even more meaningful.
A donor advised fund (DAF) is a charitable giving platform where participating donors can direct tax-deductible contributions. Fund participants can then recommend grants to the charities of their choice. While this type of fund is not new, its administration in concert with Arlington’s suite of services and technology
is—and has already proven to be an invaluable resource for families seeking more purpose and control in their giving.
Leveraging Arlington’s DAF ensures financial gifts are directed more precisely and confidentially, if desired. The fund’s structure also makes it simple to create opportunities for younger generations of a family as they develop their own charitable philosophy and giving strategy.
As purposeful and powerful as the generosity it facilitates, our new DAF program is yet another way we realize our promise to continue evolving with and supporting the families we serve
ARLINGTON INTRODUCES A POWERFUL NEW SOLUTION FOR GENERATIONAL GIVING: THE ARLINGTON DONOR ADVISED FUND.
Investments by Design
WITH AN OPEN MIND, OPPORTUNITIES BECOME ENDLESS
Entrepreneurialism is a founding principle of Arlington. That spirit of innovation has shaped the design of our firm. The same spirit inspires us to question industry standards and develop better structures for our client families.
In all aspects of life and work, design is the key to unlocking capacity to allow for long-term focus and value maximization. Without intentional design, the urgent displaces the important and material progress may never be achieved. We are all familiar with the adage, “death by a thousand cuts.” At Arlington, we develop processes to efficiently tackle the needs of the day to preserve time to conquer our larger strategic objectives.
We apply the same design principle in portfolio construction to steward your financial capital and reduce friction.
A core design element employed at Arlington for over 20 years is a series of pooled investment structures designed for our client families’ benefit.
In this Annual Report, we are detailing the design of our pooled Private Equity and Real Estate investment vehicles to demonstrate how the intentionality of structure improves the focus needed to drive long-term, consistent results.
DIRECT AND INDIRECT INVESTMENTS:
Our Private Equity and Real Estate investments can be either direct or indirect. The choice of structures enhances our flexibility to allocate capital to the best opportunities aligned with our investment objectives.
Direct Investments are investments made directly into a company or real estate project. We are responsible for sourcing, structuring, and monitoring the investment. These investments may be wholly-owned companies, properties, or co-investments. They should have lower overall management fees than indirect investments.
Indirect Investments are made through likeminded outside managers responsible for sourcing, structuring, and investing capital. Our role is to diligently monitor and provide input to the managers as needed. At times, our representatives serve on the board or advisory board. While indirect investment costs may be higher than direct investments, they provide important access to complementary skill sets and specific asset classes.
Furthermore, they help enhance proper diversification into areas where Arlington has not allocated the resources to build a dedicated internal team.
CURRENT CASE STUDIES:
Highlighted here are investments we made in 2024 that were made possible by our pooled Private Equity funds and evergreen Private Real Estate fund1.
PRACTICAL BENEFITS:
Our pooled fund structures provide an efficient and flexible means to allocate capital to the best opportunities aligned with identified investment objectives. Each pooled investment structure provides an efficient vehicle to access strategic partnerships, co-investments, and direct and indirect investments. At the same time, the pooled investment structure delivers simplified reporting, reduces workflow, lowers costs, and creates tax savings opportunities for investors. One powerful example of the reduced burdens on your time and ours is the elegant simplicity of one subscription document, one annual K-1, and one portfolio line-item per Arlington Fund.
The quintessence of luxury is saving time.
We can and do invest outside of our pooled fund structures when desired by a family or beneficial in fulfilling a family’s needs. But it is our experience that the pooled investment structures increase understanding, save time and effort, and bring clarity and focus to decision making. By design, we have crafted pooled investment structures to align with the multi-generational time horizon of our client families. A perpetual structure supports and fosters a perpetual mindset for our families and our firm.
Throughout 2025, we will provide exciting updates on several investments made possible by our pooled fund structures. Thank you for your ongoing trust and partnership. We cherish the privilege and responsibility of stewarding your family assets.
Emily Vanlandingham, Arlington COO
We
will help you prepare your family for the future as it will be.
