Working as an investment specialist and a financial advisor leaves you vulnerable to the extremes of the markets. When your investment portfolio is going up, you tend to think you are a genius and the world is full of opportunities. Likewise, when your investment portfolio goes the wrong direction, i.e., down, you tend to feel ashamed and, quite frankly, a bit dumb.

If you understand the real consequences of proper investment stewardship, then you know that your goal is to protect the irreplaceable savings families entrusted to you. First, to protect, and only then, to grow.

Grow in sanctity

Emotion management is crucial for successful investment stewardship. We should reflect on market conditions, but we shouldn’t let them disrupt us.

Here, I am not speaking about being a “stoic” to the market reality. No, I am talking about something much deeper and better.

Stoicism can sound like emotional detachment: the market moves, and you feel nothing.

As a Catholic, I want something better. I want market cycles to train me in virtue–especially humility–so I can serve families with clarity, whether the numbers are green or red. My goal is to use market movements to grow in sanctity.

I should (1) embrace if the markets are going up, (2) reflect on why they are going up, and (3) proceed with the next steps that align with my investment goals: maybe sell some, maybe buy more, maybe stay still. The same process should be followed if the markets are going down.

This way, I am managing my professional responsibility while keeping my emotions in check. I am not letting my emotions make me a God if the portfolio is increasing in value, and I am not letting emotions make me feel like an unlovable God’s bastard, because I am neither of those.

Every investor feels this, whether retail or professional. Financial advisors feel this especially because people entrust us with their wealth for management. That’s why I feel an extreme obligation to advance in my profession and my “sanctity” through markets.

Meditation helps

Last year, I began my work with a simple but powerful prayer. I found it wonderful and it addressed the core of the problem in financial management: the lack of humility.

When you have enough humility, you know how to manage your emotions. You know what is in your control, what is not, and how you can become better to serve others.

My mission at Antešić Family Wealth is to help families and individuals build family wealth. For that, you need a lot of humility.

Because building family wealth isn’t just “make the highest return possible.” It requires a continuous relationship with clients at different stages of life. Some have wealth, and some are just building it. Dealing with people's private matters is much more than a return on invested capital.

To become a better investment steward with humility, I seek external help. A 5-minute meditation before work in the solitude of my office really makes a difference. A prayer called the Litany of Humility is helping me become a better version of myself to better serve my clients.

The text that we pray with today is attributed to Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1865-1930). I first heard about it in exorcist Fr. Chad A. Ripperger’s book Deliverance Prayers: For Use by the Laity.

Without further ado, here is the prayer:

Litany of Humility

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart – Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being loved – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being extolled – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being honored – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being praised – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred to others – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being consulted – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being approved – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being despised – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being ridiculed – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being wronged – Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being suspected – Deliver me, O Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be chosen and I set aside – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I go unnoticed – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be preferred to me in everything – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

O God, who resist the proud and give grace to the humble: grant us the virtue of true humility, by which Your Only-Begotten Son became an example for Your faithful; that we may never, by our pride, provoke Your wrath, but rather, by our humility, receive the riches of Your grace. Amen!

Dear reader,

Hopefully, this prayer will help you to become a better investor. It does help; give it some time.

Even if you’re not religious–and many families I manage wealth aren’t–the principle is the same: humility is emotional risk management.

To your family,

Dorian Antešić

P.S. If you are interested in building family wealth, consider subscribing to my newsletter/website.

It’s been four years since I began the adventure of building Antešić Family Wealth. More precisely, I registered the business on December 6, 2021. When everyone was in “sleep mode,” preparing for Christmas, I entered “hustle” mode.

It’s been a wonderful journey. I only quit once. I needed the silence to hear what I actually wanted to build.

How it started

I started the business under the name “Antešić”, later changed to “Antesic.com”, and then finally to “Antešić Family Wealth” as I found my focus. But honestly, once the name becomes widely known in the finance world, I might return to simply “Antešić” as my family name. We…shall…see.

The name change reflects a lack of business focus in the first years of my business.

In the early years, I worked as a freelancer providing financial research and analysis to businesses. I also advised individuals on Bitcoin. It paid well (especially for a 23-year-old), but I felt like that wasn’t “it.” I wanted to do something else.

In 2023, I temporarily stepped back to reflect on where I really want to build. I reflected on my wishes, my skills and the market demand. It took me a few tries. In the end, the road led to where I ended my Master’s studies – to the “family wealth” concept.

My 2021 Master’s thesis was titled "Family wealth and bitcoin: sound money as the basis for the creation of generational wealth." (If you are of the curious kind, you can check the thesis here.)

How I stumbled upon the family wealth concept is a story in itself–an emotional one for me–, and it will be a topic of another article.

I realised I wanted to (1) focus on investing, (2) help people build wealth, and (3) build my own family wealth. Alas, Antešić Family Wealth was born.

(For my beloved American clients and readers: my family name is pronounced “Ante-shitch”— š = “sh” (as in “ship”) and ć ≈ “tch” (as in “match/catch”). It’s a Croatian/South Slavic surname. I was advised to use “Antesic” and drop the Slavic letters since most of my clients are American, but I think the letters add a special touch.)

Antešić Family Wealth provides investment stewardship to families, individuals and fellow financial advisors. I’ve leaned into this focus over the past two years. So far, so good.

I’m writing this to reflect on 2025 and set goals for 2026. I also advise clients on building their businesses, so I thought it might be useful to share how I’m building mine. I enjoy reading other entrepreneurs who “build in public,” so I’m starting to do more of that too.

Recap of 2025

2025 was a “good year” – steady progress and better focus.

Some highlights:

• I stopped pursuing side business projects and fully committed to building Antešić Family Wealth.

• I renewed contracts with existing clients and increased income by 31.8% (in USD terms).

• I saved and invested 30% of AFW income in both my business and personal portfolios.

• I passed the Series 65 exam in London.

• I registered as an Investment Adviser Representative in Texas, California, and North Dakota through a partner firm.

• I completed another U.S. tax season with another client firm, improving my tax preparation knowledge (which also strengthens my comprehensive financial advising).

• I redesigned and launched this website.

• I restarted content creation.

• I invested in better equipment (monitor, camera, microphone, lighting, etc.) and settled into a new office.

• I began studying for the CFA Level I exam.

• I started networking with investors.

From all of these, the most important accomplishment is that I quit other business ideas I was pursuing and decided to fully focus on building Antešić Family Wealth into a “wonderful business.” Focus is a precious commodity in today’s world, and it’s a competitive advantage to those who master it.

This leads us to 2026. So what’s cooking?

The goals for 2026

Publicly writing goals can be intimidating, as you can easily be painted as a “failure” if you don’t accomplish them. However, I am building family wealth, which requires long-term thinking. I see my planning horizon as 100 years. Therefore, I use these annual goals as guiding points and motivators to keep pushing, but not as set-in-stone targets. I advise my clients like this as well.

Here are my goals for 2026:

• Strengthen my relationships with current clients.

• Improve the internal investment processes for current financial advisor clients.

• Save and invest 40% of AFW income in the business or personal portfolio.

• Pass the CFA Level I exam.

• Publish one article and one video per month.

• Post weekly on social platforms (YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Substack, Facebook).

• Begin deeper networking with families and advisors.

• Travel to the United States.

My goals are clustered around four segments:

1. Improve my service with current clients

2. Improve my financial/investment knowledge

3. Start building an online community through content

4. Start building an offline network

Since I am based in Europe but I work mainly with Americans, most of my networking will be through online channels. However, I still see that as an “offline network,” since my definition of online communities is “people with whom you interact online but never have 1-on-1, even if through a video call.”

I don’t have many goals. Well, at least compared to what I see online from others. And most of my business goals are slow-building. This is intentional, as I look to build family wealth holistically, taking into account other aspects of life, such as family situation. I want to be there for my family, so I would rather achieve my high-end goals in five years than in two. Again, my horizon is 100 years, not 2, 5, or even 10 years.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. It takes risks, and it takes a family that supports you. My family supports me, and for Christmas, I wish that your family supports you as well.

If you know someone who is trying in business, share your support with them. They will appreciate it, trust me.

Dear reader, I hope your family flourishes in 2026 – and that something you read here helps you steward what you’re building.

To your family,

Dorian Antešić

Welcome — I’m Dorian Antešić. I’m a fiduciary financial advisor helping families and fellow advisors build wealth that lasts for generations.

On this site, I do two things:

1. Build my own family’s wealth, and

2. Help other families and advisors do the same.

Everything you read here is part of that shared project.

I’m not writing from the sidelines. I’m building a family, a practice, and a long-term plan of my own — and I invite you to join me on the same journey, in your context, with your family.

What I mean by “Family Wealth”

When most people hear family wealth, they think about one thing: money.

Portfolios. Properties. Account balances.

But true family wealth is much broader and deeper. It has three types of capital:

1. Human capital
   The people in the family: their character, health, relationships, and ability to live well and do good.

2. Intellectual capital
   The knowledge, skills, and wisdom of each family member — and the shared understanding, stories, and culture of the family as a whole.

3. Financial capital
   The assets: businesses, savings, stocks, bonds, real estate, land, bitcoin, and so on.

Most of the world treats financial capital as the main thing and everything else as an afterthought. I believe that mindset eventually leads to ruin.

In my view, human and intellectual capital come first. Financial capital is a tool — important, powerful, but still a tool — to support and strengthen the people and the ideas that make up the family.

If you build a strong, connected family with shared values, love, culture, discipline, and competence…the financial wealth tends to follow, and it is far more likely to endure.

Why build family wealth at all?

Most people never seriously ask this question. They aim to “be comfortable” for themselves and hope their children will somehow figure it out.

I think that’s a mistake.

When a family doesn’t think in generations, each generation is forced to start from zero: rebuilding safety, margin, and opportunity before they can turn their energy toward higher things. A lot of talent gets burned up just surviving.

Family wealth, built on the right foundations, changes that.

When you build and preserve family wealth with wisdom and discipline:

• Your children and grandchildren have stability and margin, so they can make better long-term decisions instead of living in constant financial stress.

• Your family gains freedom, optionality, and a real degree of sovereignty — in career, education, geography, and time. You become less dependent on any single employer, government system, or passing crowd mood, and more able to protect your way of life if the surrounding society turns hostile to your values.

• You can use resources as an engine for doing the right things: raising children well, supporting honest work, backing principled projects, caring for extended family and community.

• You reduce the odds of the classic pattern, “from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations” — where wealth appears, is mismanaged, and disappears because no one treated it as a long-term stewardship.

Family wealth, in this sense, is not about greed or domination. It is about responsibility, continuity, and generosity — creating a platform from which your descendants can live well and do good, long after you are gone.

You don’t need to be “Old Money” to start

When I talk about family wealth or dynasties, I’m not only talking about families who already have vast fortunes that span centuries — though some readers will come from old lineages.

Many of the families I write for and hope to work with are first- or second-generation wealth builders: they already have meaningful income or assets, but want to move from ad-hoc decisions to a coherent, long-term approach.

You might be:

• a family with a growing investment portfolio or real estate holdings that now needs structure and governance,

• a business owner whose net worth is concentrated in a company and wants to turn that into enduring family capital,

• a professional or entrepreneur who has accumulated savings and investments and now wants to behave like a steward, not a speculator, or

• a financial advisor who thinks this way about your own family wealth and wants a framework (and investment partner) you can also bring into your practice.

Family wealth is something you can begin in this generation, even if your parents or grandparents didn’t have the same opportunities. The point is not that you start with a vast fortune, but that you treat what you have as the seed of something that should outlast you.

When I say “dynasty”, I don’t just mean famous billionaire families. Many of the strongest dynasties are quiet: families who have built and kept businesses, land, or capital over three or four generations while passing down a recognizable culture and way of life.

You don’t need a famous name to pursue that. You need a long horizon and the willingness to act accordingly.

My role in your journey

My work sits primarily in the financial capital corner of this triangle:

• Investing

• Planning

• Risk management

• Navigating global opportunities

My role is to help you build, structure, and steward financial capital wisely, so that you can focus more of your time and energy on the human and intellectual sides of family wealth.

For me, this is personal.

I want to build Antešić family wealth — an Antešić Dynasty — not as an exercise in accumulation, but so that my family can be an engine of doing the right things: raising children well, supporting good work, backing principled projects, and serving others over generations.

My firm, Antešić Family Wealth, is simply the financial expression of that mission: a practice dedicated to careful stewardship of capital, researching and analysing investments with prudence and care for the families who trust me with their hard-earned wealth — including my own.

The world is not cheering for dynasties

You’re not imagining it: the modern world does not make it easy to build multi-generational wealth.

Short-term thinking is rewarded. Deep roots and long-term responsibility are often treated with suspicion. Talking about “family wealth” can quickly be misunderstood.

I believe healthy, principled families with strong values and wise stewardship are a net positive for society. But you will not build or protect that kind of wealth alone.

No one does.

You will need a team — family members, advisors, mentors, specialists — who understand what you’re trying to build and are willing to help you protect it.

This website is one way I support that work: by sharing what I’m learning, how I think, and how I invest.

Who this is for

This site is primarily for:

• Families & individuals who want to build, preserve, and eventually transfer wealth that supports their values and their descendants.

• Financial advisors who want outsourced, evidence-based investment support and a long-term framework for serving their own clients.

If you think in decades, not quarters, you are in the right place.

What you’ll find here

You’ll find two main things:

1. Essays & notes

   • Investing and markets

   • Portfolio construction and risk

   • Family wealth, legacy, and governance

   • The philosophy and discipline of thinking long-term

2. Ways to work with me

   • For Families & Individuals: Financial Planning & Coaching · Investment Advisory

   • For Financial Advisors: Outsourced Investment Manager · Outsourced CIO · Financial Planner (Contractor)

If you ever decide you’d like a formal advisory relationship, you can learn more on the Services page.

How to use this site

A simple way to begin:

1. Subscribe for free
   So you receive new essays and notes on building family wealth that lasts for generations. Find the subscription form below.

2. Read a few core pieces
   My online work is still in the beginner stage, so you will best find my essays and notes in the Journal page.

3. Decide what role this should play in your life

   • Purely educational

   • A long-term guide for your own planning

   • The first step toward working together

If you’re considering working with me as an advisor, the next step is simple:
→ Read the Services page, and
→ Book an introductory call.

Book a free 15-min call

Registration & global work

I’m an Investment Advisor Representative in the United States, registered in Texas, California, and North Dakota with Bona Fide Finance.
I also operate an EU business based in Croatia, working with clients globally.

If this resonates with you, I’d be honored if you subscribed and joined me in the long, difficult, and meaningful work of building family wealth that lasts.

It was a pleasure to meet Charles A. Coulombe – the great American author and historian – during the Memorial of the Blessed King Charles of Austria on October 21st, 2025.

As someone who helps people build or maintain family/generational wealth, I am quite interested in monarchism.

One of my main roles with clients is helping them plan for decades ahead.

Monarchy implies inheritance and continuity.

During our journey of “building family wealth,” we can learn a lot by studying political structures that make sure “wealth stays within the family.”

I spend a lot of time researching investments and structuring clients’ portfolios.

But investments are just one part of building family wealth – an important part, but not all.

Culture and governance within the family play an equally crucial role in the long term.

Wise, steady compounding investments build wealth, but culture and governance ensure that it becomes “family wealth.”

My goal is to help you manage your investments so that you can focus more on the remaining parts of your family wealth.

To your family,

D. Antešić

As a European, this is how I imagine myself hustling in Texas 😎

(Note: This is AI-generated; I am much more handsome in real life ;) )

This registration is one of the steps I’m taking to develop my business, Antešić Family Wealth, which provides investment and other financial advice to families and individuals.

In 2025, I decided to fully dedicate myself to building this business and set a five-year “laser-eye focus,” as Michael Saylor would say.

That plan began by pausing my other project, Apostollo, since it required more time than my business partner and I were ready to give. To build a successful business, you need focus and determination. Determination fades when focus is lost.

After that, I concentrated on deepening relationships with my existing clients to secure better contracts and allow myself more room to focus on investing. That effort paid off — and now, alongside financial growth, I’m gradually taking over the management of investment portfolios for a few dozen households. It will take some time since I still need to prove myself to clients, but I’m getting there.

Next, I applied to take the Series 65 – Uniform Investment Adviser Law exam to obtain a license to operate as a financial advisor in the U.S. My clients and I wanted me to move from the “back office” to the “front office.”

I passed the exam on my second try. The first time, I took it in Rome and scored 68.5%, just short of the 70.8% required to pass. I hadn’t started studying U.S. securities law early enough, so that part hurt me. The second time, I took it in London — and passed.

Currently, I primarily work B2B, collaborating with other financial advisors, but I’m also considering expanding into B2C, working directly with families. We’ll see where the market leads.

I’ve also started offering YNAB budgeting workshops, since I believe budgeting is the first fundamental step a family needs to master in building family wealth. So far, I’ve held one workshop and have another one coming up soon. Even though my primary focus remains on investing — that’s still the “higher plan.”

The next step in developing the business is continuing education. I’ve started the CFA adventure, and we’ll see what God brings my way.

Some upcoming steps include finishing the new website (coming soon!), writing essays on building family wealth, and building a network of collaborators to support my clients.

Since I don’t believe a person can truly separate personal and professional life, part of developing my business also involves growing my family life and my prayer life. I’m working on greater prayer discipline and on building and preserving a strong family identity.

My approach to investing is holistic, as part of a broader concept of “family wealth” — which consists of intellectual, human, and financial capital, following the teachings of James E. Hughes Jr. If I want to be a good investor, I have to invest in all aspects of family wealth, because each one is interconnected and ultimately reflected in the overall investment portfolio.

Antešić Family Wealth is growing nicely, step by step. This is a long-term game. My investment horizon is 100 years — and I shape my investments accordingly.

In two months, it will be four years since I officially (that is, legally) began my entrepreneurial journey.

I love reading about other people’s business paths, plans, and how they evolve, so I’m writing this for those who are like me. Reading stories like that always sparks creative thoughts in me, so I hope this one does the same for you. The road to (business) success is long, and persistence is key.

“A man plans his path, but the LORD directs his steps.” — Proverbs 16:9