When Personal Loss Becomes Purposeful Giving: What the Shatterproof Story Means for Family Office Philanthropy
- Jul 21
- 6 min read
Every family office in the country is built to protect and grow wealth across generations. Advisors model tax efficiency, trustees structure governance, and principals plan for succession. But one of the most significant risks to family cohesion and continuity rarely appears on any balance sheet: addiction.
A recent Family Office Association podcast brought together two people who know this from both the inside and the most personal place imaginable. Gary Henson, the new board chair of Shatterproof and a former family office CIO, lost his son Garrett to an overdose. Pam Jenkins, Shatterproof's CEO, spent 21 years leading healthcare communications before taking the helm of an organization she believes is doing what very few others are: treating addiction as the public health crisis it actually is.
The conversation they had is one that every family office principal, trustee, and next-gen advisor should hear.
The Problem With Having Every Resource
It seems logical that UHNW families would have an advantage when navigating a health crisis. Access to the best doctors, the best facilities, the ability to move quickly. Gary Henson had all of that. He still lost his son.
"Even if you have a ton of resources, you may not be willing to use those resources immediately to solve the particular issue because you have turned a blind eye to it or you don't believe that it is as big a deal as it is."
The issue Gary identified is not financial. It is the stigma that wraps around addiction in high-achieving, high-visibility families. When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the family rallies, friends show up, and colleagues ask how they can help. When a child is struggling with substance use disorder, the same family tends to go quiet.
Pam Jenkins witnessed this firsthand when she announced her new role at Shatterproof. Colleagues she had worked with for decades, people she considered close friends, came to her privately to share that their own families were quietly going through the same thing. One colleague's son, a standout lacrosse player from an elite northeastern school, had developed a heroin use disorder. His father hadn't told his own parents because he feared it would be too devastating.
That silence is the first thing to understand. It is also the first thing to change.
The Scale of the Crisis, and Why It Matters
Nearly 80,000 Americans die from drug overdoses each year. Add alcohol-related deaths, and that number climbs to approximately 250,000 annually. These are not abstract statistics. They represent someone's child, someone's sibling, someone's valued employee.
Pam drew a comparison that reframes the entire conversation. Before effective HIV treatment, the disease was the leading killer of 18-to-44-year-olds and it received enormous public attention, federal resources, and business engagement. Substance use disorder is today's leading killer of that same age group, and the response has been a fraction of what that moment in history demanded.
Sit in any family office conference room. Someone at that table is quietly carrying this.
What UHNW and Family Office Families Should Watch For
One of the most sobering themes in the conversation was how difficult early detection is, even for attentive, involved parents. Gary's son had a 33 ACT score. His grades never dropped. His friend group stayed the same. He was using benzodiazepines and opioids, and his father had no idea.
The Early Warning Signs to Take Seriously
Gary and Pam outlined several things families should watch for, particularly at key transition points: going to college, studying abroad, a significant breakup, a job change, or any period where existing support systems fall away.
Subtle shifts in how a young person talks about stress, anxiety, or daily pressure
Changes in when or how often alcohol is used, even small ones
Any use of substances prescribed to someone else, especially opioids or benzodiazepines
Increased isolation or withdrawal from previous friend groups
Any pill obtained outside of a direct doctor-patient relationship, given the prevalence of fentanyl in counterfeit medications
Pam was direct about the fentanyl risk: the vast majority of overdose deaths in recent years were driven by fentanyl contaminating what people believed to be other substances. A conversation about this, before a young person leaves for school or a gap year, is not overreach. It is basic protection.
The Access Factor
Wealthy families face a compounding dynamic. The same financial access that enables every other kind of problem-solving also means easier access to substances. Gary described the normalized path many start down: a prescription pill from a friend, something bought over the counter, a substance that does not look or feel like a street drug. The line between acceptable and dangerous gets blurred precisely because it comes packaged in familiarity.
Approximately one in ten people who use alcohol or other drugs will develop a substance use disorder. For families with a genetic predisposition in the family tree, that risk is meaningfully higher. Gary said clearly: Educating your children about that predisposition before they encounter those situations is not fear-mongering. It is responsible parenting.
The data also points to a critical window. The younger someone begins experimenting with substances, the higher their risk of developing a disorder. A 14-year-old drinking at parties may seem like ordinary adolescence. According to both Gary and Pam, it statistically represents a significant inflection point.
Governance, Next Gen, and the Key Person Risk Nobody Talks About
For family offices managing operating companies, multigenerational trusts, or complex investment structures, the governance implications of unaddressed addiction are real and underappreciated.
If a key person in a critical role, whether a family member or a trusted employee, is quietly struggling and the family does not have a framework for acknowledging or addressing it, the exposure extends to decision-making quality, legal and fiduciary accountability, and eventual succession.
Gary described one approach he implemented as a trustee: a Gen 3 council where the youngest adult generation has a dedicated forum to discuss what is happening in their lives, including challenges, separate from Gen 1 and Gen 2. The generational distance around stigma is real. As Gary put it, when he told his parents how Garrett had died, their first question was, 'What are you going to tell people?' That gap in perspective is something that intentional governance structures can actually address.
The Treatment Landscape: What Families Need to Ask
When a family reaches the point of seeking treatment, the quality of facilities varies more than almost any other area of healthcare. Pam described treatment centers that look exceptional but do not follow evidence-based standards of care. Worse, she noted that in some states, a facility can obtain a license to treat addiction by demonstrating that it has a fire extinguisher and a back exit.
Shatterproof developed a set of eight principles of evidence-based care in partnership with major insurance payers and the American Society for Addiction Medicine. These standards are available at www.shatterproof.org. Families evaluating any treatment program should specifically ask:
Does the facility treat co-occurring mental health conditions alongside addiction?
Do they offer medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, which is the clinical gold standard?
What are their specific outcomes and how do they measure them?
Shatterproof also operates www.treatmentatlas.org, a tool that helps families evaluate providers in participating states based on these quality standards. Expanding that to a national capability is one of the organization's core priorities.
What Family Offices Can Do Now
For principals and advisors who want to move from awareness to action, Pam and Gary outlined several practical entry points:
Visit www.shatterproof.org and explore the resources available for families, including their treatment evaluation guides and upcoming webinars on emerging substances like kratom
Join or contribute to the family advisory council Shatterproof is building for people with lived experience to guide organizational strategy
Engage with the business council on substance use disorder, launching later this year, designed specifically for business leaders and operating company executives
Consider whether your family governance structure creates safe spaces for next-gen conversations separate from older generations
Talk openly with young people in your family about fentanyl risk, genetic predisposition, and what to do if they or a friend needs help
The Metric That Matters
When asked whether Shatterproof is winning, Gary's answer was measured and honest. Overdose deaths are down. Awareness of fentanyl has improved. Federal legislation has moved. But new synthetic substances appear constantly, and stigma still prevents most people from seeking or accepting help.
Gary's final message to the family office community was direct: if someone in your family is struggling right now, engage with them. Treat it like the disease it is. Find them help, give them empathy, and start at www.shatterproof.org.
That is not just good advice. For families who have built legacies across generations, it may be the most important call to action they hear this year.
Watch the full conversation with Gary Henson and Pam Jenkins.
About the Speakers
Gary Henson, CFA®, is a Managing Partner of 503 Capital Partners, where he focuses on strategic initiatives, client relationships, and product development. He brings over 30 years of investment management experience across endowments, insurance companies, banks, hedge funds, and high-net-worth portfolios. Mr. Henson previously served as President of TortoiseEcofin, President and CIO of Mariner Holdings, and CIO of a single-family office.
Pam Jenkins is the Chief Executive Officer and an ex officio member of the Shatterproof Board of Directors. She joined the organization in 2021 after more than two decades leading public health and communications initiatives for a global agency. Pam is recognized for developing impactful health campaigns, including the NIH and American Heart Association’s Red Dress campaign to raise awareness of heart disease in women. Her work has also supported HIV/AIDS prevention, alcohol misuse prevention, and community health programs. Pam holds degrees from the University of Colorado and studied at Harvard University.