The Future of Wealth Management: Bridging TradFi and DeFi | Jake Claver on Perceived Reality

In this interview from Perceived Reality on FintechTV with Nadja Atwal, Jake opens up about how he went from working deals as an M&A consultant to managing hundreds of millions in cryptocurrency for ultra-high-net-worth clients.

After pulling in some major returns during the market chaos of 2020, he spotted something that most people didn’t: a huge blind spot in crypto services for wealthy investors. Traditional advisors weren’t set up for digital assets at all, and it was costing people — a lot. One of his clients, for example, ended up down $30 million just because they used the wrong exchange.

Jake lays out the biggest issues crypto investors are up against right now — things like unclear regulations, exchange collapses, and vulnerabilities in DeFi platforms. His firm tries to fix that gap by offering solutions built with the same level of care you'd expect from traditional finance: think secure, regulated custody, SEC-registered advice, and accounts designed to stay untouched even if things go sideways.

He’s working with both sides of the spectrum: established family offices making their first move into crypto and self-made digital millionaires trying to figure out how to keep their gains intact for the long run. A big part of what he does is help families avoid losing it all within a couple of generations — what he calls the “Vanderbilt curse.” Instead, he points to playbooks used by families like the Rockefellers who’ve managed to keep wealth flowing for over a century.

This conversation gets into the nitty-gritty of what serious crypto investors really need to think about...protecting their digital nest egg, dealing with shifting rules, locking in proper custody, and planning way ahead. Whether you’re just starting out or already deep into digital assets, Jake shares a few things that might change how you approach the whole space.