Family Office

The term ‘family office of level service’ is used so frequently today and by so many, it can be difficult to distinguish a firm that truly offers a family office level of service and one that doesn’t. Many advisors today try to emulate the service quality a family office has traditionally offered, yet this high quality of service consists of much more than just offering a bundled group of planning services. All services should be integrated together

So, what is family office quality service?

Historically, a family office has been dedicated to serving the family in financial, legacy, legal, estate, tax, and personal service matters as well as support the needs of your family business. What goals do your family members share? How can we help you engage your family members in creating and then passing on your family’s legacy?

The answers to these questions and others like them give us the information we need to make your wealth work for you and your family, not the other way around.

Many investors who do not find it feasible to create their own family office still need many of the services a family office can provide. Traditional family office service symbolized the ultimate in both quality and personal attention. Those are the expectations we continually strive to uphold.

We serve families. We can be your Chief Advisor / CFO.

When people look for advisors, they typically have a picture in their mind’s eye of one advisor meeting with one client. That’s because traditional advisors focus on a single client’s objectives, goals, and desires. We go a step further.

Because each individual is part of a family, we provide access to the broad spectrum of services a family of wealth needs. We go beyond traditional wealth management and legacy planning to discover what, in your view, the money is there to do for you and for your family.

Family Wealth Needs


Our goal is to be either your chief advisor for life or a close collaborator with the family advisor you’ve trusted for years. We work with other advisors whom you trust to provide the consistent, top level service you expect. We also consider ourselves your partner in wealth management so that we stay coordinated with your family culture and your family’s changing needs. This means that we measure results from your perspective, not ours. Our role either as your chief advisor or trusted CFO is to make your life simpler and the gift of wealth more enjoyable for generations to come.
 


 



Integrated Services, as You Would Find in a Family Office

A family office level of service means much more than just offering a bundled group of planning services. In a traditional family office, the family has assembled a team of personal advisors who work in close proximity. This gives them access to each other on a regular basis so that the work one advisor does for the family complements the work done by the rest of the advisory team.

This integration of professional services also lets the family see how the work in one area of wealth management—such as tax, estate planning, ownership structures, or philanthropy—will affect all other aspects.

Just as a family office executive would, we coordinate and monitor your team of advisors so that each best-of-breed advisor focuses on utilizing his or her expertise in the most optimal way, fully attuned to your family’s needs and culture.



Integrated Planning Services

Our planning services are designed with your particular needs as the foundation. What good is any type of plan unless it is based on a thorough knowledge of your personal goals and the goals of your family?

That’s why we collaborate / partner with external experts to ensure that the financial goals we identify authentically reflect the personal goals that lie beneath. We look beyond the financial goals you may have identified because we want to know what makes that goal of value to you as well as your dreams.

By diving deeper into each of these areas of expertise and functioning within each as part of a larger, comprehensive strategy, we enhance your ability to reach your goals and to focus on your dreams. Come explore with us and we’ll show you how effective this approach can be.

The process used to invest and manage your financial and material assets is one that should involve expertise and independence. It also should be guided by your personal objectives and what you want your wealth to do for you and your family, not only immediate family, but a legacy for generations to come.

Within that context, a full financial analysis is conducted and an investment policy statement is developed. An investment policy is not just a singular document. There should be an investment policy statement for each of your significant investment objectives created as components within an overall investment policy umbrella.

Once the appropriate investment policies are developed, asset allocations are designed, and active management chosen, monitoring, reporting and rebalancing are key. This is where objectivity and consistency become an important tool for keeping strategies on track.

The objectivity of our approach is strengthened because we are independent and have no proprietary products or investment managers. This frees us to design an investment strategy fully unencumbered, keeping the achievement of your goals, dreams, and desires as our guiding force.


Incorporating non-financial wealth components into your financial plan enhances your success. These components include but are not limited to:

  • Family communication about wealth matters
  • Education of next generations on financial and business matters
  • Education of next generations to become dynamic wealth owners
  • Engaging family members in important decisions to be made about the wealth
  • Considerations when setting up trusts
  • Ethical wills
  • Deciding the alpha person to lead your family

The 2012 Wharton Global Family Wealth Alliance report, “Benchmarking the Single-Family Office: Identifying the Performance Drivers,” discovered that the more family members communicate and interact with each other and the more families invest in education of the next generations, the better their overall investment performance will be.

The report found this to be true of single family offices representing families with significant wealth. The same “performance drivers” can be applied to families at a variety of asset levels.

Through our strategic alliances, we offer access to professionals specializing in the management of these non-financial wealth components and we work with them to make your overall wealth management plan completely attuned with your goals and objectives as well as those of your family.