The demands of a Family Enterprise are similar to the requirements of a traditional corporation. Consequently, it’s critically important to have trusted, competent management and advisors in place. While some will claim to offer the services needed, there are many considerations to embrace, which can be broken down into four main categories.

Family Enterprise Model

• Legal Fiduciary – no conflicts
• Collaboration – integration of advisors before offering solutions
• Multidisciplinary Experts working directly for your Family

Traditional Conflicted Brokers

• Suitability – potential conflicts of interest
• Disjunction – vendors all operating independently
• Product Salesmen – often without audited track records and paid with commissions generated from product sales

This explicit differentiation is the result of over 200 years of best practices by the world’s wealthiest families, ultimately culminating in a structure known as a Family Office.

A Family Office is a formal organization consisting of a dedicated team of professionals, across a wide range of disciplines (legal, tax, estate planning, asset management, etc.) that work directly for the Family Enterprise, without any conflicts of interest that arise from a vendor-client relationship, with the sole purpose of helping the family achieve their long-term strategic goals.