Family Office Defined

Many people hire unaffiliated experts for financial and legal advice. When strategies are separate and lack coordination, recommendations may actually be in conflict and not aligned with achieving your financial goals. A Family Office coordinates asset management, asset protection, estate planning, financial planning, and accounting. Other services may be included.

Our family office uses a team approach. Our portfolio managers work with tax attorneys, accountants, and other highly competent professionals to act in concert and develop a single overarching strategy for your wealth management goals. We strive to coordinate their efforts on your behalf to maximize the strategy’s effectiveness and free your time to spend with family and your business.

A Family Enterprise is typically created when:

• A family’s liquid net worth has grown to such a size that it is clear professional management is required, yet cannot be adequately provided by family members or the family’s business professionals.
• The family experiences a significant liquidity event that requires professional management, such as the sale of a family business, or the receipt of a large legal settlement, inheritance, or other non-recurring award.
• The family can no longer dedicate adequate resources towards managing their own personal financial, legal, and tax-related affairs without compromising the integrity of their business.

Following any of these events, a family matriarch/patriarch will typically recognize the importance of integrating experts from the fields of asset protection, estate and tax planning, investment management, risk management, and financial planning into their families long-term strategic planning and decision-making process.

If the steward of the family’s capital cannot dedicate their full attention to, or if they are not adequately proficient in these disciplines, the family steward must assign the day-to-day responsibilities to a personal Chief Financial Officer who will pursue activities that are consistent with the family’s best interests.

Often it is difficult for business owners to accept the need to delegate these responsibilities to a trusted advisor. However, all wealthy families must ultimately come to this realization, or risk falling victim of the age old proverb – from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations – whereby over 90% of wealthy families lose their wealth in three generations or less, due to lack of attention, purpose, and strategic planning regarding their personal wealth.

At times like these, the infrastructure and resources of a Family Office come into play. When a family decides it needs help from experts in many different areas of personal finance, the Family Office structure becomes the model of choice for the vast majority of wealthy families. The Family Office is the actual structure a family implements to ensure the Family Enterprise is effectively managed and continuously moves toward accomplishing the family’s goals.