What are Multi-Family Office Services?
/In 2017 we shared with readers An Intro to Family Offices in which we outlined the regulatory evolution and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) definition of a Family Office. Further, we referenced Dr. Kirby Rosplock’s book The Complete Family Office Handbook as she noted Family Offices are “designed to prepare family members to collectively manage, sustain, and grow their wealth across multiple generations”. We closed with a reminder that a families’ Human, Intellectual and Social Capital reflect the hopes, aspirations, and purpose of a Family while the Office helps to organize and manage the tools, financial and legal, to sustain the family and achieve their objectives.
At Clearwater Capital Partners (CCP) our quest has been to evaluate and develop services which create value for our client families. We have adopted the work of Dr. Eric Almquist, Bain & Company, and the Elements of Value framework outlined in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), September 2016. We continue to welcome feedback and discussion to ensure we deliver upon the valued outcomes reflective of the evolving wealth management challenges families face.
In 2020, CCP was invited into the nationally recognized Family Wealth Alliance (FWA). The FWA serves the multi-family wealth community through peer-based exchange of ideas, best practices, and resources to accelerate the adoption of services in anticipation of evolving family requirements. CCP Team Members are fully engaged with the FWA; including, representation in the Evolving Firm Roundtable, the Young Professionals Network, and my Co-Chairing both the FWA Fall Forum (November 2021, Chicago, IL) and FWA Spring Summit (February 2022, Scottsdale, AZ)
FWA defines a Multi-Family-Office (MFO) as: a specific type of North American wealth management firm, identified by a certain kind of client base, service menu, delivery model, and level of experience that sets it apart from other types of wealth management firms. MFO’s serve unrelated private families and together with scale deliver a unique family office experience.
As CCP leverages the work of FWA and our peer member firms, we strive to deliver:
- the right services,
- to the right clients – across generations,
- at the right time.
Although the Clearwater Capital Team serves a wide array of wealth levels, we must ensure we deliver the right solutions to achieve proper outcomes for each family and member across multiple generations. Therefore, generally, we view MFO Client Families as those with significant complexity through private business ownership, professional financial success, inheritance, and/or other factors leading toward the need for a broad-based service offering.
Make no mistake, all families have needs which fall into these service offering categories. We do utilize tools where and when appropriate. However, families with greater levels of affluence tend to have needs which require particular attention and higher levels of technical competency.
The Family Wealth Alliance has crystalized the MFO community’s focus into ten service offerings of best-in-class firms, these include:
- Investment Portfolio Management
- Consolidated Reporting & Technology
- Risk Management
- Integrated Financial Planning and Wealth Strategy
- Estate & Wealth Transfer
- Fiduciary / Trustee Services
- Tax Planning Preparation & Compliance
- Strategic Philanthropy & Administration
- Family Consulting, Governance, Meetings & Education
- Lifestyle Management
In the months ahead we will clearly articulate our philosophy, approach, and structure applied toward delivering each of these ten important service areas. If you have any questions and/or would like to explore these subjects in advance, please do not hesitate to reach out.
We continue to pursue the firm of the future on our client’s behalf; in other words, we are building this firm for your benefit – please contribute to our mutual success by sharing your perspective, thoughts, ideas and needs.
John W. Sleeting
Senior Partner
