Family Office
What is a Family Office?
A family office is a private wealth service that manages the personal wealth of an individual family. Typical wealth sizes are not small. The usual starting point is around 200 million dollars or more. Based on this amount, small staffs are able to take care of the main family's wealth professionally with enough incentives for them to be paid salaries and bonuses at competitive market rates. Many family offices in the US, Europe and Asia have single family offices that manage more than US$1 billion dollars. It is a service for ultra high net worth individuals.
Will a Family Office and a Private Banker both be needed in future?
The simple answer is yes. A family office is a way to centralize one family's financial picture. Usually, one family office will directly set up financial statements with each bank, private bank, real estate manager and any other asset manager for a single family. This can be 5-10 or more different sources depending on the family's holdings. It takes each amount of important information separately, and builds a clear overall view of the family's financial health. This "big picture" of a single family's wealth is the greatest value in order to make the best decisions needed for the family overall. The systems needed are complex and can be done in "real time" to give the best price value of wealth for each family when needed. This kind of service gives the best financial map for relatives to follow between generations.
What is a Multi Family Office?
A multi-family office is similar to a family office, but for a wealthy high net worth family that has 20 million dollars or more. At this assets size, the family feels that running such a large amount requires professional time, care and expertise. Often a small group of 10 or more families each having 20-50 million dollars, pool their wealth into one multi-family office, that runs the whole amount, taking advantage of cost savings and very focused attention to family wealth goals..
What are the benefits of a Family Office or Multi-Family Office?
Large families and multi-families can get cost savings by directly participating in group purchasing power. The families often feel more secure about confidentiality unlike when their main private banker leaves for a less reputable rival private bank. Language barriers are no longer an issue when overseas real estate or educational issues not in Japan are considered by a more international team who can outsource local expertise. Any family being serviced is being helped in a customized way focused on consolidating wealth for many generations and spread across many branches of the family. The family office is an ongoing service that does not rely on one member only to continue. This can be a big advantage when a family's leader or daikokubashira is no longer able to guide the family's private wealth due to age or illness. FEB-6