Family offices play a key role in managing the wealth and assets of high-net-worth individuals (NHWI) and families across the globe. According to recent estimates, there are over 10,000 single-family offices and nearly 3,000 multi-family offices worldwide, collectively managing trillions of dollars in assets under management. It’s not surprising that the highest percentage of family offices is found in the USA. According to recent estimates, there are over 3,000 single-family offices and several hundred multi-family offices operating across the country.With such significant assets at stake, these offices frequently rely on risk assessment services to navigate the complex landscape of investment, legal, and operational risks. It’s not surprising that the highest percentage of family offices, which are known for their meticulous approach to wealth management, including the strategic use of risk assessment services, is found in the USA.
The number of family offices in developing countries grows very fast. Take, for example Latin America. Estimating the wealth managed by family offices in Latin America is difficult due to vague reporting and the absence of a centralized database. Nonetheless, a 2020 report by UBS and Campden Wealth suggests that there were approximately 500 family offices in the region, each overseeing an average wealth of $900 million. This suggests that collectively, these family offices are managing assets totalling around $450 billion.
In recent years, India has also witnessed a notable surge in the establishment of family offices, reflecting the growing wealth and sophistication of its investor landscape. While precise figures may vary, estimates suggest that there are over 300 family offices operating in India, with this number steadily increasing.
While each family office is unique, operating within diverse legal frameworks and deriving wealth from various sources, they all share a common need for sophisticated tools and specialized family office software to effectively manage their investment portfolios.
Is family office software truly a unique product?
Surprisingly, yes. Though the market is oversaturated with hundreds of investment platforms targeting various asset classes and different types of investors, family office software for asset allocation and portfolio management is its own beast. Let’s delve into details to understand the issue.
First and foremost, family offices allocate investments across the widest spectrum of asset classes, including alternatives, hedge funds, private equities, real estate, and more. It might be hard to find regular investors or fund managers who deal with such a wide range of assets.
Second, family offices are often small teams comprising just a few investment professionals. These managers are responsible for handling all operations, from asset allocation to portfolio construction, management, and accounting. Unlike medium-to-large institutional investors, which may use different software platforms across various departments, a sophisticated family office investment platform should consolidate all operational, investment, accounting, and reporting functions into a single system.
Third, a dedicated family office investment platform should be flexible enough to adapt to specific family office needs, as each family office is unique.
What conventional family office software platforms lack
Most family office software platforms primarily emphasize reporting, portfolio management, and tax tools. In essence, these applications aid in the day-to-day management of existing investment portfolios but often overlook a crucial aspect – risk management and portfolio construction. What’s the use of employing sophisticated graphic tools to monitor portfolio allocations if the portfolio isn’t properly diversified, optimized, and susceptible to extreme macroeconomic events? The primary goal of a comprehensive investment platform is to guarantee a strong risk-return profile for all investment portfolios across various asset classes, rather than merely visualizing asset breakdowns or geographical exposures.
The key features of a sophisticated family office investment platform
To address unique needs of modern family offices a comprehensive all-in-one investment platform should offer the following features:
- Provide access to multiple financial databases across a broad range of asset classes including hedge funds, CTAs, private equities, traditional mutual funds, ETFs and so on.
- Offer risk assessment and management of alternative investments, hedge funds and private equities. Such financial instruments require special risk models which go beyond the scope of conventional risk frameworks.
- Integrate all essential functions of a sophisticated investment process: including asset allocation, portfolio construction, portfolio management and accounting, CRM and due diligence, reporting, and more.
Advanced investment analytics
In addition to the previously mentioned key functions, family office software should offer comprehensive investment research and analysis capabilities, which are often lacking in conventional software solutions. Given the complexity of diversified investment portfolios, advanced research tools are essential to safeguard and enhance family wealth over time. Such advanced analytics may include the following.
- Stress testing of individual assets and multi-asset portfolios. This step stands as a cornerstone in evaluating portfolio’s risks and potential bottlenecks, making it arguably the most critical aspect of risk management.
- Portfolio optimization. Traditional portfolio optimization methods, like Mean-Variance, struggle with alternative investments’ non-normal return distributions. To overcome this, more complex optimization techniques are needed.
- Factor analysis to identify key macroeconomic factors driving portfolio’s performance and mitigate overexposed factors.
- KSPME, Direct Alpha, and Index IRR statistics for private equity analysis.
- The Yale endowment cashflow forecasting model.
Accounting Software for Family offices
Most portfolio management systems typically provide general ledger accounting rather than authentic investment portfolio and fund accounting functionalities. However, family office accounting software should also encompass Net Asset Value (NAV) and fund accounting capabilities including the following functionalities.
- Manage alternative investments like hedge funds with complex redemption terms.
- Provide the capability to manage complex portfolio structures, which are common among multi-asset family offices due to their investments across various distinct asset classes requiring separate analysis.
- Offer comprehensive shadow accounting functionalities to ensure real-time portfolio monitoring in-house.
- Seamless integration of portfolio management and risk analytics
- Incorporate security features of industrial fund accounting platforms like transaction audit control.
Clients’ onboarding and account migration
This is another crucial issue that merits a separate discussion. Frequently, family offices find themselves stuck with mediocre investment platforms because of the challenges associated with migrating to a more sophisticated one. Ideally, family office software vendors should offer help in migrating to their platform or even free portfolio migration services.