Ethan Bonar began his financial career in 1997, working at and eventually owning a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firm. Throughout the years, Bonar developed a deep understanding of families’ financial planning needs, recognising their unique challenges. With this expertise in hand, he pivoted from simply giving advice to crafting software solutions that would enhance efficiency. His main objective? To provide impartial and unbiased reporting of family wealth and expenses.
In 2021, he created CFO Family LLC, a platform that emphasises a software-agnostic approach when assisting families with their reporting needs. The goal is to ensure that the selected tools help achieve the family’s objectives. By assisting family offices to zone in on essential features while avoiding unnecessary investments in additional functionalities, the company not only solves current issues but also sets family offices up for future scalability.
“Owning an RIA allowed me to sit at the same side of the table as the families that I’m dealing with versus being just the tech guy who’s coming in and running technology.” – Ethan Bonar, founder and CEO of CFO Family.
Software agnostic
When working with a family office, CFO Family starts off by presenting them with all the various performance reporting software available on the market. Through this process, clients can compare different software options and discuss the trade-offs in functionality and cost. In a collaborative fashion, the company then takes into account each client’s unique financial structure. That includes considering the geographic distribution of assets and exposure to alternative investments before making recommendations. According to Bonar, in some cases, clients often find that they do not require complex software as they initially thought, especially if their assets are primarily in real estate or partnerships.
After selecting the winning software(s), CFO Family develops customised reports and workflows to ensure both accuracy and functionality before finalising the setup. Their main objective is to automate the reporting process so that it runs almost entirely on autopilot. Once this is established, the company works hand-in-hand with the family, holding quarterly check-ins to confirm that the data remains up to date and that all processes and automation are working smoothly. This whole process usually takes about a year, after which it becomes more of a hands-off approach, with the company providing regular software updates.
Practising what it preaches, the company uses minimal staff and maximises automation to avoid passing on overhead costs to clients. Also aware of the pricing models for software, the company negotiates cost structures that make sense for families based on the sizes and complexity of their assets.
“ I like to get to a flat fee that everybody can agree on, and we can move forward confidently and not have to worry about doing complex math for fees. We’ve got enough complex math to do with everything else. ” – Ethan Bonar, founder and CEO of CFO Family.
Client-centric
Since each family office is different, the company employs a client-centric approach. That often results in each client having a unique tech stack tailored to their reporting needs. One example is a family seeking performance reporting due to their complex investments. Its portfolio included partnerships, real estate, and traditional assets managed across different custodians. The patriarch, a seasoned businessman, wanted tools for performance evaluation and modelling, while the matriarch was in charge of organizing documents and managing records.
To meet both their requirements, CFO Family integrated two software solutions. One was specifically for performance reporting, and the other for document organisation and retention. The streamlined process simplified their tasks and eased their workloads, giving them more time to enjoy their personal lives.
Future expansion
The future of back-office family support lies in a careful balance of technology, expertise, and personalised service. Ethan Bonar’s insight reveals how automation, tailored technology, and proactive client support can significantly improve operations. As family offices face more complicated financial situations, these strategies will be crucial to thrive in a fast-changing global market. In response to the globalised environment, Bonar plans to expand the CFO Family service to family offices in Latin America and Europe.
Recognizing the unique cultural and structural characteristics of these offices, the company will leverage its proprietary AI-driven tools to minimise communication barriers between banks and reporting platforms. By extracting and organizing data directly from sources, even in regions where direct integrations are unavailable, Bonar aims to provide the same impartial and unbiased reporting on family wealth and expenses.
About CFO Family Office Reporting
CFO Family is an independent back-office reporting service that leverages third-party technology to deliver the most comprehensive and interactive views of total net worth to wealth owners and their advisors. We help you select the best reporting system for your family based on your goals and objectives. We serve single-family offices, multi-family offices, ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients, private equity, financial services institutions, and other institutional clients.
