We spoke with Henk Jan Kinds, CEO of Pretim, about the work that happens before data reaches the family office, why that foundation matters more than ever as AI moves into wealth management, and why family offices should be able to control their wealth data independently from the systems they use to consume it.
Why family offices need a governed wealth data layer they control
Family offices do not have a shortage of data. They have a shortage of one trusted, controlled version of their own data.
Banks, custodians, asset managers, private equity funds and other investment providers all produce data in different formats, standards and reporting cycles. Bringing that information together is often still a manual exercise. Positions need to be matched. Transactions need to be reconciled. Private assets need to be incorporated. Data needs to be enriched, classified and checked before it can be trusted.
And once that work is done, the family office often still has to adapt its data to whichever reporting, portfolio management or analytics system it happens to use.
We believe there is a better model.
The family office should have its own governed wealth data layer, independent of the applications that consume it.
We spoke with Henk Jan Kinds, CEO of Pretim, about why that layer is becoming increasingly important as family offices modernize their technology and begin adopting AI.
Written in partnership with Pretim · 5 min read
From fragmented sources to one wealth dataset
A family office may have relationships with ten, twenty or even more financial institutions. Each produces data differently.
A custodian statement may contain daily positions and transactions. A private equity fund may provide a quarterly capital account statement. A private bank may report cash and securities differently from another bank. A real estate investment may arrive through a separate administrator. Other assets may exist only in spreadsheets, PDFs or other source documents.
Individually, each source may be perfectly usable.
The problem starts when the family office needs to understand them together.
Different identifiers, formats, classifications, currencies, valuations and reporting periods have to be brought into a common structure. Transactions need to be matched. Positions need to be reconciled. Missing or conflicting information needs to be identified and resolved.
"The challenge is not obtaining the data but making it controllable and usable." — Henk Jan Kinds, CEO, Pretim
Pretim addresses this at the data layer.
It automatically aggregates wealth data from both custodians and private equity funds, normalizes it into a consistent structure, enriches it with the context required to understand the portfolio and reconciles positions and transactions across sources.
The result is not simply another report.
It is a governed wealth dataset that the family office can use wherever it needs it.
The data layer should be independent of the application
Historically, wealth data has often been organized around the application consuming it.
A family office selects a portfolio management system, reporting platform or accounting solution and then adapts its data processes around that system.
This creates a dependency.
When the application changes, the data integration often has to change with it. When a new system is introduced, the same data may need to be prepared again. When a new AI solution becomes available, the family office may face another question: how do we safely provide it with our wealth data?
Pretim takes a different approach.
The data layer comes first. The applications come second.
The family office can maintain one governed dataset independently from the systems that consume it.
That dataset can be delivered securely into portfolio management platforms, accounting systems, reporting applications, analytics environments, APIs, client-owned data platforms or AI solutions.
"The family office should be able to choose the applications it wants to use without having to rebuild its underlying wealth data every time."
This creates a fundamentally different relationship with technology.
The application can change. The data foundation does not have to.
Aggregation creates the dataset. Reconciliation creates trust.
Bringing data together is only the beginning.
Two sources can report different values for the same holding. A transaction can appear twice. A security can have different identifiers. A valuation can be based on a different date. A position can be missing from one source.
A consolidated dataset that simply combines those records can create the appearance of completeness without creating reliability.
Pretim therefore treats reconciliation as part of the data foundation itself.
Automated validation rules, source prioritization and reconciliation workflows identify discrepancies and trace them back to the underlying source. Exceptions can then be investigated and resolved before the data is released.
"Rather than masking inconsistencies, we make them transparent, so that our operations teams can quickly investigate and resolve exceptions."
This distinction matters.
A unified dataset is useful. A unified and reconciled dataset is trustworthy.
And that trust becomes increasingly important as the same data is consumed not only by people, but by machines and AI systems.
One wealth dataset across the entire balance sheet
Family office wealth does not stop at listed securities.
A complete picture can include equities, bonds, cash and funds alongside private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, pensions, crypto and other alternative assets.
The underlying data sources and reporting cycles are different.
Public markets can provide daily information. A private equity fund may only report quarterly. A real estate investment may have a different valuation cycle altogether.
Technology cannot manufacture information that the underlying source has not provided.
What it can do is bring the available information together, preserve its context and make its freshness and provenance transparent.
Pretim therefore provides a common data foundation across liquid, private and alternative assets, while recognizing the different reporting characteristics of each.
The objective is not to pretend that every asset has the same data frequency.
The objective is to create one reliable picture of the family's wealth from the best available data.
The family office should control its data
A consolidated wealth dataset becomes one of the most sensitive information assets a family office has.
Security is therefore fundamental.
Pretim combines controlled access, encryption, auditability and agreed data residency and processing arrangements to protect the data throughout its lifecycle.
But security is only part of the question.
The more important question is control.
Where is the data stored?
Who can access it?
Which systems are allowed to consume it?
Can an external AI solution use it?
Can the family office change its reporting platform without losing its underlying data foundation?
These are questions of data governance and ownership, not simply cybersecurity.
The principle is straightforward:
The family office should control its wealth data independently from the technology applications that use it.
That means the data layer can remain stable even as the technology stack evolves.
AI changes the application layer. It does not remove the need for a data layer.
AI is beginning to change how family offices interact with their wealth data.
Instead of opening a reporting platform to answer a question, an investment professional may increasingly ask an AI system.
Instead of manually searching through reports, AI may identify an anomaly, summarize portfolio exposure or prepare an investment analysis.
Instead of using separate applications for individual tasks, family offices may increasingly interact with their wealth through an intelligent interface.
But the underlying requirement does not disappear.
The AI still needs access to positions, transactions, valuations, classifications, historical data and source information.
And it needs to know whether that information can be trusted.
"AI is only as good as the data it receives. If the underlying data is fragmented, inconsistent or unreconciled, AI simply produces answers from fragmented, inconsistent or unreconciled information."
This is why we believe AI makes the wealth data layer more important, not less important.
Pretim does not need to become the AI application.
Its role is to provide the governed wealth data foundation that AI applications can securely consume.
The family office can therefore choose the AI solution it wants to use without giving that solution ownership of the underlying data foundation.
AI can change. The data layer remains.
A different technology architecture for the family office
This creates a simple model.
Sources
Banks · Custodians · Asset Managers · Private Equity · Private Assets
↓
PRETIM WEALTH DATA LAYER
Aggregate · Normalize · Enrich · Reconcile · Govern
↓
ONE GOVERNED WEALTH DATASET
Owned and controlled by the family office
↓
Applications and Intelligence
Portfolio Management · Accounting · Reporting · Analytics · APIs · Data Platforms · AI
The important point is what sits in the middle.
Pretim is not another destination for the family office's data.
It is the independent layer that makes the data usable across destinations.
That creates flexibility.
The family office can introduce a new reporting platform without rebuilding its data foundation. It can connect a new analytics environment. It can add an AI solution. It can change applications as its requirements evolve.
The underlying wealth dataset remains consistent.
Questions every family office should ask about its data
When reviewing a wealth data setup, five questions are worth asking:
- Do we have one governed dataset across our liquid, private and alternative assets?
- Is our data automatically aggregated, normalized and reconciled, including both positions and transactions?
- Do we control where our wealth data is stored, who can access it and which systems can consume it?
- Can the same governed dataset securely feed our existing systems, APIs, analytics and AI solutions?
- Can we change applications or AI providers without rebuilding our underlying wealth data?
These questions move the conversation away from choosing another application and towards something more fundamental:
Who controls the data foundation of the family office?
About Pretim
Pretim is the unified wealth data layer for the modern family office.
Pretim automatically aggregates, normalizes, enriches and reconciles wealth data across banks, custodians, asset managers, private equity funds and other sources, creating one governed dataset across liquid, private and alternative assets.
The family office can securely control and use that dataset across the systems, data environments, APIs and AI solutions it chooses.
One wealth dataset. One governed foundation. Any system. Any AI.