Multi-Family Offices (MFOs) are businesses that provide wealth management services to a group of family clients. Many MFOs originally expanded from single-family offices to increase their capabilities and efficiency, as well as pursue greater investment power and influence. The MFO structure often means they can provide family clients with more expertise and services at higher levels of professionalism but at a lower cost through economies of scale.
Beyond the cost savings attributed to the MFO structure, family clients benefit from their extended, multinational reach, with the capability to manage complex investments across jurisdictions. This doesn’t come without its sets of challenges to operate effectively.
Critical needs
MFOs require a robust set of capabilities from their portfolio management system. That includes custom reporting and analytics, managing a wide range of investment types, safeguarding data, and complying with a broad range of regulations to ensure the trust and confidence of their family clients.
As the desires, demands, and interests of family clients increasingly evolve, MFOs who are unequipped with the appropriate technology will become operationally strained when attempting to adapt to these changes and successfully deliver tailored solutions to family clients with diverse portfolios and varying investment goals.
“We are certain that smarter software solutions will play a pivotal role, enabling MFOs to navigate the complexities of managing large, diversified portfolios and ensuring they meet the unique investment objectives and risk preferences of each family they serve.” – Crispin Rolt, CCO, Performativ.
While larger financial institutions were historically the predominant beneficiaries of the latest innovations, technology must be at the heart of any modern MFO offering. This critical need of MFOs to best operate their businesses and differentiate themselves is now being met by solution providers like Performativ, who offer small-to-medium sized MFOs access to the latest tech capabilities, enabling MFOs to be equally, if not more, efficient and personalised in their solutions and offerings as larger wealth managers.
The basics
How does using the latest technology directly translate into client solutions that MFOs should provide, and what exactly should an MFO expect from their wealth management technology solution? Despite there being many solutions available on the market, not all provide the functionality that can give MFOs a competitive edge.
A comprehensive front-to-back wealth management solution should be cloud-native, work across asset classes, and include features like in-depth portfolio analysis tools. In addition to providing both an overview of and detailed insights on investment performance, a modern solution should offer auto-rebalancing and full reporting capabilities, as well as client communication functionality and a secure document repository.
Artificial intelligence
The financial technology space has transformed with the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). Any cutting-edge wealth management platform should imbed predictive analytics to forecast trends and performance, using the power of AI to leverage data that enhances their predictive capabilities. It should also enable automation to improve both investment strategies and operational processes.
“Enhanced by computing advancements, traditional AI methods applied to problems such as irregular pattern recognition in trading, transaction labelling, and instrument identification are proving highly effective. Models can be tweaked to deliver performance 10-fold that of commercial Large Language Models. We set up our company on the foundation that AI will transform the financial services sector.”– Albert Geisler Fox, Co-Founder and CEO, Performativ.
Compliance integration
More MFOs are expanding globally, creating more complex regulatory requirements for them to follow, especially as new regulations emerge across markets. An effective MFO wealth management platform should provide the necessary support to enable MFOs to adhere to legal standards and manage documentation efficiently and safely. There should also be easy access for audits to streamline the compliance process and reduce regulatory risk.
Reliable cybersecurity
As cyber threats become more sophisticated, family offices are increasingly concerned about the potential risks to their business. Taking substantial precautions is necessary not just to ensure data is safely stored but also to monitor for any unwanted activity. Advanced encryption, secure data storage systems, and reliable monitoring against unauthorised access or potential data breaches are a must for any portfolio management solution.
Automated rebalancing
As market fluctuations cause deviations from the ideal asset mix within a portfolio, constant monitoring and adjustment are required. Auto-rebalancing reigns as a crucial capability to mitigate the significant amount of time and potential for human error that the alternatively manual effort can yield. It selectively realigns positions to trim or augment investments and maintains overall portfolio balance, meaning the investments of each family within an MFO are always aligned with their specific investment goals and strategic objectives.
“Performativ is set up to lead the generational shift for MFOs from legacy technology to an ultra-modern native cloud solution that enhances functionality and reduces both cost and risk.”– Crispin Rolt, CCO, Performativ.
It’s clear that MFOs need to be at the sharpest end of the technology stick when it comes to providing optimal solutions to their clients and staying competitive. The adoption and integration of these solutions require a strategic approach to ensure no loss of value from legacy systems and reduce the risk in terms of data security and operational inefficiencies. It may be daunting to some organisations, but it is imperative that MFOs embrace the latest in technological innovation to be future-fit and deliver the solutions that the next generation of wealth owners are already demanding.
About Performativ
Performativ offers a modern, SaaS portfolio management system that enables Multi-Family Offices to scale their operations both efficiently and effectively, by providing access to an institutional-grade, comprehensive front-to-back solution.
In addition to the capabilities highlighted above, the platform features embedded sustainability through its ESG-integrated portfolios and optimised trading with centralised order management, an intelligent benchmarking tool allowing deep-dive analysis on adaptable metrics, and a fully flexible and customisable API for integration with third parties.
Performativ can enable a 70% reduction in operating costs with 200% faster onboarding: learn more about the company and its solution benefiting Multi-Family Offices here.
