Hola,
Even though I've traveled to many of the corners of the world and have worked with clients from every continent, as I'm sending today's mail from the impressive Soho House Mexico City, this trip is my first time south of Texas.
For the last few weeks, a couple of the Simple team members and I had the privilege of taking the time to go deep with one of the leading LATAM family offices on their journey into the next generation and how AI can enable them. This project has been running for the last couple of months, and overall it's been refreshing to see the openness, visionary thinking and ambition to continue building a world class office. This has been particularly welcome, because I've personally been very selective with the clients we take on, as culture and values fit is so crucial when you're working so closely with a group of people.
I have many more reflections on the challenges and opportunities, but one thing is clear: world class ambitions might translate differently from one region to the next, and sometimes those who are really in a position to be leaders come from an unexpected place. The adage "Think global, act local" came to mind.
What stood out to me again was the passion our team has for the future of family offices. It's our mission, we go deep. And as a boutique advisory we can go way deeper on the topic than the big 4, with real world insights, inspiration, applied tech and transformation.
And when you leave an on-site week with a message from one of the client team saying they're heartbroken that the Simple team is leaving, then you know you've found a match.
Adiós, Francois & the Simple Team
PS: I will be in Newport and Laguna Beach at the Institutional Investor FO conference this month, SuperReturn West in LA, and San Francisco to meet with our friends, clients and partners. If you're around, let me know.
Designing the AI-native family office
We're thrilled to share that Steffen Bilde joins Simple as Chief Product & Technology Officer.
The interesting question about AI is what happens to an organisation when technology can take on work that previously required more people.
Steffen has spent more than 15 years building and leading product and technology teams, including at compliance platform Meo. More recently, his focus has shifted to AI-native products, agentic systems and how organisations need to adapt around them.
As Steffen puts it:
Most of what counts as AI in family offices today is meeting notes. It has stopped there because everything past it runs into data scattered across banks, entities and spreadsheets. What unblocks it is never a better model, it is someone writing down how the place actually runs. Simple's advisory team already carries that knowledge, and turning it into something that compounds is the work I came here for.
At Simple, Steffen will help turn that thinking into practice, looking beyond AI tools to how family offices need to operate for AI. Welcome to Simple, Steffen!
Notes from the Field — Mexico City 🇲🇽
Yesterday in Mexico City, together with our co-hosts 1200vc, we brought together a group of family office principals and executives for a working session on what AI adoption looks like in practice.
The room ranged from families beginning to structure their family office, to multi-generational offices and larger teams with dedicated technology resources. The levels of adoption were very different, but the underlying challenges were surprisingly similar.
One family office executive put it simply:
Don't try to use a hammer for everything.
That became something of a theme for the session, alongside others contextual to the region: data and security, organisational buy-in, the cost and practical application of tokenisation, and where technology genuinely adds value versus simply adding another layer of complexity.
What stood out was the opportunity across Latin America. As a new generation takes a more active role in family wealth, there is a clear appetite to professionalise, adopt new technology and build family offices that can operate at a best-in-class level globally. More to come from Simple in the Americas…
Next stop: Munich
On 29 September, during Bits & Pretzels, we're bringing a small group of family office principals and professionals together for breakfast with Investor's Kitchen. A curated room for useful introductions and a conversation around the conference. There may also be some Oktoberfest involved.
Further out: - New York: October 13th (Workshop) - New York: October 15th (Dinner) - Amsterdam: November 4th (Workshop)
Our full 2026 calendar is on the Simple events page. If you would like to host a Simple event for your network, reply and let us know.
Out & about
Simple will be on the road over the next few weeks: - Francois: Mexico City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Zurich, Munich and Copenhagen - Jimmy: Amsterdam, Munich, Copenhagen - Ahmed: Munich - Oliver: Paris, Munich
If you are in any of these cities, let us know — we would be glad to meet.
Worth reading
The one-person family office is real. What if the biggest change AI brings to the family office isn't better technology, but fewer people? For years, the industry has debated how much wealth justifies a family office. In this piece, we argue that the industry has been debating the wrong number.
As AI turns roles into skills that can be orchestrated by a much smaller human core, the one-person family office is moving from theory to a credible operating model.
Other items Simple readers have been exploring this month: - How a Carolina-based CPA firm, Walker Accounting, transformed reporting for a private-equity-heavy family office - Data before AI: why family offices need to fix the foundation first - What good governance looks like inside a single family office
The hiring indicators
Across the 53 roles currently on Simple, we're seeing positions that combine responsibilities traditionally split across functions: CFO/COO, finance and operations, legal and administration.
Selected opportunities: - Director II, Family Office Solutions, Northern Trust — Los Angeles - Finance & Operations Manager, Single Family Office — Hong Kong - Chief Executive Officer, Single Family Office — New York - Head of Office, Single Family Office — London
Ready to explore?
We're now working with a small number of family offices to take AI adoption further: understanding where complexity actually sits, how decisions get made, and what an AI-ready process looks like in practice. If that is a conversation worth having, reply here or write to [email protected].
We power the next generation of family offices. Our guides, tools, data, and services help wealth owners and family offices simplify every stage of growth and development.