Five Ideas to Include on Your Family Office Solution Wish List

Looking Beyond Functionality as You Evaluate Family Office Technology Providers

Around the holidays, lists of all kinds are plentiful. From gift ideas and holiday menus to New Year’s resolutions, it seems as though everyone is creating a list of some sort. And while these examples apply more to our personal lives than our professional careers, we can say nearly the same thing about businesses.

As we approach the end of this year and work through how we plan to execute our strategy in the coming year, nearly all of us are making our lists—and checking them twice.

For family offices and financial institutions that have set their sights on evaluating family office software and service solutions in the New Year, one of the most important lists they’ll make is their family office solution wish list.

More times than not, your list of family office solution requirements begins with the obvious: the features and functionality you hope to gain with a new solution.

But we also believe it’s important to weigh other—sometimes more intrinsic—benefits of your future long-term strategic partner.

Here are five additional ideas to add to your family office solution wish list:

1. An experienced family office solution provider that continues to innovate and grow

Whether you’re expanding your administration to include new households or family members, adjusting your investment strategy or adopting new allocation structures, your family office is constantly evolving. Your family office solution provider should too. We recommend keeping innovation and growth near the top of your wish list to help you find a family office technology and service provider that has a clear strategic vision, a defined product roadmap and a track record of growing their family office community.

Read: SEI's Family Office Platform Keeps Getting Better (And $125 Billion Bigger)

2. A trusted, reputable organization that understands the nuances of family offices and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) wealth

Family offices and advisors to UHNW individuals and families face a unique set of challenges when it comes to the accounting, investment data aggregation and reporting operations required to manage complex wealth. By checking this box on your wish list, you’ll feel more confident that your family office solution provider specializes in and understands these specific requirements and can offer flexible, purpose-built technology and outsourced services that simplify these complexities.

3. A reliable, time-tested client service approach

Client service is more than product support. This wish list item can help you discern which family office solution providers truly create a thoughtful and rich educational experience for their clients. Keep an eye out for things like user conferences, training events, comprehensive product documentation and self-service support portals, so that you and your team can extract the full value out of the solution.

[Discover 5 Questions to Help You Evaluate Your Technology Firm’s Client Service Team]

4. A family office solution provider that offers flexible technology models

At SEI Family Office Services, the Archway Platform^SM was originally marketed and sold as software-as-a-service (SaaS), meaning family offices used the software in-house. But for some family offices, a technology strategy may not mean they have a desire to run a technology platform themselves. Instead, their wish list includes finding an outsourced service provider that can perform the work while offering a technology-driven reporting experience for their staff and their end-clients. It can be incredibly beneficial to find a family office solution provider that can do both.

Find out how three unique family offices are using different technology models to operate the Archway Platform in-house, outsourced or using a combination of both.

5. A wealthtech system that can integrate with your broader family office technology ecosystem

Technology is not a one-size-fits-all approach and where a single system may suffice for one family office, another family office may require multiple systems that integrate together to accomplish their goals. Adding this to your wish list will help you select a solution provider that can coexist in your family office ecosystem alongside other systems and tools in a seamless, interconnected fashion.

Whether you’re prepped to launch a technology evaluation or simply planning to evaluate your existing wealthtech strategy in the coming year, SEI Family Office Services has a breadth of experience, connections and insights to help you throughout the process.

Schedule a call with a member of our team to let us help you think through your technology strategy and discover how SEI Family Office Services can create a centralized hub for your accounting, investment and reporting operations.