Year-End Checklist to Prepare Family Offices and High-Net-Worth Clients for 2023

Dec 18, 2019

A List of Relevant Topics to Help Family Offices and Private Wealth Advisors Plan for Emerging Trends in the New Year

Throughout the past year, family offices and high-net-worth families grew and evolved. A generational shift in leadership is fully underway, technology has become even more sophisticated and family offices and financial institutions have scaled into new and innovative service lines.

As we reflect on the past twelve months and strategize for the new year, it’s worth opening up the conversation around the changes and trends that have unfolded in family office leadership, technology and operations.

Not sure where to start the conversation? Here’s a list of topics to help you think through what’s relevant to your firm and your end-clients.

Next Gen

Has your family office reviewed its succession plan?

  • Who will assume decision-making power inside of the family when the current principal steps down?
  • Has the family office staff documented their day-to-day responsibilities and processes in the event they move on or retire from the family office?
  • Has the next generation of family members been adequately engaged and educated by the family office?

Investment Strategy

Is the family’s investment strategy clearly aligned with their values and mission?

  • Has the current investment strategy been discussed and evaluated with the next generation of decision-makers to ensure future alignment?
  • Has the family discussed an impact investing or ESG investing strategy?

Family Office Technology

What is your family office’s technology state of play?

  • How many systems do you currently rely on?
  • Is your technology stack integrated and efficient?
  • Do you find yourself supplementing internal and client-facing reports with Excel-based reporting?
  • Have you recently evaluated the marketplace to understand what technologies are available?

What is your firm’s long-term technology strategy?

  • What operational problems are you trying to solve with technology (e.g. streamlining data aggregation, reducing manual processes, automating reconciliation and reporting tasks, establishing secure data hosting, etc.)?
  • If you’re considering advanced technology like Robotics Process Automation (RPA) or Blockchain, do you have the right technology base to support it?

Is your firm willing to adopt and invest in new technology?

  • Have you met with an industry consultant to evaluate the best way to configure your technology ecosystem?
  • Have you weighed the costs and time investment required to implement a new technology solution?
  • Do you have resources available to participate in and oversee a technology transition?

[Is your family office considering a new fintech solution? Read SELECTING THE BEST TECHNOLOGY FOR YOUR FAMILY OFFICE or HOW TO CONDUCT A SUCCESSFUL FAMILY OFFICE SOFTWARE PROOF OF CONCEPT to help you evaluate technology providers and their solutions.]

Consolidated and Digital Reporting

Are your family members receiving the right financial reporting in the right way?

  • How well do your clients understand their personal finances as well as the broader financial universe?
  • Is their current reporting helping them define and reach their goals?
  • Do your current reporting processes and systems allow you to tailor the reporting experience to each individual client?
  • Have you introduced digital reporting tools or laid out a plan to do so?

Outsourced Family Office Services

Do you offer an extended array of services beyond traditional reporting requests?

  • Bill payment and expense management
  • Travel and entertainment planning
  • Health and elder care planning
  • Family education
  • Philanthropy and sustainable investment strategies

Have you considered offloading resource-intensive processes to a third-party service provide?

  • Bill payment including invoice collection, document storage, bill approvals, payment generation and expense reporting.
  • Partnership accounting activities including capital activity processing, book and tax allocation management, tax reporting and 704(c) tracking.
  • Comprehensive data aggregation and client reporting that consolidates, tracks and reports across asset types, accounts, managers, custodians and currencies.

Download an interactive version of this checklist to help your family office plan their 2023 strategy.

 

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Originally published Dec 18, 2019, updated Dec 8, 2022


Marissa Frizzell

 

Marissa Frizzell
Sales Director – SEI Family Office Services

Having been with SEI since 2012, Marissa is currently a member of the Business Development team where she serves as a client advocate and focuses on building relationships with current and prospective system users. In this role, she is responsible for educating clients on SEI's full suite of family office solutions and ensuring that each client leverages the right combination of products and services for their firm. She also leads the firm’s IMMERSION User Conference series and provides ad-hoc client training. Prior to her current role, Marissa formed the SEI Family Office Services Training team where she was instrumental in developing the New Hire Online Training, evolving the firm’s online product documentation and enhancement notices and managing the Client Support Portal. Marissa also held positions on SEI's Implementation and Client Relations Support teams.

Marissa holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Lacy School of Business at Butler University. Outside of SEI, Marissa enjoys volunteering in the community as a member of the Junior League of Indianapolis, attending Butler Basketball games and traveling with her husband.

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Marissa Frizzell

Marissa Frizzell

Sales Director
SEI Family Office Services