Family Office: Building Generational Wealth
As families have a liquidity event, selling all or a portion of their business, they may elect to have a family office manage their central assets. The purpose of each family office varies depending on the family's unique goals, whether it be managing complex trusts, shared property, building generational wealth, or preparing the next generation to be responsible stewards of their family’s wealth. Whatever your family's ideas about a family office may be, the key to success is ensuring that its design aligns with the vision of the family owners. We can help.
If you’ve seen one family office, you’ve seen ONE family office.
– Head of a Family Office
We work with families to create effective family offices by helping define their purpose, structure, and the best process for effective decision-making within. Whether you are just starting your first family office, transitioning yours from one generation to the next, or focused on building generational wealth,we can help your family prepare for a smooth transition by ensuring that the mission and structure of your family office are aligned with what the owners want and need.
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Banyan is a leading provider of family business consulting services to family offices around the world. We work with families in various stages of the development of their family offices, from formation to transition to reinvention.
FORMATION
Families with significant wealth that are thinking about developing a structure to manage their assets collectively
TRANSITION
Families that are in the process of transitioning the ownership of the assets of their family office from one generation to the next
REINVENTION
Families that need to reinvent the strategy and structure of their family office to better suit the changing needs of the family
Our Approach to Family Offices
Our work focuses on supporting family offices as they prepare for a transition in ownership from one generation to the next. We support family offices in developing the strategy and organization required to serve a new generation of owners while continuing to meet the needs of the senior generation in building generational wealth.
Working directly with the owners of the family assets, we help translate their priorities into a strategic plan for the family office. We also ensure that a system of governance is in place to allow for effective decision making and that the vision for the family office is aligned with the rest of the family enterprise.
Here are some representative examples of the challenges family offices face:
Compartmentalize or consolidate:
The family had a sizable set of assets and a diverse network of financial advisors, accountants, and attorneys tending to their assets. Their advisors did not communicate with each other. They all worked through the family office’s founder, who preferred to compartmentalize all of their services. He enjoyed pitting one advisor against the other to see who could provide the most value. But his adult children grew wary of so many moving parts. They wished for a central source of expertise that could collaborate and provide unified advice. How could the two generations bridge their different visions and start making joint decisions about their assets?
Un-entangling an embedded Family Office:
The non-family CFO was stretched to his limit. Years ago, when the business was significantly smaller, he and his team were responsible for helping manage the owners’ tax accounting and trusts. Now that the business was approaching half a billion in annual revenue, they had enough on their plate managing the finances of the business, let alone other services for the owners. They realized that they were effectively performing the services of a family office – it was just embedded within the family business. How could they un-entangle the family office services from the family business and create a standalone family office?
Family Office 2.0:
Twin brothers founded the family office together. They wanted their family office to do everything from investing to managing their shared property. They were likeminded and very comfortable keeping all of their finances integrated. The next generation of cousins were less interested in being tied together. They wanted more individuality and less co-investing. The family office services they prized the most were owner education for them and their children. How could their family office do a 180 and alter its strategy while maintaining continuity?
Expanding the mandate:
The family patriarch first established the family office 30 years ago. Now, the next generation of sibling leaders was preparing to take over the reins. They wanted to expand the investment mandate of the family office and get more involved in decision-making. The patriarch was eager for them to define a mandate that worked for them, but he knew they each had slightly different ideas and priorities. How could the next generation work together to govern the family office? How would they make decisions as the family office’s Board of Directors?