The Power 5: Traits of a Top Family Office

Maximize your financial success by working with wealth managers who adopt family office best practices.

Family offices are renowned for their ability to offer wealthy families tailored solutions to manage their financial and personal affairs. Whether it's growing and protecting wealth, addressing business needs, or accessing top-tier experts, family offices are seen as the pinnacle of wealth and lifestyle management. This is especially true for single-family offices, which exist solely to serve one family’s unique needs with highly specialized services.

However, many wealth managers now offer what is known as a virtual family office, bringing many benefits of a traditional family office to a wider audience. By working with the right advisors, families who may not have the wealth to set up their own family office can still experience a high level of service and expertise.

If you’re evaluating wealth managers for a virtual family office experience, here are our five recommended traits to look for:

1. Results-Driven Focus

At the heart of any high-functioning family office is a commitment to delivering results. Family offices work with clear goals and objectives, often setting high expectations and holding themselves accountable. This results-driven approach allows them to quickly adjust strategies when needed to achieve the family’s desired outcomes.

When working with a wealth manager, it’s important that they adopt a similar mindset. Rather than focusing on specific financial products, advisors should start with your end goals in mind and develop strategies to achieve them. Whether it’s growing your investments or securing your family’s financial future, results should always take priority over any specific financial vehicle or product.

2. Thoughtful Decision-Making

Wealth management for families often involves multiple decision-makers, which can lead to differing priorities and opinions. Family offices excel at navigating these dynamics by fostering thoughtful, calculated decision-making processes that take into account both personal values and economic realities.

Advisors who aim to provide a family office-like experience must similarly balance their recommendations between personal family values and financial pragmatism. Whether it’s decisions about socially responsible investments or balancing different family members’ priorities, thoughtful decision-making ensures that your wealth management strategy is cohesive and aligned with your overall goals.

3. Strategic Outsourcing

Family offices know their strengths and understand that outsourcing to specialists is essential for success. They strategically manage external experts in areas where they do not have in-house expertise, whether it’s in specific investment sectors, healthcare services, or legal and tax matters.

When evaluating a wealth manager, ask them about their approach to outsourcing. Ideally, they should be transparent about what they outsource and why. By leveraging a network of trusted external experts, your advisor can focus on their strengths while ensuring you receive the highest level of service across all aspects of your financial and personal affairs.

4. Purposefully Connecting

Successful family offices are master networkers. They are adept at leveraging their extensive personal and professional networks to open doors and create opportunities for the families they serve. Whether it’s business partnerships, philanthropic opportunities, or accessing exclusive services, strong connections are a powerful tool for maximizing success.

In a virtual family office, your wealth manager should have the ability to connect you with people and resources that enhance your financial and personal well-being. These connections could lead to new investment opportunities or provide access to high-level professionals in areas such as legal, tax, or health services.

5. Maximizing Relationships

The relationships that family offices foster go beyond networking—they aim to capitalize on these relationships for the benefit of the family. This might mean negotiating better deals on behalf of the family or using industry connections to secure favorable terms on investments or services.

A strong wealth manager should similarly be able to use their industry expertise and negotiating skills to maximize the value you receive from external experts or financial institutions. Whether it’s reducing fees or improving contract terms, your advisor should have your best interests at heart when negotiating on your behalf.

While you may not have the resources to create your own single-family office, you can still experience the benefits of a high-performing family office by working with the right wealth manager. Look for advisors who exhibit these five traits — results-driven focus, thoughtful decision-making, strategic outsourcing, purposeful networking, and the ability to maximize relationships. These qualities will help ensure that you receive top-tier wealth management tailored to your family’s unique needs and goals.