Introducing the multi-family office
A multi-family office is an organisation such as Turnstone. It provides all the professional services of a single family office but instead of serving only a single family, it serves a number of families. Depending on its capacity, a multi-family office can serve anything from 2 families to hundreds of families.
Some multi-family offices concentrate on specific services such as investments, banking, insurance, fiduciary services or finance and cash management. However, focus on a single function rather than a wider and more rounded offering, is likely to unsettle client families and leave them dissatisfied. A singularly focused multi-family office may open the family to greater risk and leave them vulnerable.
A successful multi-family office does not have a particularly strong focus on specific functionalities but rather manages the risk of client families by providing a holistic, balanced service that is sufficiently flexible to match the needs of each of the families they serve.
Next: Advantages of a multi-family office
Why a multi-family office may work for your family.
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The privacy of the family is protected as the ideal multi-family office deals only with a handful of clients. The professional nature of the multi-family office ensures that privacy of family information remains a priority.
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A multi-family office is able to provide a wider range of professional services because of economies of scale. Specific professional services that a family may need from time-to-time may be readily available within the multi-family office.
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Multi-family offices employ a wide range of professionals. Each professional is an expert in his/her field and is required to stay up to date with prevailing industry standards. A client family benefits from the collective knowledge and advice available, enabling it to make decisions quickly and effectively.
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The professionals working in a well-rounded multi-family office provide advice that is truly independent and not biased towards any specific brand or product type. Their experience gained from dealing with other families is transferable. Many issues and problems can be avoided because of their enhanced experience and objectivity.
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Where a single family office becomes viable from an asset value of about £200m, multi-family office solutions can be viable from an asset value of around £5m.