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John W. Sleeting

Managing Partner – Family Office Services

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Karie M. OConnor,
CIMA®, CPFA®, AIFA®, QKA®

Director – Institutional Advisory Services

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Jeffrey P. DeHaan, CFP®

Managing Partner – Private Wealth Management

What are Multi-Family Office Services?

John Sleeting July 01, 2021

In 2017 we shared with readers An Intro to Family Offices in which we outlined the regulatory evolution and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) definition of a Family Office.  Further, we referenced Dr. Kirby Rosplock’s book The Complete Family Office Handbook as she noted Family Offices are “designed to prepare family members to collectively manage, sustain, and grow their wealth across multiple generations”.  We closed with a reminder that a families’ Human, Intellectual and Social Capital reflect the hopes, aspirations, and purpose of a Family while the Office helps to organize and manage the tools, financial and legal, to sustain the family and achieve their objectives.

At Clearwater Capital Partners (CCP) our quest has been to evaluate and develop services which create value for our client families.  We have adopted the work of Dr. Eric Almquist, Bain & Company, and the Elements of Value framework outlined in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), September 2016.  We continue to welcome feedback and discussion to ensure we deliver upon the valued outcomes reflective of the evolving wealth management challenges families face.

In 2020, CCP was invited into the nationally recognized Family Wealth Alliance (FWA).  The FWA serves the multi-family wealth community through peer-based exchange of ideas, best practices, and resources to accelerate the adoption of services in anticipation of evolving family requirements.  CCP Team Members are fully engaged with the FWA; including, representation in the Evolving Firm Roundtable, the Young Professionals Network, and my Co-Chairing both the FWA Fall Forum (November 2021, Chicago, IL) and FWA Spring Summit (February 2022, Scottsdale, AZ)

FWA defines a Multi-Family-Office (MFO) as: a specific type of North American wealth management firm, identified by a certain kind of client base, service menu, delivery model, and level of experience that sets it apart from other types of wealth management firms.  MFO’s serve unrelated private families and together with scale deliver a unique family office experience.

As CCP leverages the work of FWA and our peer member firms, we strive to deliver:

–          the right services,

–          to the right clients – across generations,

–          at the right time.

Although the Clearwater Capital Team serves a wide array of wealth levels, we must ensure we deliver the right solutions to achieve proper outcomes for each family and member across multiple generations.  Therefore, generally, we view MFO Client Families as those with significant complexity through private business ownership, professional financial success, inheritance, and/or other factors leading toward the need for a broad-based service offering.

Make no mistake, all families have needs which fall into these service offering categories.  We do utilize tools where and when appropriate.  However, families with greater levels of affluence tend to have needs which require particular attention and higher levels of technical competency.

The Family Wealth Alliance has crystalized the MFO community’s focus into ten service offerings of best-in-class firms, these include:

–          Investment Portfolio Management

–          Consolidated Reporting & Technology

–          Risk Management

–          Integrated Financial Planning and Wealth Strategy

–          Estate & Wealth Transfer

–          Fiduciary / Trustee Services

–          Tax Planning Preparation & Compliance

–          Strategic Philanthropy & Administration

–          Family Consulting, Governance, Meetings & Education

–          Lifestyle Management

In the months ahead we will clearly articulate our philosophy, approach, and structure applied toward delivering each of these ten important service areas.  If you have any questions and/or would like to explore these subjects in advance, please do not hesitate to reach out.

We continue to pursue the firm of the future on our client’s behalf; in other words, we are building this firm for your benefit – please contribute to our mutual success by sharing your perspective, thoughts, ideas and needs.

John W. Sleeting

Senior Partner

John Sleeting

disclosure

THIS COMMENTARY HAS BEEN PREPARED BY CLEARWATER CAPITAL PARTNERS. THE OPINIONS VOICED IN THIS MATERIAL ARE FOR GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE OR BE CONSTRUED AS PROVIDING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR SPECIFIC INVESTMENT ADVICE OR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL. ALL ECONOMIC DATA IS DERIVED FROM PUBLIC SOURCES BELIEVED TO BE RELIABLE. TO DETERMINE WHICH INVESTMENTS MAY BE APPROPRIATE FOR YOU, PLEASE CONSULT WITH US PRIOR TO INVESTING. INVESTING INVOLVES RISK WHICH MAY INCLUDE LOSS OF PRINCIPAL.

This material is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities, insurance products, or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date of writing and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and nonproprietary sources deemed by Clearwater Capital Partners to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. Investment involves risks. International investing involves additional risks, including risks related to foreign currency, limited liquidity, less government regulation and the possibility of substantial volatility due to adverse political, economic or other developments. Index performance is shown for illustrative purposes only. You cannot invest directly in an index. S&P 500 is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services, a division of S&P Global (“S&P”)  DOW JONES, DJ, DJIA and DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE are registered trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings (“Dow Jones”). The two main risks related to fixed-income investing are interest rate risk and credit risk. Typically, when interest rates rise, there is a corresponding decline in the market value of bonds. Credit risk refers to the possibility that the issuer of the bond will not be able to make principal and interest payments.

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