Characteristics of A Successful MFO

• Culture of caring and serving with high touch, professional service.
• Mission is to achieve the objectives of each family, separate and distinct, from the goals of the family office as an organization.
• Highly discreet office professionals and personnel that maintain client confidentially from family to family, and within families.
• Full service family office that fulfills all of the needs of the family, not just those that have the highest profit margins.
• Each family should be served as if the family office is their single-family office, and treated equally in service and in fees charges, whether they were part of the original family or not.
• Minimum net worth for each client served, established by the family office, to ensure the cost efficiency of the services needed.
• Control and monitoring of the total costs, to perform the services provided to each client.
• Fees should be based on assets under management, taking into account the time, volume of work and attention that a client needs before establishing that fee.

Some Questions to Ask

• Who should form their own family office and who should join a multifamily office?
• What are the specific advantages of an independent multifamily office vs. a single family office?
• What is the primary function of this family office; is it a full service family office?
• How does the family office charge for its services? What are the fees and what services do I get for those charges?
• How can I ensure investment objectivity?
• How do you ensure confidentiality of my client information?
• Does this family office employ investing techniques that are unique to an individual investor vs. institution?