The Family Office Industry is expanding with an impressive pace with a new family office opening every month.  Just as impressive is the growthof the wealth management industry servicing the family office.  The impact of the growth is evidenced allaround us by their investments in apartment buildings, franchises, and venturecapital.  Family Offices have become an important source of capital for the small and medium-sized businesses and investments that fuel our economy, an especially important factor given the slowdown in lending by traditional commercial banks.

With high-profile celebrities,successful business professionals and other people of recognition turning to the family office model for their wealth management, the family office is becoming more and more well known to even non-investment and financial professionals.  As of 2013, there are approximately 3,000 family offices in the United States with another 1,000 in Europe and even more in Asia and Latin America.

It is reasonable to assume thatthis demand will continue as more investors and wealthy families come to expectmore from their wealth management advisors.Many financial and wealth management professionals have noticed this trend, too, and chosen to step off the beaten path of typical bank and brokerage solutions and launch multi-family and single-family offices in order to better serve their clients.  The ultra-affluent have more all-encompassing needs including tax, compliance,portfolio management, payroll, human resources, special lending, and bill paying services. 

While there are no set rules onwhat services a family office can or cannot offer, there are common investmentand finance-related services that most of them provide for their clients.  Many of these advanced services are not available with a private banking or traditional wealth-management setting because they are only affordable and, for the most part, necessary for the most affluent clientele.

Family offices also offersuperior expertise on constructing or selecting alternative investmentportfolios and products, including real assets.Many have invested heavily in systems, reporting and institutionalconsultants to help select the most appropriate alternative investment managersand products for their high-net-worth clients.Almost everything done within a family office is done with long-term planning in mind.

Austin Capital Trust

Specializing in assisting FamilyOffices and their advisors with a technology platform, outsourcing solutionsincluding middle and back offices