PW: Research indicates that more types of firms are adopting the term "Multifamily Office." In your estimation, what are the hallmarks of a true MFO?
GROMEK: I think it comes down to the quality that you're able to deliver to clients-based on the fact that you're working with multiple families. Are you able to access the talent that you need to service those families? Are you able to get access to great managers? And are you able to do that and reinvest in technology to be able to do that in a way that's cost efficient?
Growth for the sake of growing isn't all that interesting, but growing beyond a small base of families to serve multiple families allows you to reinvest back in people, back in technology to really deliver a higher level of service to those families.
ROGERS: My definition of a multifamily office is really integrated wealth management services. There are a lot of specialty areas within the wealth management arena. That's part of why a lot of organizations want to call themselves a multifamily office when in actuality they're not.
It's estate planning. There's philanthropic advisory. There's tax and accounting. There's investment capabilities. There's family dynamic services. The firm that can really integrate the various service capabilities is what I would consider an MFO, which is part of why there's so much confusion.
SALLENAVE: We really think of it as someone who not just only provides wealth management capabilities, but adds on top of that what we call lifestyle management. Whether that lifestyle management is offered in-house or whether that's outsourced, that's not so relevant. It's that the clients of that family office are able to get that service.
Bill paying, the foundation work, helping to educate the next generation of the client's family-all of those things are what we call lifestyle management. Then we add on top of that the recognition that the client base needs to be truly not wealthy individuals, but really multi-generational wealth. We identify that as being a client base of multi-generational families that have at least $20 million in assets under management.
SINSHEIMER: It's really the ability to take a multi-disciplined approach to the wealth and welfare of clients in a way that form-fits over the family and the individual members that are part of that family. And understanding that one member of a family needs something that another one may not and to approach that in a very individualized kind of way. It means being fairly unconflicted and to be very attentive.
PATTERSON: To add to what everyone else has already defined as a multifamily office, I would say also managing wealth and integrating it with a sense of purpose. And really listening carefully and understanding what the family is intending to do or wants to do with that money because it can go in a variety of ways. A lot of times they don't think in a disciplined way about that.
So, we can help them do that. There are only four choices. They can spend money on their lifestyle. They can leave it to the next generations. They can give it to charity or they can let Uncle Sam have some of it. And so, it's figuring out what strategies will work to accomplish [a family's] goals, and then making sure the values get passed down along with the money.