PERSPECTIVE

Perspectives on managing complex wealth.

Perspectives from inside the operation. Notes, thinking, and analysis on working with Family Offices and Private Banks — from the individuals closest to the work, for the individuals who depend on it.

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Article

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Single Family Offices

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3 All-Purpose Strategies to Overcome Common Family Office Challenges

Presents three broad strategies for family offices facing operational complexity: education and networking, outsourcing underserved functions, and working with consultants.

Chelsea Francis

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Head of Strategy

Leveraging Family Office Software and Outsourced Services to Help Your Operations Stay Balanced

The very nature of a family office is to provide multiple services, across multiple households, across multiple generations. To that end, it goes without saying that family offices are rarely, if ever, afforded a singular operational focus.

The ubiquity of daily, multi-entity data management, routine monitoring of inflows and outflows, evolving investment strategies, shifting ownership structures, and seemingly always-on-the-horizon tax and reporting deadlines can make running a family office inherently challenging. Compounded by social, economic, and political influences, running a family office can truly become a balancing act.

And when you’re juggling that many balls at the same time, it can be difficult to know which ones to keep in the air and which to hand off to someone else.

Luckily, growth and innovation in the family office space have created a host of options to help lighten the operational burden.

Struggling with your family office’s financial data management? Evaluating or implementing a new technology solution? Wanting to connect with other family office professionals to talk shop? From purpose-built family office technology to exclusive family office communities, dedicated family office service providers, and experienced consultants, the answers are out there. You just need to know where to look.

Here are three universal strategies that can help your family office identify solutions and overcome its unique challenges—big or small.

Pursue all of the training, education, and networking opportunities.

You’ve probably said it, we’ve definitely said it, and you’ve surely heard it: We don’t know what we don’t know. But more often than not, someone is willing and able to help you learn—and what better way to connect and share experiences than through training, education, and networking events?

Nevertheless, even on our best days, when your capacity is already hitting the limiter, it can be hard to look at a new opportunity and say, “Yes, I want to add more to my plate.”

We get it: It’s hard to make time. We’ve all felt the pinch, but when it comes to training, education, and networking, we at Archway Family Office Services firmly believe it’s worth the reward.

Let’s look at a few examples:

Scheduling one-on-one or team training with your technology provider

Pros: Expand your knowledge of the application; Explore new tools and functionality; Smooth out workflows; Discover ways to automate processes and reduce clicks

Cons: Requires time out of your schedule; May incur a financial cost

Attending a family office conference

Pros: Connect with other family office professionals; Discuss alternative solutions to shared operational challenges; Learn about new technology and service providers; Gain insight into regulatory changes, investment trends, and other strategic topics

Cons: Requires time out of your schedule; May incur a financial cost

Among the weary, the busy, and the cost-conscious, a natural response is to say “I don’t have the time” or “It’s not in the budget.” But a shift in mindset to say “It is worth my time” or “It is worth the cost” can pave the way to new connections, elevated conversations, and creative ideas that just may hold the solution to your most stubborn challenges.

Don’t be afraid to outsource underserved operations.

Sometimes it’s not a matter of training, education, or networking—after all, even a creative solution can’t add hours to the day. And if you’re not in a position to hire additional staff, capacity challenges can quickly become overwhelming.

But the situation doesn’t have to be dire. The industry is laced with experienced, trusted service providers that specialize in family office operations.

Take Archway Family Office Services for example. Given our deep roots in family office software, it’s only natural that we offer outsourced services to our clients that either augment or replace their in-house usage of the Archway PlatformSM.

Ranging from portfolio reconciliation and consolidated client reporting to personal expense management and partnership administration, our menu of solutions helps our clients create a bespoke combination of technology and services that is right-sized for their family office or financial institution.

Still on the fence? Check out the Top 10 Reasons Private Wealth Managers Choose an Outsourcing Partner.

So, whether you’re looking for expertise in broader areas like financial data management and tax planning, or more niche areas like private foundation management and family governance, there’s a good chance you can find a service provider that specializes in it.

Which brings us to the world of consultants.

Partner with an experienced consultant.

When in doubt, reach out to a consultant.

Oftentimes leveraging in-depth assessments and contextual reviews, consultants are equipped to help make recommendations that are appropriately suited for your family office. Their range of expertise and their unbiased opinion can help your family office identify key pain points, evaluate viable solutions, partner with experienced technology and service providers, and implement long-term strategies.

Read How Consultants Can Help Family Offices to get a deeper understanding of the three primary roles of family office consultants: Administrative consulting, technology consulting, and operational consulting.

Contact Archway Family Office Services to find out how our suite of technology and service solutions helps our clients overcome their accounting, investment data aggregation, and reporting challenges.

Just need a suggestion for a family office consultant or conference? We can do that too.

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Single Family Offices

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The Client Service Trifecta: Family Office Software Client Support, Education, and Training

Explains why client support, education, and training should be evaluated alongside functionality when selecting family office software.

Natalie Peters

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Relationship Manager

Using Client Service as a Mechanism to Qualify Family Office Technology Providers

Capabilities and tools, code and databases, reports and more reports.

When it comes to family office technology evaluations, these tend to be the topics that dominate most conversations. And for good reason: These topics are, no doubt, core to selecting a solution that will work for your family office.

But a technology solution that merely works for your family office is a far cry from a technology solution that enhances your family office. Your family office software should extend beyond functionality and reporting. Ideally, an investment of this magnitude should support the growth and strategy of the family, generation over generation.

In our experience, the key to finding a dependable technology partner with a staying power equal to the family wealth itself is to look beyond the product or service and evaluate the whole of the firm’s client service approach.

It’s no secret that at Archway Family Office Services, we routinely cite the importance of client service as a key consideration when choosing a family office software provider.

Client Support

Oftentimes, the most common face of client service is client support. In the traditional sense of client support, this is the real human answering the phone, replying to your email, or triaging your support ticket. In a more modern sense, it could equate to chatbots, automated voice systems, or robotic process automation (RPA).

When evaluating your technology provider’s client support capabilities, consider the following:

  • Support hours and availability
  • Location of support staff
  • Types of support channels (i.e. phone, email, online support portal, etc.)
  • Experience and/or qualifications of support staff
  • Self-service support capabilities
Client Education

Client education can come in a variety of forms, from knowledge bases, setup guides, and product release notes to step-by-step process and policy documentation. A key pillar in any client service model, education is fundamental to giving clients the tools they need to successfully operate a wealthtech solution.

But perhaps more notably, this facet of client service puts clients in the driver’s seat, allowing them to acquire the knowledge and skills they need so that they can become self-sufficient within the application.

When evaluating your technology provider’s client education capabilities, consider the following:

  • Availability of online, self-service product documentation
  • Communication strategy related to product enhancements, upgrades, and announcements
  • Creation of thorough process documentation and/or best practices for critical operations
  • Access to how-to guides, tutorials, and setup manuals
  • Opportunity to join peer networks and/or forums for best practices, tips, and tricks
Client Training

Ongoing client training is critical to maximizing your family office’s technology investment. Training represents the tipping point from becoming self-sufficient to proficient in an application and often covers more advanced features and functions of the technology.

At Archway Family Office Services, we offer a variety of training opportunities including ad hoc client-specific trainings, recorded tutorials, live group trainings, and our pinnacle training event exclusively for our family office clients: Archway’s IMMERSION User Conference.

When evaluating your technology provider’s client training capabilities, consider the following:

  • Availability of dedicated, in-house training staff
  • In-person and/or virtual group training opportunities
  • One-on-one custom training opportunities
  • Access to user conferences, regional user groups, or client communities
  • Accreditation of training content

By checking the boxes in these three areas of client service, your family office can feel more confident in not only the technology you’ve selected, but the people, processes, and documentation that will support you going forward. More importantly, these areas—even more so than the software itself—will define how you engage, connect, and grow with your technology partner for years to come.

Learn more about how Archway Family Office Services builds lasting relationships and connects with our family office and financial institution clients through education, support, and training in our mini ebook, Our Commitment to Exceptional Client Service.

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Single Family Offices

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Family Office Client Portals: 5 Vital Financial Insights + Examples

Explains five key financial insights family office client portals should provide, including net worth, holdings, performance, cash, and expense detail.

Chris Rose

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Sales Director

What to Look for When Selecting Client Portal Technology for Your Family Office

Client portals have taken many shapes throughout the years. With nearly every modern financial institution offering clients some form of digital access to their financial information, online portal technology is a far cry from its infancy.

The same can be said for family office client portals.

To paint the picture, let's take a look at the evolution of the Archway PlatformSM and its portal technology.

Originally introduced in the early 2000s, our initial portal concept was referred to simply as Investor Login. Limited to a handful of configuration options, the Archway Platform's Investor Login served as an online access point for individual users to view performance returns, capital activity, fees, and a select number of reports.

Since those early days, we have rolled out several iterations of the portal using a combination of client requests, internal feedback, and a healthy dose of innovative thinking.

Which brings us to today, where the Archway Client Portal gives end-clients on-demand access to an interactive, mobile financial reporting tool.

Based on our experience developing and enhancing our own family office software and client portal, here are several key financial insights you should consider looking for when selecting client portal technology for your family office or financial institution.

1. Consolidated net worth

This seemingly simple request can actually be one of the most difficult to questions to answer, especially when it comes to high-net-worth (HNW) individuals.

Your family office’s client portal should be able to—at a minimum—tell your end-client exactly how much they are worth, inclusive of cash, investments, property, and indirect exposure to additional holdings, at the click of a button.

We recommend looking for family office portal technology that can:

  • Consolidate net worth across entities, portfolios, and assets
  • Compute net worth based on direct and indirect holdings
  • Show net worth changes over time based on investment performance, purchases, sales, contributions, withdrawals, accruals, and other types of activity
2. Aggregated holdings

Having the means to answer the question “How much am I worth?” is powerful, but being able to show the assets that make up your client’s net worth can have an even greater appeal.

A standard family office client portal should allow your end-clients to view individual holdings. An elite family office client portal should allow your end-clients to consolidate, group, filter, and categorize their holdings in ways that are meaningful to their understanding.

We recommend looking for family office portal technology that can:

  • Aggregate holdings data across all types of assets such as equities, bonds, cash, real estate, personal assets, and alternative investments like private equity, hedge funds, and cryptocurrency
  • Assess changes in market values over time
  • Maintain user-defined asset categories or groupings
3. Investment performance

Being able to analyze investment performance falls into family office reporting 101—and serves as a key capability of any financial reporting tool. But to really hit the mark, a family office client portal should feature the ability to attribute performance to factors like asset type, portfolio manager, strategy, or region.

We recommend looking for family office portal technology that can:

  • Render performance data in both graphic and tabular formats
  • Compare performance against benchmarks
  • Measure performance over time, across multiple periods
  • Use multiple performance calculations such as time-weighted and money-weighted returns
4. Cash balances

Understanding how much cash is available at any point in time is vital to a client’s financial health, particularly amongst individuals that have high transaction volumes or large purchase amounts.

Even for clients whose bills are paid by family office staff or an outsourced bill payment service, it’s always helpful to know how much money is available for day-to-day expenses.

We recommend looking for family office portal technology that can:

  • Pull in daily cash activity from banks, custodians, and brokerage firms
  • Provide on-demand cash balances as of a point in time
  • Display cash flows and changes in cash balances over time
5. Expense and spending detail

Speaking of expenses, it can be easy for a family office or HNW advisor to focus their client portal search on tools that primarily show investment-related detail. But there can be tremendous value in being able to share accounting and investment data within a single portal.

By selecting a tool that can summarize expenses, identify spending habits, and even compare outflow detail against budgets and cash inflows, end-clients are able to be more in control of their recurring cash flow.

We recommend looking for family office portal technology that can:

  • Categorize expenses based on user-defined expense categories
  • Display summary-level expense data as well as underlying detail such as vendors, payment terms, and invoices

Beyond financial analytics and insights, we recommend assessing for other features as well, including things like bill payment approval functionality, document management, and customizable reporting dashboards.

To find tips, tricks, and best practices for adopting a client portal in your family office, check out Best Practices to Transition Your Family Office into the Age of Digital Reporting.

A family office client portal featuring valuable financial insights can introduce a new approach to traditional family office reporting.

Better yet, when offered as an interactive, user-controlled reporting experience, family offices can engage end-clients in ways that far surpass anything paper reports provide to create contemporary, meaningful connections with current and future wealth owners.

But if you’re still debating the merits of a client portal for your family office, start by checking out the Archway Client Portal’s flexible reporting dashboards, comprehensive financial insights, and easy-to-use tools. Operating as a seamless extension of the Archway Platform, our client portal can serve as the link you need between your family office staff and the family members they serve.

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Single Family Offices

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How Consultants Can Help Family Offices

Explains the administrative, technology, and operational roles family office consultants can play across strategy, implementation, and ongoing support.

Chelsea Francis

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Head of Strategy

Explaining the Many Roles of Family Office Consultants

The role of family office consultants is far-reaching and the range and depth of the services they offer can vary significantly. From entity and organizational structuring to technology selections and operational support, consultants can wear quite a few hats throughout the lifecycle of a family office.

While Archway Family Office Services tends to interact with consultants most commonly during due diligence, selection, implementation and ongoing usage of the Archway PlatformSM, consultants can play a much larger role that expands well beyond family office software.

Broadly grouped into three primary areas of focus, here are a few examples of how family offices can work with consultants across their businesses.

Administrative Consulting

Largely focused on formative and strategic initiatives, family offices can partner with consultants to help with traditional administrative tasks such as:

  • Family office creation
  • Legal entity structuring
  • Tax and estate planning
  • Foundation and non-profit strategy
  • Governance
  • Next-gen and transition planning

Administrative consulting can also span to include niche consultancy like:

  • Personal security and risk assessment
  • Family education
  • Legacy preservation
  • Executive talent search
  • Travel and household management

Administrative consulting can come in the form of a one-time project or as a recurring function as restructuring and intermittent evaluations are needed.

Technology Consulting

As a 20-year veteran in the family office software space, Archway Family Office Services has the most exposure in the technology-focused area of family office consulting. Over the years, we’ve worked with a number of consultants to help family offices on their technology journey.

Technology consulting projects can include:

  • Technology needs and goals assessments
  • Technology strategy planning
  • Database infrastructure
  • Family office technology selection
  • Technology implementation project management
  • Cybersecurity
  • Client portal development and/or implementation

Though it’s common to associate technology consulting with the more familiar accounting and investment software solutions, it can also extend to the broader family office technology ecosystem, inclusive of hyper-targeted tools like digital family office communication apps, document managers, grant-making software, CRMs, dashboard-style portals and compliance platforms.

Consultants tend to have a large network of viable solutions that they are able to take to the table and recommend based on the unique needs of each family office. For this reason, technology consulting can be a very involved, but rewarding initiative for family offices.

Operational Consulting

This type of consulting lends itself more to ongoing service than one-off consulting efforts, but is nonetheless an important function of family office consultants.

Like administrative and technology consulting, operational consulting can include a variety of functions such as:

  • Technology implementation project resourcing
  • Software administration
  • Accounting and investment data validation and reconciliation
  • Monthly financial reporting
  • Tax preparation
  • Annual charitable gift planning

While not all consultants can perform the operational functions in-house, most are able to advise on a trusted service provider that will be a sound, long-term partner for the family office.

Archway Family Office Services has a long history of working with family office consultants across the globe. Schedule a call with a member of our team to learn more about our family office solutions and how we can work with your preferred consultant to support you from technology evaluation to ongoing usage of Archway's Platform.

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Single Family Offices

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20 Lessons Learned as a Family Office Solution Provider

Reflects on 20 years of family office solution delivery, covering technology specialization, reporting, implementation, scalability, outsourcing, and client community.

Archway Family Office Services

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What 20 Years of Working with Family Offices Has Taught Archway Family Office Services

As the Archway PlatformSM celebrates its 20th year serving family offices, Archway Family Office Services is looking back on the lessons we’ve learned throughout two decades of client service interactions, thousands of product development hours and seemingly endless internal discussions.

Here is a list of 20 lessons we’ve learned since the Archway Platform got its launch in 2002:

  1. Family offices require purpose-built accounting and investment tools. Wrought with limitations around entity consolidation, complex transaction processing, investment data aggregation and end-client reporting, industry-agnostic software is simply not designed to handle the intricacies of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) wealth. As family offices have become increasingly sophisticated, so have our solutions, allowing our clients to handle their particular nuances like complex entity structures, multiple households, vast portfolios and diverse investments.
  2. …but there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to family offices. Although it’s been said countless times before, each family office presents its own unique organizational structure, investment strategy and set of operational processes. Family office software should be flexible enough to adapt to each family office’s distinct needs.
  3. Financial reporting can only be as good as the underlying data. The only way to ensure reliable reporting is to input clean, accurate data into your system of record from the start. Period.
  4. We can all agree: Excel is not a long-term reporting solution. Spreadsheets permeate nearly every walk of life, but they are not sustainable when it comes to financial reporting for modern family offices. Whether the need arises out of a desire for greater automation, accuracy or security, family offices seek out applications that simplify and streamline complex reporting processes.
  5. Technology presents myriad opportunities to automate key family office operations. Family office technology, including the Archway Platform, has come a long way since the early 2000s. From accounting close processes and investor allocations to bill payment approvals and wealth reporting, workflows have been built to automate an incredible number of historically manual processes—and today’s family offices demand more automation than ever before.
  6. We know what we are—and what we aren’t. Archway Family Office Services delivers a comprehensive suite of accounting, investment data aggregation and reporting capabilities. We specialize in partnership, portfolio and corporate accounting alongside bill payment, investment management and multi-asset class data aggregation. We handle complex cash management, transfers and gifting and fee billing. We offer hundreds of financial statements, asset allocation overviews, performance analytics and holdings reports. But we know there’s more to a family office than what the Archway Platform can do, and we don’t strive to over-engineer our solution for a function it was never meant to perform.
  7. Best of breed and integrated family office software solutions have unique benefits. Fundamentally, the Archway Platform was built to replace multiple applications. But we also know there are a variety of reasons why a family office may continue to use ancillary systems for certain functions. To help family offices interconnect their ecosystem of technology and service providers, we’ve made a significant investment over the years to create integration points with a variety of third-party applications. We’ve learned to help family offices use the Archway Platform as a standalone family office solution, or as a hub of their broader technology ecosystem.
  8. Technology models should be tailored to the family office. Family offices need options when it comes to how they consume technology solutions. After all, not every family office is equipped—nor wants—to run an enterprise application. To that end, Archway Family Office Services has adapted how our clients are able to leverage the Archway Platform, allowing them to use the technology in-house, outsource the work to us or employ some combination of both in-house and outsourced resources to run the platform.
  9. Technology and service evaluations require structure. Selecting a technology or service provider is never a decision that should be made lightly. Over the years, we’ve completed countless use-cases, proofs-of-concepts, questionnaires and consultative discussions, making us keenly aware of the importance of those tasks in the decision-making process.
  10. Scalability is a leading consideration when making a wealthtech decision. A solution that can grow with a family office is far more viable in the long-term than a solution that meets singular needs right now. Throughout the years, we’ve implemented new tools that allow our clients to efficiently expand their usage of the Archway Platform—whether it’s the addition of entities, households, portfolios, assets, users or functionality.
  11. …and outsourced services can also serve as a mechanism to help family offices create efficiency. When capacity and bandwidth run short, family offices need a strategic partner that can serve as a seamless extension of their internal team. Whether it’s an unexpected short-term gap or a long-term strategic decision, Archway Family Office Services has built an offering that allows our team to work alongside our clients through tailorable partnership administration, personal expense management, portfolio reconciliation, consolidated reporting and family office outsourcing services.
  12. Technology plays a key role in business continuity—as underscored in 2020. Whether our clients were using the Archway Platform within their own four walls or working with our outsourced service teams, we found that they were well-equipped to handle the migration of their operations from in-person to remote work environments overnight. More notably, the shift reinforced the importance of a trusted, dependable technology provider that is prepared to evolve with you.
  13. A family office wealthtech strategy is more than functionality. Functionality should not be the sole set of criteria used to define a family office wealthtech strategy. Our experience has illuminated the value of a clearly defined, holistic strategy that takes into account the opinions of multiple stakeholders, technology and staffing infrastructure preferences and data availability.
  14. Change management is critical for a successful family office wealthtech implementation. Technology conversions require planning, resources and, most importantly, time. Ensuring that our family office clients are properly equipped to manage an implementation project is paramount to meeting deadlines and setting expectations.
  15. Clients are the greatest driver of product enhancements. The Archway Platform was born out of a need for a better fund accounting solution, but the evolving needs of our clients have shaped the platform into the award-winning family office solution it is today. Their requests, recommendations and feedback have paved our product roadmap throughout the years, and continue to do so today.
  16. Innovation is not a destination. Our desire to evolve and grow the Archway Platform has been omnipresent since we first entered the family office market in 2002. To this day, we continue to aggressively pursue strategic initiatives, introduce new functionality and evolve the way our clients interact with and consume our technology.
  17. Product training and education are evergreen. We cannot overstate the importance of our clients and how we interact with them. Over the years, we’ve grown our library of client service mediums to include comprehensive product documentation, self-service support tools, detailed how-to guides, client-specific instructional opportunities and user training conferences—all of which are designed to provide an optimal client experience.
  18. A strong family office network is priceless. The number of membership organizations, consultants and conference organizers geared towards family offices has soared, even in recent years. Creating a network of peers can be immensely helpful for family offices seeking recommendations, advice or new connections.
  19. …and our family office client community is one of our greatest successes. For 20 years, we have taken a customer-first approach to our client relationships—and it shows. The impact of our dedication to exceptional client service is evident in the engagement of our client community, their peer-to-peer interactions and our long-lasting relationships with our clients.
  20. Nothing compares to experience—or the relationships you build gaining it. Like most firms, we’ve felt our fair share of growing pains over the years. But with two decades of knowledge, lessons learned and success to tap into, Archway Family Office Services has developed a staying power few can afford. Our experience has taught us that nothing about family offices—or family office software—is standard, but we’ve built a reputation as a problem-solver, a frontier-leader and an esteemed strategic partner for hundreds of family offices and, in the process, we’ve reaffirmed time and time again that our connections with our clients are made to endure.

With 20 years behind us, and many more in front of us, we are excited for the next era of successes, lessons and innovations. To learn more about our experience working with family offices, schedule a call to connect with the Archway Family Office Services team.

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Single Family Offices

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time

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Data, People and Process: Key Considerations for Family Offices Implementing a Wealthtech Solution

Breaks down how data readiness, people, and process planning affect family office technology implementation timelines and long-term adoption.

Chris Rose

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Sales Director

How to Build a People-centric, Data-driven Implementation Process

At Archway Family Office Services, we often talk about the importance of data, people and process in overarching family office wealthtech strategies. But it bears repeating that this trio can—and should—be specifically applied to the implementation of family office technology solutions too.

Leveraging our extensive experience implementing the Archway Platform℠ for family offices and financial institutions serving ultra-high-net-worth families, Archway Family Office Services knows a thing or two about how the decisions related to these three core areas can impact your implementation timeline as well as the long-term viability of your chosen family office software solution.

To help your family office think through these inflection points, Archway Family Office Services has put together a short list of considerations associated with each theme: data, people and process.

Data. The foundation of your wealthtech solution.

Arguably one of the most challenging components of a wealthtech implementation project is collecting, validating and delivering data to your technology vendor. While tech shops can mitigate the impact of this step through automation, data feeds and intuitive data assembly tools, family offices can also take steps to help create a seamless conversion.

Here are a few data-focused considerations:

  • Do you have a list of entities, accounts and ownership structures?
  • Do you have a list of all custodial and bank accounts, including points-of-contact?
  • Do you have a list of all managers for alternative investments?
  • Do you know how to extract data out of legacy systems, including general ledgers, custodian portals and portfolio reporting platforms?
  • Are you able to provide accurate, validated data to ensure a clean starting point in your new system?
  • Do you have access to historical financial reports, including balance sheets, income statements, trial balances and custodial documents?
  • Do you have records for all historical alternative investment cash flows?
  • If migrating to a new accounting system, are you prepared to close out the last accounting period in your existing system?
  • If migrating to a new reporting tool, is historical investment performance data readily available?
People. The engine that drives your success.

Implementing a new wealthtech solution takes equal parts skill, knowledge and resourcing. And while most people assume resourcing needs must be met internally, we’ve found that this isn’t always the case given the growing number of family office consultants that can offer capacity and expertise on an as-needed basis.

With that in mind, striking the right balance of internal and external resources is critical to ensuring that you have the right team in place to successfully complete the implementation project and perhaps, more importantly, operate the solution long-term.

Here are a few people-focused considerations:

  • Who will be responsible for evaluating solutions?
  • Will you engage a consultant during the technology selection?
  • Who will be the ultimate decision-maker?
  • Who will manage the implementation project?
  • Who will support the collection, validation and delivery of data to your vendor?
  • Who will oversee the successful completion of project milestones?
  • Will you have a dedicated team to operate the technology post-conversion?
  • Who will be responsible for communicating with the vendor, sharing product updates internally and training internal staff on how to use the solution?
  • Will you outsource any components of your operations to your technology vendor or other third-party contractor?
Process. The nuances that define your operations.

If you have the data and you have the people, the final piece in the trifecta of implementation success is your process. Do you have a process defined that assembles the proper resources to collect, validate and deliver the data that is required to stand up to a new technology solution? While this may seem like overkill, keep in mind that in most cases, family office employees don’t simply abandon their day jobs during a technology implementation.

By planning a process ahead of time, and remaining flexible throughout the implementation project, you’ll be in a better position to set reasonable expectations that don’t over-burden your resources.

Here are a few process-focused considerations:

  • What are the most important functions you need to perform in your new platform?
  • Have you thought about how you would like to prioritize the adoption of these new functions?
  • What reporting outputs do you hope to attain using your new platform?
  • Have you communicated your goals to your preferred technology vendor?
  • Have you worked with your internal stakeholders as well as your preferred technology vendor to set priorities and milestones?
  • Have you begun change management discussions?
  • Do you understand what data is required to reach project milestones?
  • Is your anticipated milestone timeline achievable based on other, pre-existing responsibilities and priorities?
  • How will you allocate resources to complete project milestones?
  • Have you created a workflow for collecting, validating and delivering data to your preferred vendor?
  • Who will sign off on the completion of project milestones?
  • Have you established criteria to determine when you can effectively cut ties with your old systems and processes?

In our 20 years of implementing the Archway Platform, Archway Family Office Services has learned firsthand how impactful pre-work can be. We recognize that having data, people and processes aligned is the key to simplifying technology migrations.

By going through the exercises of organizing and preparing your data, planning resources and defining processes upfront, your family office will be better equipped to hit the ground running on your implementation project and successfully scale up your new solution.

Originally authored by Archway for publication on Family Office Exchange.