An effective family office protects and maintains a family’s financial legacy while supporting various other multigenerational needs, 目标和优先事项. Structuring the family office in alignment with those goals is a crucial step toward achieving them.
一般, 家族理财室有三种形式:单一家族理财室, 多家族办公室或虚拟家族办公室. Choosing the best fit for your family requires defining the enterprise’s purpose and the corresponding services it provides. Those commonly include investment management; accounting and bill pay; concierge services; coordination of family meetings and communication; tax and legal services; technology management; real estate management; insurance procurement (property, 伤亡, 责任, life); and maintaining and managing assets like art, 飞机, 葡萄酒和其他奢侈品收藏品.
Each structure type supports family preferences and service management in different ways.
单一家族办公室(SFO)
为一个家庭提供服务，并根据该家庭的方式量身定制服务. 家庭可以选择是内包还是外包服务, 这一决定通常取决于家庭的规模和复杂程度. The family can range in size from a set of parents and one child to a multigenerational group of wealth creators, 他们的孩子, 孙辈和亲戚, 包括所有相关的信托和其他实体.
多家族办公室(MFO)
Manages the wealth of multiple families through a common governance board or third-party provider. 小额信贷机构服务的家庭基数相对较大, 通常由具有各种专业知识的强大专业团队提供支持. When a family joins an existing MFO whose philosophy and structure match the family’s objectives, the family benefits from the existing infrastructure and avoids the challenges and costs of building a family office from scratch.
虚拟家族办公室(VFO)
Provides services and resources to a family—usually a single family—by outsourcing providers. Typically, a family member manages or oversees and coordinates these services and the providers. VFOs generally do not hire their own chief investment officer (CIO); instead, 他们聘请外包的CIO.
While it is paramount for a family to assess how the framework of each family office structure type aligns with its objectives, there are other significant considerations in determining the optimal structure: costs, 控制和隐私.
谁在为家族理财室的服务付费?如何付费?
支付家族办公室服务费用是一个重要因素, 对于刚刚卖掉经营企业的家庭来说, 它代表了一种新的动态. These families are suddenly without the chief financial officer (CFO) and the accounting and tax teams that serviced the business they no longer own. Will funding for the family office depend on the services provided on an a la carte basis, 管理的资产水平, 利润的百分比, 这些变量的组合或者别的什么?
在SFO中, the family bears the burden of putting a comprehensive family office structure in place—in other words, 创建并经营一家成熟的企业. 这包括租金、管理费用和工资(通常是年度成本中最高的部分)。. The SFO will also need to consider the compensation and benefits structures for third-party and family employees, 还有治理和继任计划.
vfo可能看起来是比较便宜的路线，因为一个家庭外包服务, 但是，按单点的方式雇佣专家和团队可能会很昂贵. In addition, someone in the family needs to organize and oversee the family’s outsourced advisors.
mfo将服务成本分摊给成员, and joining an existing one enables a family to escape the costs of building a family office from the ground up. 然而，MFO的方法并不是针对一个家庭的. There might be limitations on existing services or the ability to add services—in other words, 没有那么大的灵活性. A family that understands the style and philosophy of an MFO can determine whether they align with family objectives and whether that alignment outweighs any trade-offs involving services structured for multiple families.
谁承担家族办公室的责任?
一个家族可能希望获得SFO带来的控制权, 但 that also means incurring all costs and shouldering management and oversight responsibilities—particularly during the office’s establishment. sfo要求所有最初的招聘决定都由家族做出. 虽然可能会有一个顾问指导这些早期的选择, 写职位描述需要大量的时间和精力, 招聘工作, 面试和入职. 监督招聘过程, 然而, does help to ensure that a family finds specialists that have similar priorities and align values to theirs.
An MFO might be the right choice for a family that prefers to share costs with other families. 首席财务官将与服务提供商进行面试和谈判. 但请记住，MFO团队成员为多个家庭工作. This underscores the importance of joining an MFO in which the families’ objectives align with each other and the MFO’s approach.
While some coordination with a family representative is required when working in a VFO structure, VFO不像SFO那样提供服务范围或灵活性. vfo仍然能够提供白手套服务, 但, 就像在MFO里一样, the VFO professionals serving a particular family’s family office serve other clients at the same time.
你有多重视隐私?
外部顾问对各种类型的家族理财室都有贡献, 家庭对与他们合作的开放程度也有所不同. 隐私 is a top priority for some families, and they have their SFO serve as a gatekeeper. 他们保护自己的个人或职业事业, and they are willing to pay a higher cost to maintain 控制 and the ability to customize services.
仍然, many SFOs do not hire a full team of qualified tax accountants or attorneys and need outside advisors fulfilling those roles. 至少，最大的sfo的员工中可能有这样的专业人士.
Families that are more receptive to working with outside advisors might gravitate toward a MFO or VFO. While privacy is not necessarily sacrificed when a family uses either of those structure types, 个性化水平将不同于在SFO下工作.
用VFO, privacy is still maintained 但 might not be as guarded because outside service providers are extensively involved. 用MFO, 仍然有相当程度的隐私, 但 not to the extent of a SFO because the MFO employees are serving multiple families.
关键的外卖
创立或加入家族理财室是家族遗产的一个里程碑. 为家族理财室打下坚实的基础，有助于培养这种传统. 为此目的, a comprehensive assessment to determine the family’s multigenerational objectives is paramount.
By defining the office’s purpose; prioritizing wants and needs in terms of cost, 控制, governance and privacy; and aligning those preferences with one of three main structural forms, 家族理财室将在今天和未来的许多年里取得成功.
