There is so much value in structuring your family office data within an advanced technology platform that does more than Quickbooks and Excel for day-to-day operations. The cultural change that new tech brings should be managed within realistic expectations while acknowledging the importance in the journey that will come with the implementation, from start to finish. Embracing the nuances of advanced technology becoming part of the daily landscape and truly planning to use it across all generations in the family, will be key and should be intentionally addressed within the office’s dialogue. Feeling open to the idea of multiple applications or multiple integrations as your team delves into the best fit overall will create the opportunity for greater strategies going into the process. 

A more encompassing, or “beefier,” and structured platform, or perhaps multiple platforms, for everything from general ledger reporting and oversight to estate planning or even property management will ultimately be a growing need that nearly every expanding office and the family itself will value for greater transparency across generations and job roles within the family office.

The key takeaways from this panel focused on the notion that using different platforms or those for multi-integrations might be a key to success and will take time to implement. For example, be sure to ready the office and staff on this time being separate from the already day-to-day tasks. It will not be a single-day, “turn the lights on” journey to implement the data, and it will be based on the intentional practice of engagement with both the servicing platform company as well as an “out-of-house” lift via a consulting company with expertise in the industry as a whole.

Another point: Think beyond the “status quo” by first honing in on the family office’s individual needs, not simply determining that what worked for another family office would be what works for yours. Hold discussions to determine the family office’s bottlenecks, assess them with a mitigation on highest priorities, and that will create the natural war strategy for what needs are most pertinent to fix or find solutions.

While there will likely be moments that seem almost too new for comfort, leaning into some of the overwhelm, and knowing that reaching the other side of an implementation may mean the office’s operations will experience possible shifts in roles or silos, as well as daily tasks and oversight. Ultimately, it will bring about an end result that, if executed properly, makes communication easier and the daily operations will benefit greatly. Ideally, more efficiency will prevail in the end and will better prepare all stakeholders for the next era in your family office’s success.

Finally, the time to act is now. With technology evolving in the blink of an eye and the investment economy being a fast-moving landscape, modernizing your family office and arming it with solutions for oversight will become a greater priority as the baton is passed from generation to generation.