Family Office - FM Consulting

SERVICESFamily Office

What is a Family Office?

It is an organisation that can offer an integrated consultancy plan, aimed at conserving one or more family assets of significant size (HNWI, high-net-worth individual), consolidating the different assets and properties (equity investments, companies, bank balances, financial investments, real estate, art collections), and guaranteeing longevity and non-dispersion through the generations, in compliance with the Family’s reference values.

Modern Family Offices operate across the board

They deal with:

asset planning and specific consultancy (including financial, tax, strategic, and succession consulting services)
asset investment management
asset allocation and risk analysis
feasibility analysis of strategic investment operations (securities, real estate, due diligence for transactions and sales of goods)
administration services, such as management of relationships with suppliers, accounting, personnel, crews, fleets (cars, boats, aircraft), education of children and all services related to the relationships between family members as beneficiaries of the estate.

In carrying out their activities, FOs can provide their services both on their own and by outsourcing certain activities. External experts are consulted to solve specific issues such as those of the legal, tax, real estate, artistic, numismatic and philatelic sectors. Employing external professionals allows for the utmost expertise, while preserving the principle of confidentiality typical of FOs.

FOs can carry out services for a single family or for a group of families (Multi-family Offices or Multiclient Family Offices). In the English-speaking world, multi-family offices generally do not work with more than 12 families, while in Italy some family offices maintain relationships with more than 30 families.

The strategic goal of the Family Office is to ensure the protection and development of family assets, facilitating and optimising the generational transition.

The immediate purpose of the Family Office is a general reduction in asset management costs through a rational management of its components and a more adequate control over the allocation of assets and their profitability, all supported by integrated and comprehensive reporting.

The complete independence of FM Consulting, together with internal resources and the network of high-level relationships with the banking, financial and professional world, gives us access to the best resources available on the world market, in the constant search for the best quality/price ratio for our clients.

Who needs a Family Office?

- Holders of large assets with heritage protection needs

- Family groups with particular needs relating to organised management of family and company assets

- Professionals

- Institutions and Foundations

Why it's important to protect your assets

A Family Office must offer skills and concrete solutions that, through a 360° approach, can guarantee a punctual service that is personalised to the individual needs of the clients.

In the constantly changing historical context of today, and in light of legal and fiscal changes, it is crucial that holders of assets can rely on someone to help them understand how to meet certain needs that can arise even on a daily basis.

Carrying out this task is becoming increasingly complicated but also increasingly necessary. Just think of how – especially in recent years – Italian heritage has changed, both in terms of size and the variety of assets that are part of it.

The family context has completely changed in recent decades; for example, “extended families” are more widespread, increasingly made up of many people, sometimes of various nationalities, with differing requirements and needs for both study and work.

An essential feature of an FO is flexibility.

A client-specific approach is crucial, as is ensuring that the management of their needs, from the most complex to the simplest, is entrusted to professionals who have outstanding skills in various sectors.

Only in this way is it possible to enjoy the advantages of unified and professional asset management.

Why choose the Family Office tool?

- to avoid disputes between the various members of the family and to ensure serenity for all members of the household;

- to prevent some technical/bureaucratic requirements from being overlooked;

- to allow for better coordination, both between people and in terms of managing the different assets;

- to ensure constant cost control;

- to help understand how immediate intervention can optimise certain processes;

- to support the implementation of the best strategies from a managerial and planning point of view.

Regulatory references to Family Office

With regard to the Family Office, there are two regulatory points of reference in Europe:

Law of 21 December 2012 | Luxembourg
Law 1.439, 2 December 2016 | Principality of Monaco – regulation of Multi Family Offices

Definition of the services provided by the professional figure of the Family Officer pursuant to Law 4/2012

Draw up a consolidated balance sheet for the client, a document that summarises the equity positions in the various asset classes: liquid assets, financial assets, equity investments, real estate, art and collectibles, other real assets of the family;
Structure all the procedures for the administrative obligations related to the equity (payments, takings, etc.);
Monitor the risk/performance balance of all the assets and ensure a timely reporting system;
Select and coordinate relations with financial institutions and managers for the adequate efficiency of the client’s liquid assets and financial assets;
Operate for an adequate and transparent control of the costs related to external services;
Ensure adequate coverage of the risks related to assets, people and events;
Maintain the relationship with all professional bodies (i.e lawyers, accountants, trustees);
Assist professionals with the drafting and control of the tax consolidation the extended family (descendants and ascendants);
Promote the conscious organisation of what is necessary for an adequate continuity project between generations, taking care of the evaluation paths of human capital, regulations and related legal structures, as well as the drafting of the ‘family value card’;
Be able to evaluate direct investment operations that the family wants to implement, also with reference to issues of impact investing and philanthropy.