Business

Private banks are withering…family offices don’t require their services and pinching their best staff

Private banks are withering on the vine as European family offices take back control of their own affairs.

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3 responses to “Private banks are withering…family offices don’t require their services and pinching their best staff

  1. This is an important observation. I find that the current crisis is calling on the multiple services, financial and non-financial, of the family office to serve the family. Their ability to deal personally with the family and develop and act upon new directions is the essence of resilience, that is one of the ways that family offices from an important resource for families.

    1. I agree completely Dennis with your point about ‘resilience’ being one of the differentiating factors for single family offices compared against other approaches – it is one of the themes highlighted by quotes from our family office clients in our recently published Family Office careers book ‘How to Work for a Billionaire’ http://www.somerspartnership.com

  2. Mark, this is indeed an important observation and a valuable one.

    Sometimes, professional advisors tend to forget that the people behind a family office are just that: “people”, with feelings and emotions, and that they should be treated as such. They have a past and they think long-term.

    For most, money (and making more money) is not an end in itself, it is just a means to an end. Their values system, is very strong and trumps any short termism.

    This is why they are so “resilient” and successful.

    The proliferation of family offices is the ultimate proof that families in business are currently actively engaging in a major “transformation” exercise. Many are “institutionalizing” their approach to business/wealth and to decision-making, and the fact that they are inviting former bankers to join their “inner sanctum” is additional proof that they are gradually moving towards an “idea meritocracy”, a concept coined by Ray Dalio.

    The world has not been created in one day, and I predict that while these developments have indeed been a salutary step forward in the life cycle of family offices, the next decade will see the rise of a new breed of family officers and private bankers, with higher EQ and deeper understanding of social sciences.

    Walid@walidchiniara.com

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