The 2020 family office software roundup by Forbes
Selecting the right software is one of the most critical and daunting tasks businesses face. As the digital revolution unfolds, an increasing number of processes are digitized, consolidated and automated using software solutions. Today most industries have easily identifiable software frontrunners, yet the private wealth- and family office segment still suffers from fragmentation, a lack of clarity and transparency.
For many family offices, the process can be time and resource-intensive — with limitations discovered after purchase, having serious consequences for productivity and costs. According to Bijan Farsijani, who heads research & insights at Simple, “Choosing software solutions for family offices is a pain – not least because providers and family offices speak different languages. Where providers talk about features, family offices talk about use cases. Culture, geography and regulation further complicate things.”
In order to identify these needs and explore how different software providers tackle this product-market fit, the Simple team conducted The Family Office Software Review. One outcome of the research is standardised categories that help family offices to get a better understanding of what providers offer and what their limitations are.
Outlined below is a roundup of the software providers, alongside the unique value propositions that family offices should be looking out for.
Based in the USA, Addepar is a wealth management platform that infuses complex financial information with transparency. By connecting data, technology and people, it facilitates informed decisions through actionable insights and tailored reporting allows multi-generational family offices to achieve their objectives.
Denmark-based Hemonto, delivers state-of-the-art consolidated financial reporting through their platform and their permanent team of experts. They ensure that data accuracy and services can be tailored to customized reporting needs without compromising data integrity, enabling real-time and verifiable data to be the basis for financial decisions.
iPaladin’s Digital Family Office is a USA-based blockchain platform designed for family office professionals to orchestrate people, services, documents and activity. Family offices are able to save time, money and stress through a birds eye view platform that allows them to track past, understand present and anticipate future.
Belgium’s PaxFamilia helps patrimonial advisors to serve their clients with a holistic and structured approach to their global wealth through their platform. By facilitating the aggregation of the family office’s global wealth in one secured platform, professionals can work and collaborate more efficiently.
Belgium’s Trusted Family platform serves global family businesses with a single, secure and centralized governance platform, enabling directors, shareholders and family members to connect anytime, anywhere. Founded by two next-generation entrepreneurs from European business families, the company leverages a decade of industry expertise.
How to get started?
When one considers that the average cost of running a reporting solution amounts to around $50,000 per annum and takes an average of two months to implement, it becomes increasingly vital to get the selection right. “We often receive inquiries on which software tools to use. But choosing software shouldn’t be a matter of opinion, but a matter of fit.” Farsijani concludes.
Even with all of the options at hand, a family office’s requirements are fundamental to narrowing down the field. For a more detailed comparison, visit the review.
Read the full article and list on Forbes’ website.
