Welcome to Family Office by Artorius
Your financial and personal life co-ordinated and made easier. Your time released to do what you do best.
The purpose of this site is to explain our service in detail. If you need more information please do not hesitate to call us on +44 (0) 20 3039 3040 or contact us here.
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Complexity of our lives and financial affairs
Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) individuals – those with in excess of £30m of assets – are normal human beings and they worry about the same things as everyone else; it is just that their challenges and opportunities are amplified by their wealth. They want to be responsible, they want to continue to be successful and protect what has been created and they want to understand financial performance. And of course, they worry about the next generation; they don’t want wealth to damage them or be a burden. They understand that passing down the wealth is not as easy as it seems. Education and creating shared values is quite simply, a challenge.
Many such clients are first generation wealth creators they are successful because of raw talent, long hours, risk and personal sacrifice. They want to continue to invest and create wealth. They also want time back to do what they do best and often, to make up for lost time.
Where clients have inherited their money, the focus is on management of wealth, understanding the performance of the portfolio, its application, their legacy, the estate planning, philanthropy and the engagement of the family in the long term management of the wealth that has been created.
Why a Family Office?
Asset control: We often say that your success means that you have a balance sheet that resembles that of a sizable business; but you don’t have the infrastructure to manage it.
Continuity and Education: A family office is designed to promote family unity and education over time.
Objective decisions: It is difficult to do everything and have still have time – a family office provides professional support to decision-making. Conflicts are avoided and alignment sought.
Comprehensive service: A family office is built around the family, providing the functions and services that the family needs.
Financial strategy: A family office considers the impact of each financial decision on the family’s plans and strategic objectives.
The cost and complexity of your own family office
If you wanted to do it yourself, where do you start?
The challenge of creating your own family office start with a definition – what is it, exactly? Artorius are specialists in this area and we know from our own extensive research in the market that the answer from the professional community is often "Well, it depends..."
And if the answer to "what is a family office?" is "it depends" then the question of costs is almost out of the question.
The cost of a lawyer? The cost of an investment specialist? The cost of an accountant? The cost of support? The overhead cost of an office?
The answer is of course, significant.
Skills and Resources
And if the cost could be met, where would you find the people? As a client memorably said in an interview – "I am wealthy and my affairs are complex but even if I could find them, I am still not convinced what they would do all day, let alone what it would cost. I would just worry."
Artorius have worked hard to define and deliver a family office – we simply see it as an organisational structure with functions that we deliver resulting in 3 key outcomes amounting to great Family Governance. A family office should:
- Ensure decisions are made in the best interests of the family
- Empower decision makers
- Hold advisors to account
Skills and Resources
Family Office by Artorius is a service for High Net Worth families. Families who recognise that the standard services of most wealth managers focus on their investments and the investment performance rather than thinking about the family and their relationship with all of their the wealth. Artorius have both defined and then created an outsourced Family office service that focuses on what is truly important, not just the family's financial investments.
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
The Family
The Institutions
Portfolio of assets & liabilities
Client
Personal
Support
Philanthropy
The Trusted
Advisor
Professional
Advisors
Personal Support
Our clients often have some level of personal support; often talented and diligent people. However, in our experience, they can quickly get out of their depth and lack the coherent, centralised expertise, service and support that they need to succeed. Family Office by Artorius works seamlessly with personal support, delivering the structure and support that they need and significantly increases the chances of the success of the role.
Philanthropy
Philanthropy often lies at the heart of the question “what is it for?”. Philanthropy is based on the donation of time, money, and, often, reputation to charitable or similar causes. The term is most often applied to those who donate large sums of money or who make a major impact through their activities. Family Office by Artorius is designed to make life easier and free up family time. We know from our clients that philanthropy is important to them but rather like family time, they rarely have the opportunity to invest as much as they would like to.
The Trusted Advisor
Many of our clients already have skilled, experienced advisors who have their confidence, often built over many years. Family Office by Artorius doesn’t seek to replace or compete with these important people; we seek to add structure and experienced support, filling gaps in service provision, complementing the role of the Trusted Advisor. The ambition is to significantly enhance the family’s wealth and wellbeing working with the Trusted Advisor.
Professional Advisors
All of our clients have a range of skilled, experienced professional advisors in place, advising and directing the family on a whole range of issues – investment, tax, accountancy, property and of course, the law. Family Office by Artorius doesn’t replicate or replace the advisors; our core expertise underpinning the service is only impartial investment advice. Whilst we can and do direct clients to advisors, our ambition is to work with and provide oversight and organisation to the family’s advisors, enhancing their output and complementing their service.
The Institutions
All of our clients have a wide range of financial institutions managing individual elements of their wealth. Whether it is private or retail banks, asset managers or investment advisors, they are often reputable and highly effective. However, all typically have one business model in common. They focus on product and their motivation is to sell or provide “sell side” advice. As a result, they have to be managed and often the process of management creates conflict and takes time. Our approach is to take that burden, using our skills and experience to deliver “buy side” advice to the family.
The Client
Our clients find themselves in the centre of things. Their success means that they have the responsibility for the family’s assets, liabilities and income streams. Which means managing their relationships with their banks, wealth managers, institutions and their lawyers, accountants, tax and financial advisors with no central point of contact or organisation with the right skills and complex personal tax affairs that distract and then they have to find time for their family and personal interests
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Oversight Function
Client Partner and team; dedicated wealth professionals with significant experience whose role is to be the family’s key point of contact, to manage the day to day family office activities, organise and deliver reporting, to work with advisors and institutions and to be the knowledge manager
Investment Function
A Client Partner and a team of highly skilled investment professionals with a wide range of skills – together they are akin to your own Chief Investment Officer (CIO). Providing a full range of tailored, bespoke investment services, they are impartial, delivering expertise, process and insight.
The Reporting Function
Managed by the Oversight Client Partner, reporting goes beyond investment performance; consolidated reporting is comprehensive insight into the family’s financial affairs. It is the basis for discussion, for strategy evolution and decision making
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
The Family
Our Client
The Institutions
Portfolio of assets & liabilities
Oversight
Function
Principal
Advisor
Reporting
Function
Wealth Planning
Advisor
Investment
Function
Principal Advisor
The Client Partner is a highly experienced wealth professional, the Principal Advisor will take the overall responsibility for the relationship, aligning with the family’s interests acting as the challenger, coach, voice of reason and wealth expert, with a focus on the question “what is the wealth for?”
The Reporting Function
Managed by the Oversight Client Partner, reporting goes beyond investment performance; consolidated reporting is comprehensive insight into the family’s financial affairs. It is the basis for discussion, for strategy evolution and decision making
Oversight Function
Client Partner and team; dedicated wealth professionals with significant experience whose role is to be the family’s key point of contact, to manage the day to day family office activities, organise and deliver reporting, to work with advisors and institutions and to be the knowledge manager
Wealth Planning Advisor
A client Partner who is highly skilled, experienced and insightful, the Partner helps our clients structure their family’s wealth while helping build, preserve and transition assets, all done being mindful of the impact of tax. Planning, protection, cashflow analysis, scenario modelling and liquidity all play their part.
Investment Function
A Client Partner and a team of highly skilled investment professionals with a wide range of skills – together they are akin to your own Chief Investment Officer (CIO). Providing a full range of tailored, bespoke investment services, they are impartial, delivering expertise, process and insight.
The Institutions
All of our clients have a wide range of financial institutions managing individual elements of their wealth. Whether it is private or retail banks, asset managers or investment advisors, they are often reputable and highly effective. However, all typically have one business model in common. They focus on product and their motivation is to sell or provide “sell side” advice. As a result, they have to be managed and often the process of management creates conflict and takes time. Our approach is to take that burden, using our skills and experience to deliver “buy side” advice to the family.
Our client and family
The purpose of Family Office by Artorius is to coordinate your financial and personal life and make it easier, releasing your time to do what you do best. The purpose of a family office – an outsourced family office in this case – is to ensure that decisions are made in the best interests of the family and to deliver a range of outcomes:
Asset control: the skill and infrastructure to manage your assets.
Family continuity and education: The promotion of family unity over time accompanied by the information and education that the family needs with respect to the responsibilities of wealth.
Objective decisions: The provision of professional support to the family's decision-making supported by structure, governance and the coordination of advisors. As a result, conflicts are avoided and alignment achieved.
Comprehensive services and the functions of an office: A bespoke service built around the family, and its needs.
Strategy: whether it is investment, financial or personal, the family office considers the impact of each decision against the family’s plans and strategic objectives.
No longer in the centre of things, the responsibility for management of the wealth and the institutions and the advisors is devolved to a dedicated team without the costs and challenge of creating a stand-alone family office.
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
- Ensuring decisions are made in the best interests of the family
- Empowering decision makers
- Holding advisors to account
Advice
Oversight
Reporting
Investment
Planning
Advice
In simple terms advice is a recommendation which is a guide to handle a situation. Impartial ‘buy side’ advice is critical to the Family Office by Artorius proposition. Whether we are coordinating your team of advisors with our Oversight function , reporting on your overall wealth through the Reporting function or whether we are acting in the role of the Principal Advisor or Investment Advisor or Wealth Planning Advisor we bring together every element to ensure your family is properly advised day in, day out.
Reports dashboard
Reporting
Great advice is dependent on coherent and well-presented information. In wealth management where a number of strategies may be available, with risk of trade-offs between error and effort, basing decisions on effective information is critical. That is where our reporting function comes in, supporting oversight and advice. We provide truly holistic reports across the whole of our client’s wealth, not just the information that the institutions provide. From that, we provide bespoke information, for example, cashflow planning, risk assessments and so on.
A Link to a typical report is here.
Investment
Investment advice is at the heart of the value added by our Family Office service. We recognise the type of investment advice a family office provides. We see the difference between us and other investment managers as impartiality – we are not led by our own prejudices and we do not provide “sell side” advice, the typical approach of the financial services industry. Instead we deliver “buy side” advice aligning our interests with your family as we are your family office. In practice, this means the delivery of a wide range of value added services that are selected in association with our client, depending on need.
Planning
Wealth planning brings advice, oversight, reporting and investment advice together. When delivering our Family Office by Artorius service, the creation of a wealth plan - is the result of a number of different levels of advice. Whether it is the outcome of our role as Principal Advisor where we challenge and guide the family over the big issues, whether it is as Investment Advisor where we provide impartial advcie or whether it as Wealth Planning Advisor where we bring the advice and information together and consider tax, risk, structure and insurance, the Family’s wealth plan is the output and guide to our team.
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Who we partner with
Advisors
Investment
Personal
Advisors
The role of Family office by Artorius is to help our clients manage the complexity of their lives and financial affairs more effectively. We don’t provide legal or tax advice, nor do we deliver accounting services and nor are we trustees. But we do know the issues. What we do is to become the central point of organisation and management for the family and we work with lawyers, tax advisors, accountants, and corporate trustees to ensure that the family gets the advice it needs. And yes we can recommend advisors where we need to .
Investment
The role of Family Office by Artorius is to help our clients manage their relationships with their investment managers. We align with the interests of our clients because we are impartial. We play their role of the own Chief Investment Officer, providing a full range of investment services that are tailored to the family investment needs. We are investment experts with hundreds of years of experience gained from working with banks and institutions. We know and understand the issues and how the institutions work. We are not the asset manager, we are not the bank and we don’t provide custody services. We work with asset managers, banks and custodians. And, yes we are able to recommend investment partners for the family.
Personal
The role of Family office by Artorius is to help our clients manage the complexity of their lives and financial affairs more effectively. We do provide Oversight and in doing so, we work with the family’s existing personal support and administration. We don’t provide concierge and “Private Office” services but we partner with – and where required recommend - those businesses that do.
We partner with
We work closely with the advisors and the institutions who work with our clients. One of the objectives of our Oversight function is to help our clients, advisors and institutions to work better together. We provide the central management and document retention. Our role is to give each party the information that they need to make the right decisions in the best interests of the family.
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Right Price
Artorius understands that investment return depends on investment performance, the fiscal environment and of course, the fees that are charged. A key objective of a Family Office is to manage fees and ensure value for money. It is a challenge and requires experience and expertise; expertise that we have. We focus on total expenses and including a complete range of services within our Family Office proposition. Furthermore, we know what our clients should be charged for the services they receive and with our institutional knowledge, we ensure that they pay the right price.
Right Structure
Our skills go beyond the provision of in depth reporting, professional oversight and the application of impartial investment skills. We add value by asking the right questions and proposing better ways of doing things – for example, organising a refinance of a dollar exchange rate swap agreement to reflect the sterling currency of the client’s assets, saving significant cashflow and reducing cost; or explaining the concept of a Family Investment Company to better match our client’s approach to long term investment, enhancing governance and decreasing fiscal liabilities.
Buy Like An Institution
Artorius works with many of the major banking institutions, asset custodians and investment managers – it is a key part of our proposition. Furthermore, our close relationship with those organisations extends to the terms that we offer. In short, our scale and personal connections allow us to buy services like an institution. That means our pricing for our clients is demonstrably cost effective and delivers measurable value.
Holistically
For most wealth managers, the focus is investment and investment performance. For Artorius, the Family Office is there to facilitate; great family governance, the right decisions and empowerment of decision makers. Investment return is critical but so is the allocation, location, dispersion and application of wealth. We ask all of the right questions in getting to the right answer on a holistic basis.
Adding Value
What do we mean by adding value? We mean depth of knowledge about you and your family; we mean you working with the right people with the right skills and experience, we mean that we have the right methodologies; and of course, we mean that we add financial value in our relationships. We have many examples where we do just that.
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
Your financial and personal life coordinated and made easier
What our clients say about the service
Feedback
Giving you your time back and so much more
Information
If you would like to have access to further information on the Family Office by Artorius service including further detail on indicative pricing and the specific services that we provide, please complete the contact form below. We will then immediately email you with access details.