Overcoming Obstacles in Building Practices with UHNW Clients.

A family office practice focuses on serving the wealthy defined as individuals or families with a net worth of US $10 million or more. Not all professionals want to build and grow a family office practice. Moreover, not all professionals who work with individuals and families are interested in building a practice with the wealthy. For those professionals who are concentrating on serving the wealthy, there are substantial obstacles to overcome.

The first obstacle is that there is no such thing as "the wealthy." The wealthy are as diverse as any other group of people and their needs vary greatly depending on their wealth level, age, and family dynamics.

The second obstacle is that many wealthy people do not want others to know they have money or how much they have. Many would prefer to keep their wealth private. They may be concerned about security issues, privacy issues, and public perception of themselves as well as their family members. It is important for family office professionals to understand this desire for privacy when working with individuals with wealth greater than US $10 million.

The third obstacle is that many family offices are formed after years of experience by professionals who have worked on Wall Street or in corporate America. These individuals have little experience working directly with families and tend not to understand the dynamics of family life or how families operate within their respective

It’s tempting to conclude that there are no real obstacles in working with the wealthy – other than their own reticence or reluctance – but this is simply not true! What often stands between a professional and those they seek to serve is their own lack of knowledge about what it means to work with them or how best to do so. The same goes for family offices: they need help too!

Firms that have successful relationships working with a family office have answered the three most important issues facing their clients. They are:

How does my firm compare to other family offices in our industry? What differentiates us from them? What should we do to improve our position?

What are my clients’ top priorities? How do I know this? Do they tell me or do I have to guess? Are there any other sources of information that can be used to gauge their concerns?

What services do we offer that are not offered by other firms in our industry segment? If so, what are they and why aren’t they offered by others?

Once a firm is able to fully answer these questions they have a true understanding of their client’s needs, and can easily demonstrate their value to their UHNW prospects and clients. Family Office Branding assists firms that service UNHW offices by helping them answer these questions and create custom client journies to match these findings.