This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
By MICHAEL SHENKIN Senior Associate, Hatstone Lawyers


multi- family offices


The marketing illusion


What is a family office? Ask a marketing agent or a large institutional fiduciary business and you may well be told about ‘family offices’, branded by the institution, which look after hundreds of families and have billions under management (rarely will the term ‘multi’ actually be used because it sounds less exclusive). Ask them then what differentiates the family office service from the traditional top-end private banking or trust company offering and there is every chance that you will hear a pin drop whilst you wait for an answer. I am exaggerating of course. Marketing folk always have an answer and herein lies one of life’s little ironies.


“At the coolest nightclubs it does not matter what you wear or how you look. If your name is not on


the list, you are not going to get in. ”


A lot of traditional single-family offices have no need for marketing folk at all. There may be a need for a spot of PR from time to time but the super-rich who are sophisticated enough to put in place such an office tend not to want to draw attention to themselves by advertising what they are doing, where they are doing it or how they are doing it.


Last year I read an article by David Bain (published by Campden Wealth) that really struck a chord with me as to why we have had this explosion in ‘family office’ provision, much of it no different to conventional business lines.


Mr Bain said that their mystique and exclusivity makes them more desirable to everyone else. Comparing them to the aura around a nightclub that only the coolest people can gain access to, it makes sense that “for those selling services to the rich, family offices are the coolest of all nightclubs”.


Traditional single family offices, which after all are not a new concept and where this all started, could not be more different to the institutional multi


Page 80


20/20 Finance & Investment


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116