Family Office
Family Office
In our experience, a typical family office setup involves a structure with a team of individuals, all of whom have highly specialised duties for the functioning of the family office. Most family office functions are based around financial planning, whether its tax planning, shareholding and private equity, estate planning, wills and prenuptials etc, and technology is often given less thought, or seen as a bolt on requirement that can be handled as you go. This usually means that technology is delivered as a reactive set of products and services, sometimes purchased in haste when needs arise.
We can be quick to respond to ad hoc purchasing needs, and quick fixes, but where possible we believe that technology design and discussion should happen from the ground up, and be annually reviewed to ensure that it continues to meet and exceed the needs of the growing and maturing family office. We provide specialist services in the spheres of client side, datacentre, remote connectivity, security firewalling, and other related technologies. We look at each case individually, as each modern family office setup is unique in its needs, and no one solution fits all.
From our many years of experience, the ongoing successful operation of a family office is supported by having fully redundant and resilient systems and technology in place to cover every possible eventuality that can arise. A family office will typically require technology products and solutions at many outgoing and incoming touchpoints, and we have experience in handling all of them. We are in place to help you scale every hurdle and provide a friendly discussion when needed. We have identified some key roles that we find ourselves working most with when engaging with family offices, which you can read about here.
24/7 Coverage
A typical reseller operates a 9-5 business with bank holidays, annual leave and regular account manager changes to contend with, all of which ultimately and necessarily degrade the end user experience. At Montana Consulting, we understand the world of high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals. We see them globetrotting and communicating their needs back to their office and family office teams from around the globe, and we understand how important fluid and continuous communication is.
At Montana Consulting, if a conversation starts at 6pm London time, then it will be attended too as one contiguous conversation until resolution, we have never told a customer that we will get back to them tomorrow because it’s the end of the working day in London. A continuity of communication is critical to solve issues and provide information quickly, so that decisions can be made. We provide access to a director’s email 24/7, and this is no holds barred availability. We are experts in logistics and transparent communication and will be able to get on a phone whenever you want, at any time of the day or night to discuss an issue or requirement. This is a special service that differentiates us from typical IT companies. We will fit your schedule, even if that means conference calls at 2am to tie in with your offices in North America or Australia.
Accounts Teams And Invoicing
Our experience of family offices and the nuances of UHNWI and their corporate structures means that we have refined a perfect invoicing solution to ensure that your accounts team, financial directors and other stakeholders can manage the processing of invoices accurately. There is no typical family office from an accounting perspective, and it’s very common for a family office to have upwards of 20 different corporate invoicing entities which are setup on our systems, each with credit limits assigned to them, so that members of the household team can raise purchase orders against different entities and cost centres.
We are as comfortable with corporates set up in London as we are with corporates set up in Jersey, Guernsey, Cayman, Bahamas or any other location around the world that you may be using. We are expert in managing this accurate invoicing and take great pride in keeping accounts teams happy. We know the cost savings that can be achieved simply by having accurate invoices that do not need to go back and forth with suppliers, due to errors.
Security And Privacy Of Data
At Montana Consulting, privacy is critical, and each family office account is setup on our highly secure Sage system, which sits on our own servers and storage systems, in our own datacentre, behind our own firewalls, managed by us inhouse. We take privacy and security very seriously.
We have a tiered structure for managing accounts, so that only our Managing Director has access to key account information, and all internal staff involved in processing orders or invoicing are kept securely outside of that circle of trust, for complete 360 privacy. New members of the team, and members of the team that have worked with us will need to demonstrate a minimum of 10 years of trusted service before we allow them to move between these circles of trust. This means that our client data and information is kept secure and safe from prying eyes. We take this level of care, even with client office delivery addresses.
NDA Non-Disclosure Agreement
Our own high privacy standards are upheld with our ISO 9001 certifications, and audited quarterly, and additionally we are happy to sign non-disclosure agreements with all our key customers to show that we are willing to be held to the highest standards and show how seriously we take privacy. We are highly trusted for this reason.
We want our clients to know that we take every effort to keep our team and operation highly secure.
Family Office Staff
Concierge / Head of Household / Family Manager
Our experience of working with family offices means that each family office operates its staffing differently and assigns tasks accordingly. We will take great care to understand how you want to work, and then match that workflow. If your concierge or head of house makes requests for technology items, then we can work with them, but if you have a dedicated head of IT inhouse, then we can report into them. We are comfortable working as fluidly as you need. We have experience in every scenario, and can offer guidance if that is needed. We also offer a virtual IT Director / IT Manager service, if that is something that you want to consider as an alternative to having a physically onsite IT Director in your office 24/7. To learn more about Head of Family Office role and how we engage with them, click here.
Executive Assistants and Office Managers
Executive assistants and office managers are often the people that interface most often with the principle or resident family on a daily basis. We can work alongside these roles to provide as little or as much IT specific support. Click here to learn more about how we work with the Executive assistant function in a family office.
Virtual IT Director for Family Office Structures
At Montana Consultancy, we have identified some family offices where they do not need a full-time onsite IT Manager or Director, and in those circumstances, we offer a virtualised equivalent. There are a huge number of benefits to having a virtual IT director. You no longer have to worry about holidays and time off, or sick days, your virtual IT director will always be available, to learn more about our Virtual IT Director service click here.
