The 7 Signs of an Evolving Family Office & How to Succeed Through the Change

As global private wealth has grown and diversified, the concept and role of the family office have undergone a profound evolution.

Today, family offices play an increasingly sophisticated role in wealth management, risk mitigation and investment structuring for Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI) and multi-generational wealthy families. JTC, a publicly listed, global professional services business with deep expertise in fund, corporate and private client services, is uniquely positioned to support family offices, offering robust solutions that address their complex needs.

The Shifting Landscape of the Family Office

Family offices were once simple entities, designed primarily for managing the personal affairs and supporting investments of single wealthy families. However, shifting market dynamics have catalysed their transformation:

1. From Single to Multi-Family Offices: Many family offices now serve multiple families. This shift is driven by the desire for efficiency, cost savings and access to a wider pool of investment expertise and opportunities. With the emergence of multiple generations within family structures, and an increased desire to collaborate and co-invest between families, there has been a significant rise in the ambition of single-family offices evolving into multi-family office businesses over recent years. More than one-quarter (28%) of family offices now have multiple branches and looking ahead, more than one in 10 family offices (12%) plan to set up another branch[1].
2. Increased Sophistication: New generations are introducing greater complexity, demanding more advanced investment vehicles, improved governance and better transparency, with on-demand access to data and dynamic reporting. Client requirements of service providers are transitioning from basic fiduciary and structuring services to more sophisticated investment middle and back-office services, requiring modern technology more akin to an institutional investment business
3. Globalisation of Wealth: Families operate across multiple jurisdictions, requiring solutions capable of spanning legal, tax and regulatory frameworks on a global scale. Family offices require the ability and scale to access investments across the globe and often need their service providers to have global reach and deep knowledge and experience across many jurisdictions to support their investment or succession planning objectives
4. Democratisation of Alternative Investments: The increase accessibility of alternative investment opportunities, like private equity, hedge funds and private credit to a much wider range of investors has changed the investment profile and demand of family offices, with higher demand for direct investments and exposure to these alternative assets. The administration, governance and reporting requirements of these investments requires specialised expertise and support from service providers that were not historically found in private client and fiduciary businesses
5. Regulatory Complexity & Increased Governance Requirements: With growing global emphasis on tax transparency, anti-evasion measures and increased litigation risks, family offices face significant compliance and governance challenges. As a result, there is an increased reliance on service providers to help the family office to navigate through the ever-changing regulatory environment and demonstrate the highest levels of governance, and family offices need to be sure they choose a provider with the right expertise
6. Increased Co-Investment Opportunities: The evolution into multi-family offices and investment clubs has led to a demand for structures that facilitate direct access to new asset classes and pooled investments. Closer relationships and collaborations with other family offices and GPs are creating new opportunities for family offices to co-invest and participate in a wide range of new investments on a case-by-case basis. The ability for a family office to execute and take advantage of co-investment opportunities is highly dependent on the efficiency and experience of the service providers involved
7. Use of Private Funds & Unit Trusts: There has been a clear shift away from the traditional offshore Trust structures for private clients towards more regulated Private Fund, Umbrella Companies and Unit Trust structures that better enable pooling of assets and accumulation of capital gains, while increasing the governance and oversight of activity within the structure, streamlining the investment process, offering a higher degree of asset protection (due to Fund regulatory frameworks) and better facilitating the multi-asset investment demand of the modern family office. The administration of these private funds are complex, and traditional trust and corporate service providers are typically not adequately equipped to support these structures

Stronger Together

As the family office model continues its trajectory towards greater complexity and global reach, JTC stands as a leader in delivering the structure, expertise and partnership modern families require. JTC’s commitment to innovation, compliance and client-centric service ensures family offices can focus on what matters most: growth, governance and preservation of legacy.

How JTC Supports the Evolution

JTC is a publicly listed, global professional services business with deep expertise in fund, corporate and private client services. The collaboration between its award-winning private client and fund solution teams offers a unique blend of traditional personalised private client services and care, supported by specialist alternative investment expertise and market leading fund administration technologies.

The global reach, experience and scale allows JTC to support the evolution of family offices and private capital with the ambition to diversify, enter more direct and co-investments, whilst improving governance and transparency within the family structure. JTC also offers a wide variety of complementary value-adding services, such as wealth structuring and luxury asset services, family governance and succession planning services, investment operational due diligence, tax compliance and regulatory reporting services, middle/back-office investment processing and treasury services that enable family offices to scale and grow in an efficient manner without adding large additional costs and complexity.

JTC already partners with a number of family offices, wealth managers, private banks and advisors in offering this unique private fund service, demonstrating real-world delivery of transformative solutions for the evolving family office needs.

If you want to learn more, please contact Kobus Cronje directly.

[1] The Family Office Insights Series – Defining the Family Office Landscape, 2024 | Deloitte Global