A framework by the UHNW Institute describing three common dynamic phases of service delivery in family office services for clients.
As the UHNW Institute develops its initiative to clarify the components of Integrated Family Wealth Management, it has analyzed the services required to support the needs of families in the Ten Domains of Family Wealth model. In each of the nine content domains of the Ten Domains model, service delivery may be organized into three typical phases in a cyclical fashion:
Phase 1: Discovery and Goal Setting. In an initial approach to services, providers typically interview the client family in a discovery process to learn the history of the family and its relevant issues, understand what may have already been done about the issues under consideration in that domain, and what strengths and challenges the family may have that will impact service design and implementation. The discovery process may also review what factors or services from other domains may be needed and factors that may impact the success of solutions. This discovery process then leads to setting goals with the client and moving to the next phase of implementing the actual service delivery.
Phase 2: Strategic Design and Implementation. This phase involves the design and setup of the services requested or required in the particular domain of interest. Operational factors will be taken into account, systems or structures created, and processes and procedures implemented. This phase may involve the search for and securing of specialized professionals for parts or all of the services needed, plus collaboration with internal or external advisors in crafting solutions.
Phase 3: Monitoring and Adjustment. At some point when new systems or procedures are in place, the next phase is implemented. This typically involves ongoing management, monitoring, and tactical adjustment of services developed for and with the client family. Phase 3 optimally includes education of the family in the principles and/or operations of its new systems, collaboration with the client in oversight and maintenance of what has been instituted, and adaptation of systems over time as new family members or new circumstances are taken into account.
Phase 3 also periodically involves the decision to engage in a major re-evaluation and return to a fresh Phase 1 analysis and goal-setting process where major strategic overhaul of systems may be necessary or advisable.
The Multiphasic Service Model includes specialized service aspects in the central Family-Advisory Relationships domain when delivered by an integrated hub in a hub-and-spoke model. Optimally, the advisory team in a family office or firm will also carefully engage with, serve, and monitor a client family’s services over long periods of time to ensure good design and integration of family office services, over and above the domain-specific services that may be implemented.
