Ultra High Net Worth families, who have over $30 million in assets, require and deserve a comprehensive wealth management solution from a partner who understands their complex and evolving financial needs.
At Weber Global Management, we provide the wealthiest families with reasoned and customized guidance and wealth management services they can rely on to grow and protect their wealth and preserve their legacy for many lifetimes. Our bespoke services are designed to support your family’s unique goals, strengths, and challenges and evolve with you for generations.
What is a UHNW Family?
An Ultra High Net Worth family has accrued a liquid net worth of over $30 million. Such families often face challenges in managing this level of wealth, and as their net worth grows, it becomes harder to sustain and preserve. As a result, UHNW families need dedicated financial advisors and wealth managers who can establish strategies to protect their wealth from threats like market volatility while continuing to grow and protect their estates for generations to come.
What is a Family Office?
A family office serves as an all-in-one solution for the financial and wealth management services of an Ultra High Net Worth family. They stand out from traditional wealth management firms in that they are a completely outsourced solution for an affluent family’s finances, handling everything from charitable giving, budgeting, insurance, and taxes.
There are three primary family office models that most fall into: the single-family office, the multi-family office, and the outsourced family office.
Single-Family Office
A single-family office is dedicated to just one family. This business model was designed to meet the expansive needs of an individual or family with a vast fortune to manage, grow, invest, protect, and pass on. Single-family offices are full-time operations that handle the intricacies of dynastic wealth, with the solitary goal of preserving and generating wealth for the family. Most families who use a single-family office service have assets that exceed $100 million.
Multi-Family Office
Multi-family offices provide similar services to ultra-affluent families while allowing for cost-sharing between families. They may be owned by one founding family or commercially owned by outside investors. Family offices have become more popular in recent years due in part to innovative technology that allows a firm to provide services to multiple families with a fraction of the time or effort they once required. As multi-millionaire families continue to grow, so will the demand for the multi-family office model.
The Outsourced Family Office
An outsourced family office is a collaborative effort of multiple players that handle various aspects of a family’s finances. This model is essentially the same as either a single-family office or multi-family office, however, it outsources the services from various providers rather than relying on one comprehensive provider. It has much lower management costs, but because it involves so many moving parts and players, it offers the family the least amount of coordination and control.
Benefits of a Family Office
When your family has tens of millions of dollars in the bank, you’ve passed the threshold of personal finance and you’ve moved into the realm of asset management: considering how to maximize your net worth, minimize risk and threats, and preserve assets for future generations.
A family office does all of this and more. However, they also tend to go beyond finances. Family offices often handle travel and international arrangements, lobbying, school affairs, art acquisition, and legal issues. In this way, they can act as a full-service concierge to the wealthiest families.
If you are deciding whether to hire a family office service for your UHNW family, there are three key factors you should consider when determining the service you need.
- Size of Wealth – While there’s no single amount of money that warrants a family office, it’s critical that a family’s income, not net worth or illiquid assets, is enough to pay the overhead costs while still maintaining their chosen lifestyle.
- Complexity of Life – For some, a high enough income and net worth are more than enough to qualify someone for a family office, but if the family’s financial needs are not complex enough, a single financial advisor or wealth management team may be enough.
- Family Priorities – Most family offices are meant for families, not simply wealthy individuals with multiple millions in assets.
Who Needs a Family Office?
You might benefit from a family office if you meet UHNW status with liquid assets over $30 million and have sufficient complexity to your family’s wealth and investments. Those with a net worth of over $100 million might be best served by a single-family office, while those under the $100 million mark may find that a multi-family office can more efficiently handle their needs.
Rather than rely on multiple professionals, a family office provides one comprehensive solution with an integrated service model to manage all financial-related tasks in one place, with one team.
Strategies for Preserving the Wealth of Your UHNW Family
In addition to hiring a family office as the sole manager of all your financial needs, there are other select strategies that UHNW families rely on to preserve their wealth today and into the future.
Keeping a Diverse Portfolio – A UHNW investor should build and keep a diverse investment portfolio by allocating funds into classes such as private equity, real estate, hedge funds, and less standard asset classes including fine art and collectibles. This is in addition to more standard assets such as stocks and bonds.
Estate Planning – Estate planning is an important part of any UHNW financial strategy because it helps to mitigate estate tax today while preserving financial assets for future beneficiaries. For UHNW families, estate planning should have a special focus on estate tax minimization, wealth preservation, and intergenerational asset transfer.
Tax Minimization – Employing the use of researched and evaluated tax strategies can help affluent families retain the wealth they’ve worked hard to earn over time. Utilizing the gift tax exemption, establishing pass-through entities, and giving to charitable organizations are effective ways to reduce the overall tax burden of UHNW families.
Instilling Financial Responsibility – To keep your family legacy intact for many generations, one of the most critical aspects of UHNW wealth preservation is to instill a sense of financial responsibility in children and grandchildren who will go on to become beneficiaries of the estate. An experienced and trusted wealth management team can assist through coordinating revocable trusts and setting age-banded withdrawal limits, managing cash transfers, and educating younger family members.
Using Expert Help – The nuance of managing UHNW assets necessitates the use of outside assistance from a wealth management firm experienced in handling this extraordinary level of wealth and the layered complexity that comes with it. Weber Global Management can serve as that trusted investment and wealth management advisor to provide sound, reasoned advice founded on proven strategies and decades of experience studying global markets.
Resources for UHNW Families
Want to learn more about managing the extraordinary wealth of a UHNW family?
Learn which estate planning strategies to start incorporating now.
Avoid these ten threats UHNW families face with helpful tips.
Find out what you should know about sustaining your UHNW lifestyle through retirement.
Conclusion
As a UHNW family, your finances likely require more experienced, professional management, and a family wealth management team may be the comprehensive solution you’re looking for.
Our goal is to help successful families enjoy what they’ve achieved through comprehensively understanding your financial and lifestyle goals and crafting a customized plan that will help you make the most of your wealth during your lifetime while also protecting it for future beneficiaries.
To learn more about Weber Global Management’s wealth management services for UHNW families, reach out to our team.
