What Is A Family Office?

Many would simply refer to a family office as a private wealth management advisory firm that serves high-net-worth individuals and their families.

But family offices are different from traditional wealth management firms since they usually look to provide a holistic solution to managing the financial and investment needs of an affluent family or individual. For example, in addition to investment management, family offices offer estate planning, charitable giving, investment education, insurance, and tax advice. In various forms and with various degrees of emphasis, Longwall Family Office also offers these services. But it is not just a bundle of services that defines the family office for the Longwall Partners. There is also an attitude, a style of operation, and a culture that is brought to bear on the various offerings of the Firm.

At Longwall, we think that a family investment office should be a place where capital is managed with the utmost of care, professionalism, and competency, and where there is as much as practically possible a very close alignment of interests. To a family client at Longwall, it should not feel as if the Firm is an outside service provider dealing with their investments. Rather, it should feel as if client families are inside the office, working with and conversing with their own partners and experts, not at arms’ length but in an immediate and familiar fashion. The dialogues should be candid. The understanding of the family’s needs and particularities should be detailed and deep. There should be a great deal of back and forth. If a client wants to see the development of a particular investment plan or specific opportunity, as the due diligence is coming along, then that is what they should get. In this way, the investment recommendations and the choices that are ultimately made will be significantly stronger, and better understood.

Finally, a word or two on “education” and on solid “alignment” within a family office setting. Clients of the Longwall Family Office are encouraged to learn as much as they can about the investment universe and about best practices in investing and portfolio management. The Longwall Partners have the skills and backgrounds to help on this score, and what is just as important, they greatly enjoy the educational aspects of the work they do, and enjoy the conversations about markets, risks, and opportunities. As for alignment, the Principals of the Firm like to invest alongside client capital where they can, to get as much alignment as can be achieved. While some people see such instances of co-investment as setting up potential conflicts of interest (and we can see how that could be so characterized) we see it quite differently and believe that it is ideal when a Longwall Partner is able to invest in the same holdings or opportunities as family clients. We, therefore, live with similar risks and rewards. From the perspective of the Longwall Family Office, these aspects of a family office offering are very good things, and we hope you might see the above features in a similar light.