Family Office Services worldwide
Family Office governance for families where the cost of an uncoordinated decision is too high
The greater and more internationally dispersed a family’s wealth, the less likely the challenge is to be a shortage of advisers. A family may already work with private banks, asset managers, lawyers, tax advisers, accountants, investment specialists, assistants, property managers and an established Family Office.
Yet one essential question remains: who ensures that every decision is coordinated and serves the interests of the family as a whole?
Investment policy must align with ownership structures. Tax and legal decisions must reflect the family’s residence, domicile and cross-border interests. Succession arrangements must support long-term objectives. Expenditure requires appropriate financial controls. Advisers should operate within a coherent mandate. Staff must meet exacting standards of discretion, integrity and professional competence. Residences, businesses, investments and international obligations must form part of one unified wealth architecture.
Without independent coordination, even a sophisticated structure may become reliant on individuals and fragmented advice. One bank recommends products from its own platform. One adviser addresses a single jurisdiction. One employee retains essential operational knowledge. One manager controls only their area. This may appear effective during stable periods, but changes in markets, residence, family circumstances, regulation or personnel can quickly reveal vulnerabilities.
Catamaran Family Office helps families with substantial international wealth establish an independent framework for governance, coordination and control—from asset mapping and consolidated reporting to oversight of private banks, asset managers, lawyers, tax advisers, employees and other participants in the family’s private infrastructure.
You already have a Family Office. Who independently assesses its governance and resilience?
Your Family Office may be highly professional, trusted and well organised. Nevertheless, any mature private structure can gradually develop areas that are difficult to evaluate internally: dependence on key individuals, undocumented arrangements, unclear fee or remuneration structures, excessive influence from particular providers, outdated procedures, insufficient contingency planning and investment decisions that have not recently received independent scrutiny.
Catamaran Family Office provides an independent external oversight layer for wealth owners and established Single Family Offices in London, across Europe and worldwide. We assess governance, investment management, financial controls, providers, responsibilities and decision-making processes without disrupting the existing structure or creating a competing centre of influence.
We do not replace your Family Office. We help the wealth owner determine whether the entire system is transparent, resilient and ultimately controlled by the family.
The greatest vulnerability of a Family Office is often dependence on an irreplaceable individual
A family may have an accomplished team, trusted advisers, established private banking relationships, lawyers, tax specialists, investment managers, estate managers and a dedicated administrative structure.
Yet even within a sophisticated organisation, critical institutional knowledge is frequently concentrated in one person.
This may be the Head of Family Office, CFO, personal assistant, Chief of Staff, lawyer, accountant, Investment Director or trusted family coordinator.
That individual may know where essential documents are held, how recurring payments are organised, which arrangements exist with banks and providers, who holds decision-making authority, which matters follow formal procedures, which advisers are genuinely effective and why earlier decisions were made.
While that person remains loyal, available and within the structure, the Family Office may appear resilient.
The decisive question is whether the family would retain control if that individual departed unexpectedly, became unavailable or needed to be replaced.
If the answer is uncertain, the family faces more than a staffing concern. It faces an operational vulnerability affecting the governance of its wealth.
When a key employee leaves, the family may lose context, decision history, informal arrangements, banking relationships, payment logic, provider knowledge and access to the information required to understand how the system operates in practice.
The risk increases where personal dependency is combined with insufficient oversight. The family may remain unaware of duplicated expenditure, ineffective providers, excessive invoices, opaque charges, conflicts of interest, inadequate contingency arrangements or decisions that have not been reviewed independently.
Even the most accomplished and loyal employee should not be the sole custodian of the family’s institutional knowledge.
A resilient Family Office is based on an institutional model: a comprehensive wealth map, formal procedures, clearly allocated responsibilities, transparent reporting, continuity for critical functions, provider oversight, independent decision review and a robust accountability framework.
Catamaran Family Office helps wealth owners assess how manageable their existing structure truly is—what is supported by an institutional system and what remains dependent on one person.
We do not dismantle an existing Family Office or displace trusted employees. We establish an independent external oversight layer that reduces key-person risk, preserves institutional knowledge, identifies blind spots and strengthens resilience.
Without a unified architecture, substantial wealth is governed through fragmented decisions
At a certain level of wealth, the principal challenge is no longer access to private banks, lawyers, tax advisers, investment managers or opportunities. The family generally has access to all of them.
The real challenge is determining who integrates their work into a coherent system and takes responsibility for the consistency of decisions.
A private bank sees the part of the portfolio held on its platform. An investment manager is responsible for a particular mandate. A lawyer establishes or maintains a legal structure. A tax adviser considers the implications across the family’s relevant jurisdictions. Accountants record transactions and manage financial information. The administrative team oversees execution. Estate managers are responsible for individual properties. Each provider operates within its own jurisdiction, expertise and contractual scope.
Each may be highly accomplished, yet none individually sees the family’s entire system: its ownership structure, investment policy, legal and tax architecture, succession objectives, family dynamics, operational processes, staff, residences, international affairs and the interests of future generations.
Consequently, the wealth owner or Head of Family Office often remains the ultimate integrator. They must reconcile recommendations, identify contradictions, recall earlier arrangements, monitor deadlines, assess conflicts of interest and make decisions from fragmented information.
For substantial international wealth, this is not merely an administrative inconvenience. It is a matter of governance, continuity and risk control.
A Family Office performs this architectural function. It does not replace every external specialist; it aligns legal, tax, investment, succession, banking, property and personal decisions within one coherent framework.
The family receives not a collection of separate proposals and reports, but an integrated governance system—with a consolidated view of assets, a defined decision-making framework, independent provider oversight, reduced personal dependency and a focus on long-term family interests.
When private administration should evolve into a fully governed Family Office
For many families, a Family Office begins not as a formal institution but with one trusted individual.
Initially, this may be a personal assistant or Chief of Staff responsible for residences, payments, travel, diaries, renovations, household staff, lifestyle arrangements, contractors, documentation and selected family or business matters.
As the family’s affairs become more complex, increasing volumes of information, contacts, decisions and arrangements pass through that individual. They become an indispensable point of contact for the family and its external advisers. In time, the role may be described as leading the Family Office.
This is a natural progression. It is nevertheless important to distinguish between the administration of private affairs and a fully developed Family Office governance system.
Administration provides organisation, convenience and execution. A Family Office adds governance of wealth, risk, continuity and the family’s long-term architecture.
A mature Family Office extends beyond travel, payments, residences and staff. It includes an investment policy, consolidated reporting, oversight of private banks and asset managers, legal and tax coordination, provider review, transaction due diligence, succession planning, family governance, financial discipline, compliance, confidentiality, formal procedures, continuity planning and independent review.
The Head of Family Office need not personally be the leading investment analyst, lawyer, tax adviser and asset manager. They must, however, be capable of directing these specialists, asking the right questions, reconciling recommendations, identifying conflicts and presenting the wealth owner with a considered management perspective.
If a structure depends on one trusted individual but lacks an investment policy, consolidated reporting, independent provider review, financial controls, formal processes and a clear decision-making framework, this does not necessarily reflect poorly on that person. It indicates that the family’s administrative arrangements now require a professional Family Office architecture.
We help define this boundary with care—recognising the value of the existing team while identifying which functions are covered, which require reinforcement, where key-person dependency exists and how operational support can develop into a resilient governance system.
The objective is not to replace trusted employees, but to strengthen the family’s framework and ensure it remains manageable as wealth expands, assets become more complex and generations change.
Why an established Family Office benefits from independent external oversight
Even a highly capable Single Family Office cannot necessarily identify every internal risk.
A Single Family Office has the experience of one family. A Multi Family Office draws on insight gained across multiple families, structures, teams, providers and jurisdictions.
We recognise recurring areas of vulnerability: excessive dependence on one employee, the absence of an investment policy statement, concentration in one market or currency, opaque charges, duplicated advisers, limited contingency planning, insufficient scrutiny of banking proposals, outdated documentation, manual reporting, informal arrangements and unclear decision-making rules.
For an established Family Office, Catamaran Family Office can provide an external professional framework: a Second Opinion, outsourced CIO or CFO support, independent team assessment, investment review, governance audit, cross-border expertise, project management or temporary reinforcement without increasing permanent headcount.
This approach allows the family to retain internal control while adding an independent filter where the cost of error is material.
A distinctive advantage: understanding both wealth and the people entrusted with it
Within substantial private wealth, costly mistakes seldom result solely from an unsuitable product. More often, they arise because the family cannot see the infrastructure behind a recommendation: who is proposing it, how that party is remunerated, whether the provider’s team is stable, who oversees execution and what happens if a key individual leaves.
Catamaran Family Office operates within the same professional ecosystem as the international recruitment agency Very Important Personnel. This gives us insight that a traditional investment adviser or private bank rarely possesses: an understanding of the wealth sector through the people who operate within it.
We observe senior-talent dynamics across London, European and international private banking, investment management, Family Offices and the wider private-client sector. When assessing providers and investment infrastructure, we therefore consider not only reputation, presentation and performance, but also team quality, process resilience, internal incentives, staff turnover, leadership maturity and potential conflicts of interest.
This matters because an apparently strong provider may be experiencing internal weakness. An asset manager may depend on a small number of specialists. A broker may be incentivised by transaction volume. A relationship manager may be constrained by a bank’s own product range. A senior Family Office employee may gradually become the sole point of access to essential information.
We help families identify these vulnerabilities before they become costly.
Our role is to provide the wealth owner with an independent assessment of provider quality, accountability, transparency, key-person dependency and whether the chosen infrastructure supports the family’s long-term interests.
Family Office team diagnostics form a distinct part of our work. We assess not only formal roles and professional histories, but also actual responsibilities, competence, accountability, replaceability, workload, communication, ethical risk and the system’s resilience if a key employee departs.
We do not enter an existing structure as a competing centre of influence. We work within an agreed mandate, reinforce the Head of Family Office and provide the wealth owner with an objective perspective without undermining trust within the team.
The objective is for the family to depend not on one person, one provider or one presentation, but on a professionally designed and resilient system.
Confidentiality and information security
For a private family, security begins not with technology alone, but with a disciplined culture of handling information.
Working with a Multi Family Office may involve far more than financial information. An engagement can include details of assets, ownership structures, banks, residences, family members, heirs, representatives, employees, travel, documents, negotiations and private decisions that should not be available to a broad circle of internal or external participants.
We understand the responsibility this entails.
Catamaran Family Office operates within the same professional ecosystem as Very Important Personnel, which has supported private clients since 2014 and has extensive experience with mandates requiring exceptional discretion. Access rights, teams and the volume of information disclosed are separated according to each engagement. Shared professional expertise never implies unrestricted sharing of client information.
For us, confidentiality is not a formality or merely a contractual provision. It is a daily professional discipline.
We apply the need-to-know principle: each participant receives only the information required to fulfil their responsibilities. We do not collect information without a clear purpose, unnecessarily expand the number of informed parties or discuss clients as case studies.
Certain matters should not be discussed by telephone. Some documents should never be transmitted through unsecured channels. Particular information should not appear in group chats, general CRM systems, shared cloud storage or internal correspondence without a direct operational requirement. In appropriate circumstances, the client’s identity should not appear in communications, and an engagement may be divided so that no external party sees the complete picture.
This is how we work.
Through years of supporting private clients, our team has developed a practical culture of confidentiality: hear only what is necessary, record only what is required, share information only with the intended recipient and retain only what is genuinely needed.
A properly structured external framework should not introduce an additional uncontrolled risk. It should reduce vulnerabilities already present within the family’s arrangements, including uncontrolled document sharing, dependency on one employee, inadequate access controls, informal instructions, group chats and critical data held by individuals without an established protocol.
We can also help strengthen information governance within an existing Family Office by defining access levels, document-handling procedures, rules for originals, communication protocols and continuity arrangements following the departure of a key employee.
Security is not simply a promise to disclose nothing. It is a system in which every access right is justified, every document is shared deliberately and the wealth owner retains control over who knows what, when and for what purpose.
For families whose privacy is fundamental to resilience and control, this discipline is essential. In this sector, an information breach may cost more than a financial error.
Why private banks and asset managers do not replace a Multi Family Office
Leading private banks, brokers, asset managers, lawyers and tax advisers are essential participants in a family’s professional ecosystem. Each, however, operates within its own mandate, infrastructure and commercial model.
A bank views the client through its platform, products and assets under management. A broker provides access to markets and transactions. An asset manager is responsible for a particular mandate. A lawyer advises on legal structures. A tax adviser considers the relevant domestic and international implications.
All these functions are important. None, acting alone, is responsible for the integrity of the family’s entire wealth architecture.
A Multi Family Office performs an independent architectural role. It compares provider recommendations, identifies contradictions, monitors conflicts of interest and assesses decisions in the context of the family’s complete asset structure and long-term objectives.
Our purpose is not to sell a fund, structured product, bond, private-market transaction or exclusive opportunity. It is to determine whether the family needs it at all.
Does the proposal align with the family’s objectives, investment horizon, risk tolerance, liquidity requirements, tax position, ownership structure, succession plans and wider priorities?
A Multi Family Office does not replace high-quality banks or advisers. It makes their work comparable, accountable and aligned with the family’s unified strategy.
Our guiding principle: substantial wealth cannot be managed as a collection of transactions
At the level of substantial family wealth, mistakes rarely arise from a shortage of investment ideas. Private banks, brokers, funds, asset managers and private bankers continually present products, private-market transactions, real estate, structured solutions and exclusive opportunities.
The greater risk is that the family’s wealth gradually becomes a collection of disconnected decisions made at different times, across different jurisdictions and through providers with differing incentives.
Such a structure may contain excellent individual investments while lacking an overall architecture. Certain holdings may perform strongly while aggregate risk remains poorly controlled. The family may have access to accomplished managers yet remain dependent on one bank, currency, market, relationship manager or internal employee. Legal structures may exist without alignment to investment policy or succession objectives.
Catamaran Family Office does not begin with a product or market prediction. We begin by establishing what the family’s wealth should achieve for its members, businesses and future generations.
Core wealth should remain resilient, provide appropriate liquidity, preserve purchasing power, protect freedom of decision and remain manageable across generations. Investment strategy should consider ownership structures, residence and domicile, relevant jurisdictions, currencies, family obligations, operating businesses, succession, decision-making rules and provider quality.
Tactical opportunities may have value, but they should not dictate the architecture of the family’s wealth. They should fit within it.
For every proposal, we ask practical questions: why does the family need it, what risk is accepted, how much capital is committed, what are the exit terms, who is the counterparty, where may conflicts arise, and how will the decision affect liquidity, taxation, succession, currency exposure and overall resilience?
If a decision does not strengthen the family’s wealth architecture, it may be interesting but unnecessary.
If it offers potential returns at the cost of opaque risk, poor liquidity, excessive dependency or conflict with the family’s objectives, exclusivity does not make it suitable.
Our philosophy is to govern wealth as a coherent system supporting the family’s long-term resilience.
Family Office Health Check: an independent assessment of governance and resilience
Not every family needs immediately to restructure its Family Office, replace its team or grant an external organisation a broad mandate.
It is often more appropriate to begin with a limited and confidential review of the current structure: how it operates, where it is effective and where dependency, duplication, insufficient oversight or a high cost of error may exist.
A Family Office Health Check is an independent review of the family’s governance model. We consider how decisions are made, who is responsible for implementation, how expenditure is controlled, how reporting is organised, where essential documents are held, who coordinates external advisers, how investment proposals are reviewed and whether critical knowledge is concentrated with one individual.
This approach is especially valuable when the family already has private banks, asset managers, lawyers, accountants, advisers, residences, international assets or its own Family Office, but the owner does not have complete confidence that the whole system operates coherently in the family’s interests.
The family receives a practical governance roadmap: what should remain unchanged, what should be reinforced, where an independent opinion is appropriate, which procedures need formalisation, which providers or decisions require further review and which actions should take priority.
Family Office team diagnostics
A private Family Office team can be one of the family’s greatest assets. If responsibilities and controls are structured poorly, however, it may also become a source of concealed operational risk.
We assess more than CVs, titles and perceived loyalty. We examine actual responsibilities, professional competence, judgement, ethics, discretion, communication, accountability, replaceability, the ability to work with external advisers and resilience when circumstances change.
The key question is straightforward: if one essential employee were to leave unexpectedly, would the family retain control of its documents, payments, providers, reporting, investment decisions and institutional knowledge?
If the answer is uncertain, an independent review is appropriate.
Through Very Important Personnel’s work across London, Europe and the international private-client market, we have a detailed understanding of Family Office Heads, CFOs, CIOs, personal assistants, Chiefs of Staff, accountants, lawyers, investment professionals and other trusted advisers to private families.
This enables us to assess where genuine leadership competence exists, where an administrative function may be mistaken for comprehensive wealth governance, which roles need reinforcement, which individuals are overextended and where the family may be excessively reliant on one person.
How we work with an existing Head of Family Office
If the family already has a Head of Family Office, CFO, CIO, Chief of Staff or trusted coordinator, we integrate with the existing framework rather than establish a parallel centre of control.
Our role is to reinforce the team with independent expertise and additional capacity where the cost of error is high or where the internal team lacks sufficient time, specialist knowledge or market exposure.
We can work within a limited, pre-agreed scope: provide a Second Opinion, assess a provider, review reporting, identify staffing risks, reinforce the CIO or CFO function, conduct a Family Office Health Check or deliver a defined project without expanding permanent headcount.
For the Head of Family Office, an external framework is a tool of mature governance. It can validate existing strengths, identify improvements, review contested recommendations, reduce dependence on individuals and support well-evidenced recommendations to the principal.
We work under an agreed mandate. Participants, information access, communication, findings and subsequent steps are defined in advance.
The objective is not to assign blame or weaken trust, but to make the system more resilient, manageable and accountable in the family’s interests.
A single point of accountability in place of fragmented management
For a Family Office overseeing substantial international wealth, appointing excellent specialists is not enough. There must be an accountable framework above them that retains the complete picture and connects decisions across every area.
The principal should not personally have to reconcile the positions of private banks, lawyers, tax advisers, investment managers, accountants, estate managers, administrative staff and external providers.
The Family Office assumes this responsibility. It records instructions, deadlines, accountable parties, budgets, documents, decisions and progress. It identifies contradictions between recommendations, dependency on individuals and matters requiring the principal’s direction.
The family sees not a stream of messages, calls and isolated instructions, but a controlled process: what remains outstanding, what has been completed, where a decision is required, which providers are involved, what expenditure has been authorised, which risks have been identified and what should happen next.
In this way, the Family Office transforms a complex ecosystem of people, assets, documents and decisions into a governable system.
Core Catamaran Family Office Services
Family Office Design and Establishment
Establishing a Family Office does not begin with appointing an assistant, CFO, Investment Director or Estate Manager. It begins with designing an appropriate governance architecture.
We assess the family’s assets, jurisdictions, business interests, investment arrangements, residences, liabilities, employees, documents, powers of attorney, advisers, confidentiality requirements, succession objectives, family roles and existing decision-making processes.
We then determine the most suitable model: a dedicated Single Family Office, a hybrid structure, an outsourced Multi Family Office, external CIO or CFO support, a project office or an independent oversight layer for an existing team.
An essential objective is the correct allocation of responsibilities. Not every function belongs in-house, and not every matter should be delegated. Governance, control and critical decisions must remain with the family.
The result is not an office defined by impressive titles, but a well-governed system with clear responsibilities, policies, reporting, investment processes, provider oversight, key-person protection and transparent decision-making.
Audit and Restructuring of an Existing Family Office
Even a strong Family Office can gradually become a closed system. Processes become more complex, employees accumulate informal influence, advisers face limited comparison, reporting remains manual and decisions become fragmented.
We conduct an independent assessment without dismantling the existing structure or undermining trust within the team.
We review responsibilities, approval procedures, documents, financial controls, investment governance, reporting, banks and external managers, expenditure, residences, legal and tax coordination, staffing risks, conflicts and personal dependency.
The family receives a clear governance overview: what works well, what requires reinforcement, which risks are underestimated, which procedures need formalisation and which decisions should take priority.
Our objective is not to criticise the existing team, but to make it more transparent, resilient and effective.
External CIO Office and Investment Director Support
It is not always practical to build an internal investment platform with specialist expertise across every asset class. Even an accomplished investment team may not have equal depth across public markets, private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate, funds, structured investments and cross-border transactions.
No single Investment Director can be a leading specialist in every market, instrument, sector and jurisdiction. High-quality investment governance also requires analytical infrastructure, independent due diligence, risk management and a mature investment-committee process.
Catamaran Family Office can act as an external CIO office or provide independent support to an existing Investment Director.
We participate in investment committees, formulate investment policies, assess proposals, undertake due diligence, analyse portfolios, monitor managers, review fees and establish a consistent framework for family wealth.
Portfolio Advisory and Investment Strategy
We do not begin by asking, “What should we buy?” We begin by establishing what purpose the family’s capital should serve.
Priorities may include capital preservation, liquidity, long-term growth, intergenerational transfer, diversification following a business sale or the creation of family wealth independent of an operating company.
We consider the consolidated family balance sheet: liquid portfolios, deposits, bonds, equities, funds, private markets, property, commodities, insurance arrangements, international accounts, business interests, liabilities, expenditure and real assets.
The result is an investment architecture: strategic asset allocation, acceptable risk, liquidity rules, concentration limits, manager-selection principles, decision procedures and regular reporting.
Concentration Management and Global Diversification
Substantial wealth is often created through concentration in one business, sector, market, currency, property portfolio, bank or investment strategy. Preserving that wealth across generations requires disciplined concentration management and diversification.
We help identify where the family’s position depends excessively on a single scenario, market, currency, jurisdiction, source of liquidity, provider, key employee or asset class.
Diversification is not simply the allocation of capital across countries and instruments. It is a governance system in which every component serves a defined purpose: preservation, liquidity, income, growth, protection, opportunity or intergenerational transfer.
Due Diligence of Investment Opportunities
The market continually offers compelling propositions: funds, bonds, structured investments, private equity, venture capital, club deals, real estate, alternative strategies and private transactions.
For a family with substantial wealth, the challenge is not access to opportunities. It is the quality and independence of the filter.
Before a decision, we examine structure, economics, entry and exit terms, liquidity, lock-up periods, distributions, fees, documents, investor rights, counterparties, performance, conflicts, legal and tax implications and the proposal’s place within the family’s wider wealth architecture.
Sometimes the most valuable outcome of due diligence is a well-supported decision not to proceed.
Second Opinion on Investment, Legal and Structuring Decisions
An independent opinion is particularly valuable when the proposing party has a financial interest in implementation: a bank recommends a product, an asset manager raises capital, a lawyer advocates a particular structure or a broker benefits from transaction volume.
We provide an independent perspective on investment proposals, banking products, funds, transactions, ownership structures, contracts, manager appointments and professional recommendations.
We do not replace specialist lawyers, tax advisers, private bankers or asset managers. We help the family ask the right questions, compare views, identify inconsistencies and understand underlying incentives.
CFO Support and Financial Control
Even families with substantial wealth do not always possess a consolidated view of expenditure, liabilities, recurring payments, asset performance, property costs, provider efficiency, tax obligations, insurance, staffing costs and financial commitments.
We help establish controls across the consolidated family balance sheet: budgets, payment calendars, liability monitoring, invoice verification, expenditure analysis and management reporting covering investments, property, employees, providers and family projects.
For the wealth owner, this means moving from fragmented spreadsheets, emails and verbal arrangements to a regular management overview showing obligations, responsibilities, deviations and decisions requiring attention.
Legal, Tax and Compliance Coordination
Substantial international wealth requires a coordinated legal, tax and compliance architecture, particularly when family members, assets, companies, accounts, residences and succession matters span several jurisdictions.
We do not replace specialist legal, tax or compliance advisers. We help define the mandate, select suitable professionals, reconcile their recommendations and ensure that investment, banking, ownership and succession decisions do not conflict.
Catamaran Family Office coordinates the appropriate specialist network so that the family receives a coherent basis for decision-making rather than a collection of separate opinions.
Family Governance and NextGen Preparation
Transferring wealth across generations is not solely a matter of wills, trusts, foundations or corporate structures. It requires the family itself to remain well governed over decades.
Future generations should understand not only the scale of family wealth, but also its origins, structure, investment principles, responsibilities, restrictions, risks and decision-making framework.
We support family governance through role allocation, family protocols, NextGen preparation, family councils, rules for shared assets, intergenerational communication and clear decision-making processes.
International Coordination
Families with substantial wealth rarely live, invest, educate their children, own property and conduct business within a single jurisdiction. Their financial and private interests often extend across London, continental Europe and international financial centres.
We coordinate specialist networks covering legal, tax, investment, banking, education, relocation, property, insurance and private infrastructure matters.
The family receives not an unconnected group of advisers in different countries, but a managed process with clear objectives, responsibilities, deadlines, quality controls and coordinated cross-border decisions.
Real Estate and Real Asset Support
Real estate often represents a significant proportion of family wealth while remaining one of its least transparent areas, particularly when residences are located across several countries and require maintenance, renovation, leasing, insurance and local oversight.
We support the acquisition, ownership, management, review and disposal of property and other real assets.
Our focus extends beyond the transaction to the economics and governance of ownership: legal structure, tax, maintenance, insurance, property management, technical condition, liquidity, reporting and the asset’s role within the family’s overall wealth architecture.
Family Office Team Assessment and Recruitment
A Family Office team can be the family’s greatest asset. It may also become its most significant concealed risk.
These professionals may have access to capital, documents, diaries, children, property, banking relationships, negotiations, providers and highly confidential information.
We assess actual responsibilities, competence, integrity, resilience, discretion, replaceability, workload, influence and the family’s dependence on individual employees.
Where additional expertise is required, Very Important Personnel recruits Heads of Family Office, CFOs, Investment Directors, analysts, personal assistants, lawyers, accountants, estate managers, lifestyle managers and private household professionals in London, across Europe and worldwide.
Private Infrastructure Management and Family Operational Support
At a certain level of wealth, private life and household operations become a complex management responsibility. This extends beyond concierge support to the coordination of residences, people and processes across multiple jurisdictions.
It may include residence management, recruitment and supervision of household staff, oversight of yacht and private-aircraft ownership, support for art collections, security arrangements, education planning and family projects.
We help design a system in which the private infrastructure serves the family without requiring the family to manage every operational detail.
The Family Office makes private life reliable, discreet and predictable by transforming fragmented requirements into a clearly governed structure.
When to Commission an Independent Assessment
An independent Family Office assessment is most valuable before concealed weaknesses become costly.
An assessment should be considered if:
- the wealth owner remains personally involved in too many operational matters;
- critical information is concentrated with one individual;
- proposals from banks, brokers and asset managers do not receive independent review;
- assets, companies, accounts, residences, advisers and family members span several jurisdictions;
- the family lacks consolidated reporting on assets, liabilities, expenditure and manager performance;
- the existing team is strong administratively but does not adequately cover investment governance, tax, legal, compliance or international coordination;
- the family is preparing for a business sale, succession, restructuring, a major acquisition or disposal, an investment review or team expansion;
- the system depends more on personal trust than on transparent procedures, controls and continuity arrangements.
Why Families Choose Catamaran Family Office
Catamaran Family Office provides independent external oversight for owners of substantial wealth, established Family Offices and private investment structures.
We do not represent a product, private bank, broker, asset manager or individual provider. We represent the interests of the family.
We assess not only investments and advisers, but also people, procedures, dependencies, conflicts, reporting and the overall governability of the system.
Our advantage is the combination of Family Office governance, investment analysis, financial control, international coordination and detailed knowledge of the private staffing market through the Very Important Personnel ecosystem.
We can reinforce an existing Single Family Office, provide external CIO or CFO support, conduct an independent review, assess the team, establish consolidated reporting and give the family a complete view of its wealth architecture.
Our purpose is not to replace trust within the family, but to protect it through robust governance.
Arrange a Confidential Family Office Consultation
During an initial private meeting, we help determine which model is most suitable: a dedicated Family Office, hybrid structure, external CIO or CFO function, review of an existing team, Second Opinion or independent assessment of the family’s investment and governance framework.
You will receive an initial perspective on where the system is strong, which functions require reinforcement, where key-person risk exists, which decisions may benefit from independent scrutiny and what the most appropriate first step should be.