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Last week, this newsletter reported on Aquiline Capital Partners’ recent acquisition of SEI’s family office business, including its Archway software. They have big plans to build “the best family office technology and service platform” that exists.
What the newsletter didn’t acknowledge was the significance of an $11.3 billion investment firm (assuming the deal closes as expected next quarter) gaining control over one of the oldest accounting and portfolio reporting software used by family offices, private banks and other wealth and asset managers. Archway counts 10 of the wealthiest 25 families in the U.S. as clients, along with more than 575 other ultra-high-net-worth families, and tracks a total of $723 billion in assets.
Many software companies with family-office customers have raised venture or private equity funding. But to Modus's knowledge, no company in the family-office ecosystem like Archway has had a sole private equity owner until now.
The deal is another sign of the growth and maturation of the family-office universe.
As the number of family offices increases from 8,000 to more than 10,700 in 2030, and they get wealthier, competition amongst their software and service providers will expand and intensify, Chayce Horton, a senior analyst at Cerulli Associates, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, told Modus.
These things are cyclical. All-in-one platforms are created to better serve customers. As those platforms age, entrepreneurs build better versions of the individual components so that customers can choose their own tech stacks. Then, some of the “best-of-breed” businesses add more to their own core offerings, or someone sets out to build a fresh, all-in-one platform. The cycle is not absolute; everything happens continuously because different customers and needs will exist. But there is an ebb and flow to what is most popular.
Aquiline has bought into the future of an all-in-one platform for family offices, and the private equity firm “has a solid track record of success in the wealth-ops space and has large scale, so not surprised to see this move from them,” Horton said. The company has previously invested in other wealth management-adjacent companies, including Artivest, AssetMark and Mirador.
There will never be fewer family offices either, barring some change that would require them to file with regulators. However, even that might not necessarily curtail their growth. The longtime barrier of finding and selling to family offices will remain, but capital raised or coming from a private equity owner could help service providers overcome that.
“Offering a differentiated and best-in-class technology that improves the operations of family offices is just as important as getting it in front of practitioners — especially as more and more firms look to compete for business,” Horton said. “Having the backing of private or venture capital can be an advantage when taking products to market.”
In last week's newsletter, a jumbled sentence incorrectly reported that SEI started Archway Technology Partners in 2002. Archway was founded in 2002 and SEI acquired the company in 2017.
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- RSM, the tax and consulting firm with many family-office clients, announced on Tuesday a strategic partnership with Arch, the software company that helps investors manage documents and data related to their alternative investments. RSM previously had a similar relationship with Canoe Intelligence, Modus exclusively reported.
- While cases related to the Corporate Transparency Act make their way through the courts, the U.S. Treasury Department changed its tune and said it will not be enforcing the rule and will consider revising it. In response on Tuesday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, and Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent imploring him not to change it. “This is a matter of public and congressional accountability and ensuring that relevant policy interests underlying the CTA are satisfied. We encourage you to fully implement the CTA so that law enforcement agencies around the country have access to information necessary to prevent human trafficking, terrorist financing, border smuggling, drug distribution, and many other categories of criminal activity,” the letter said.
- EY and the University of St.Gallen dropped their 2025 index of the largest family businesses yesterday. The biennial report includes private businesses, of course, as well as publicly traded companies of which a family has voting control of at least 32%. The companies that appear on this list might not surprise Modus readers, but how much control families have over these huge businesses is not often easily scrollable.
- You know IRR, NAV, MOIC and TVPI. Now, meet DARC.
- What It’s Like to Plan a $50,000 Party for a 5-Year-Old.
- The Hidden Dangers of Family Offices.
- Robertino Coury, the chief executive of E'O Management, his family’s office, and Andrew Sternlight, the former CEO and Co-CIO of a single-family office (and previously Ray Dalio’s chief of staff), have started LinePoint Partners & Co, which provides private wealth managers and single-family offices with an out-of-the-box suite of software and things they need to get started. “Families don't build family offices because they want to; they do it because traditional wealth management falls short of their needs," the company said.
- Trump has threatened 200% tariffs on European wine and champagne, a move that would substantially raise the betting stakes at Maison Thrasher. My wife and I often wager a bottle of champagne on straight-up bets related to reality TV. For example, I buy her bubbles if the team she picks in “The Amazing Race” makes it further than mine. But if her ponies win the whole competition, I owe her a bottle of Krug. My name’s not Nate Silver, but I have picked no fewer than three recipients of the final rose on “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette” during the first episode of the season. We all have our talents.
- Why You, Too, Need a Nemesis.
Jobs
- 1932 Capital Management, the single-family office of the Brown family that founded the logistics company NFI in Camden, New Jersey, is looking for a director of investments.
- Pitcairn, the “shared single-family office” founded in 1923, is looking for a managing director of investment strategy.
Other Stuff
- I joined John Stewart, who leads the family office practice at Armanino, on his podcast to talk about wealth transfer and other things happening in the family office industry.
- The Modus LinkedIn page has over 1,100 subscribers. Give it a follow so you don’t miss articles between newsletters.
- Know about other family-office software companies for sale? Email or text me. If the information is sensitive, use Signal on a personal device that is not accessible by your employer (e.g., a mobile phone or computer that is not connected to a company VPN).
- I’m finding it very hard to believe that no readers have opinions related to family offices. Why not contribute an essay to Modus?
I'll be in...
- Miami at Future Proof Citywide March 16-19. I’m moderating a panel about family office governance with two stellar guests: Andrew D. Pitcairn, a fourth-generation family member of an office that has evolved over more than a century, and Brian Broadway, a vice president at Fidleity’s FORGE Community.
- Palm Springs — any family office people there I should meet?
- New York, wearing a jacket too light for the weather.
