Family offices have been fixated on their investment management in April and spending less time thinking about their technology and operations — a shift that has shown signs of impacting sales cycles for software companies and other service providers, at least temporarily.
Offices were already more focused on markets and their portfolios at the start of the year. That was expected after the election of President Trump, who promised to make major changes to the U.S. government and economy, Hannes Hofmann, head of the global family office group at Citi Wealth, told Modus.
Now, investment management is all-consuming.
The Trump administration’s broad tariffs this month sparked a trade war with China, caused markets to fall and become volatile, and have investors wondering about a possible global reordering of commerce and economic growth. Citi research has shown that volatile markets make portfolios a higher priority at family offices, and this time is no exception. Investing has dominated conversations between Citi and its family-office clients this month, Hofmann said last week. They aren't rethinking their strategic asset allocations, but family offices are on high alert, making adjustments on the margins and being opportunistic, chief investment officers told Modus last week. Significant changes to technology and operations are currently an afterthought.
Michael Perez, a managing director at F2 Strategy, a consulting firm that advises single-family offices on their technology and operations, also said that investments have taken precedence this month.
“I've definitely observed it. Albeit very temporarily, there’s definitely a reallocation of attention,” Perez said.
Asora, an investment performance reporting and data aggregation company, had a strong sales pipeline heading into the end of 2024 that carried into this year. However, the fixation on investments has altered Asora’s sales cycles this year.
“Generally speaking, we have seen a longer decision-making process. Across the board, the velocity of deals has remained, but I think [family office offices] take longer to make that final decision,” Thomas Nicholson, director of family office solutions at Asora, told Modus. Nicholson previously held a similar sales and relationship role at STP Investment Services and worked for a single-family office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The extended sales cycle is most noticeable in North America, where offices are as exposed as any to U.S. markets. Other regions appear to be less affected and are engaging the firm and onboarding as usual, according to Dublin-based Asora.
This year, there’s also been a bifurcation of prospective customers, Nicholson explained. Large, well-established family offices are more likely to have sufficient infrastructure and systems in place, so they are less compelled to make changes during stressful times. Meanwhile, some smaller or newer family offices have been accelerating changes in anticipation of reevaluating their portfolios as much as ever in the coming months, and for the inevitable periods of volatility further in the future, he said.
“They've got their foot on the gas pedal and they're ready to make changes and move quickly because they're probably encountering some major issues with their existing operating model,” Nicholson said.
Asora and others interviewed for this newsletter also said they aren’t worried about a lull, especially one that could end soon. Tariffs and market swings won’t reverse two trends propelling the growth of consulting, software companies, and other service providers: There is an increasing number of family offices, and they want to professionalize and improve their technology and operations.
So far, April has felt like a normal month to Erin Hulse, the founder of Deviate Consulting, a firm that helps single-family offices choose and implement software and accounting services. Prospective clients have kept their appointments, and she has calls scheduled throughout the coming weeks.
Still, it is unclear how many offices will choose to shake up their software and accounting services, or when. Those transitions require a certain level of commitment by offices and their employees, so timelines for those updates are subject to an office's needs and market conditions. The trade war could be a negotiating tactic that fizzles quickly, or it could drag on throughout the 90-day pause on tariffs and beyond. The uncertainty permeates everything.
“Nobody's canceling. But are they going to move forward after? I don't know. We'll see how many I get signed in the next month,” Hulse said.
Perez said family offices can also choose to view April and the coming months positively as a valuable stress test.
“When you're in these times of uncertainty, all your gaps are exposed, whether it's data access, cybersecurity resilience, or digital communication. All of these things really bubble up,” Perez said. If offices “can address them now during this market, I think it helps them create a longer-term, institutional stability. My savvy clients, they're taking advantage of this opportunity to do that.”
Tell me a bit about Aleta.
Aleta is a next-generation wealth reporting platform designed for forward-thinking family offices. We currently track over $100 billion in assets, supported by our dedicated team of 40 professionals with decades of experience working closely with family offices. Aleta was built for family offices, by family offices. We're even backed by one: the Pandora Family Office, a long-term investor in our company. Pandora is the world's largest jewelry brand.
What do you mean by “for family offices, by family offices”?
Family offices have been central to our mission since inception. We actively collaborate with our clients and incorporate their feedback directly into our product development to ensure that Aleta continuously addresses the real-world challenges they face. Many of us have also worked in family offices or wealth management roles, which creates a deep connection and ongoing commitment to this community.
What makes Aleta stand out from the competition?
Exceptional user experience is our hallmark, and it's consistently highlighted by our clients. The Aleta platform is intuitive, elegant, and designed to eliminate friction at every interaction. Users genuinely enjoy engaging with our platform – something quite rare in this industry. Our commitment to data quality is just as important. We invest significant effort in ensuring the accuracy and reliability of data to enable our clients to make confident and informed decisions. As Aleta is built on a modern Microsoft architecture, we also offer extensive customization capabilities, including seamless custom reporting via Power BI and easy-to-integrate APIs.
What are family offices asking for in 2025, and how is Aleta responding?
Family offices in 2025 prioritize data integrity above all else. With numerous systems available, precision and reliability remain critical. Additionally, there's a growing demand for modern technology solutions that seamlessly integrate across various aspects of family office operations. Aleta addresses these needs by providing robust data accuracy, effortless integration capabilities, and ongoing training, support, and best-practice sharing with our clients. As an add-on, our highly rated mobile app enhances accessibility and productivity.
What’s the best way to see if Aleta is right for you?
Just reach out to me directly at ken@aleta.io or drop me a message on LinkedIn. I’d be happy to personally guide you through a quick demo and answer any questions you may have. You can also learn more about Aleta on our website, aleta.io, if you’d like.
Other News
- The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies—and Their Mothers is a must-read Wall Street Journal story. Although it’s not obvious in the headline, it is a discomforting glimpse into how Jared Birchall, who runs Musk’s family office, has engaged women on behalf of the world’s richest person. “‘Privacy and confidentiality is the top of the list in every aspect of his life, every aspect, and his entire world is set up to be, like, a meritocracy.’ Benefits flow, he said, when ‘people do good work.’”
- The Emirates Family Office Association, an independent, non-profit association for family offices in the U.A.E., and others globally, that helps them preserve and grow their wealth and modernize their operations, announced Wednesday that Ahmed Al Banna would be its new chairman of the board. EFOA Founder Adam Ladjadj will become vice chairman and continue to be as involved in the organization.
- The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is bringing its investing in-house — something that doesn’t happen very often — and has hired Rebecca Carland to be its chief investment officer. Carland was previously the CIO at Builders Vision, and held investment roles at Walton Enterprises, Cambridge Associates and Goldman Sachs.
- Are You the Only One Who’s Broke? Or Is It ‘Money Dysmorphia’?
- MoMA made a move so safe almost no one saw it coming.
- How to Ruin an $800,000 Vacation? Hire the Wrong Person on Your Superyacht.
- Shares of the big, publicly traded alternative investment firms remain in bear territory.
- When people hear the term “institutional investor,” they usually picture huge pension systems and the mega university endowments with billions of dollars in investments. The vast majority of them have much smaller portfolios (just 10 institutions account for roughly two-thirds of the $806 billion in U.S. endowment assets).
Something worth remembering: A similar distribution also exists in the single-family office world. Assuming there are 8,000 offices with a collective $7 trillion in assets, the 40 wealthiest people, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, who almost certainly have a family office of some kind, account for half of all that wealth ($3.589 trillion).
Jobs
- A multifamily office in New York with in-house private equity, venture capital, real assets, and a philanthropic platform is hiring a vice president of client advisory. If you have 15+ years of relevant investment management for UHNW clients, maybe this is you? It pays up to $350,000 per year, plus a hearty bonus and other benefits.
- Soros Fund Management is looking for a family-office attorney to join its New York office. This person will report to the general counsel and primarily focus on supporting the legal needs of the family-member clients and their legal entities. Top of the salary range is $200,000 and there are other compensation and benefits.
- Morgan Stanley’s Family Office Resources group is hiring a resources generalist in Los Angeles. This executive director is in charge of the “field engagement team,” which is the first point of contact with super-wealthy clients and Morgan Stanley’s financial advisors who work with them. As the name suggests, this person needs to be knowledgeable about all the needs of the wealthiest individuals and leverage others within the bank to serve those needs. Base salary is $150,000 to $250,000 and there are opportunities to earn commissions and other incentive compensation, in addition to discretionary bonuses and other benefits.
- William Blair is hiring a family office reporting associate in Chicago. This junior staffer will learn the fundamentals of financial reporting, generate reports for family-office clients and prospective ones, and learn “how to provide white-glove client assistance in answering questions and navigating the Masttro platform.” Salary range is $65,500 to $78,600. Does that seem a little low for a Chicago-based financial professional expected to help clients better understand their personal denominator effect and set a foundation of understanding used to make changes to a portfolio worth hundreds of millions, or billions, of dollars?
Other Stuff
- ICYMI last week: I was a guest on the “The Investors First Podcast” hosted by Steve Curley, co-managing principal at 55 North Private Wealth, and Chris Cannon, CIO at FirsTrust. I’ve known Steve and been a fan for a long time, so this was a personal win! Listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the show’s website.
- Join over 1,200 people who follow Modus on LinkedIn for news, the occasional Zoolander meme and company updates between newsletters.
- Know something you think other family offices should, too? Send Modus a tip. If the information is sensitive, use Signal on a personal device not accessible by your employer. Before you share anything, or if you really want to dive into the topic, this recent Nieman Lab article is well done: How to leak to a journalist.
I'll be in...
- Akron this weekend.
- New York most of the spring.
