Following is an overview of the sessions, speakers and topics discussed at last week's family office fintech summit as hosted in NYC by this news service.

The pace at which wealth managers are moving, or should be moving, toward a more digitalized way of working, along with how they handle threats such as cybersecurity, was put under the microscope at a summit in New York last week, run by the publisher of this news service. (To view an account of some of the sessions by US correspondent Charles Paikert, click here.)

The Ninth Family Wealth Report Family Office Fintech Summit 2024 was held at the Convene Center at 101 Park Avenue, close to Grand Central Station.  

An in-person event, the summit was attended by delegates from single and multi-family offices, wealth management firms and advisory firms, and private banks.

The event also coincided with the release of the Twelfth Edition of the WealthBriefing Tech and Ops Trends in Wealth Management 2024 report (download a copy here.) (WealthBriefing is sister news service to FWR.) That report found that firms are giving themselves a higher score for overall digital capabilities than they did a year before, suggesting that investment is paying off.

The summit started with a keynote by Dan Golosovker, who is head of applied research at Addepar. He spoke about “Portfolio Management Insights from a Unique Dataset of Family Offices.” Golosovker delved into the way in which Addepar’s aggregated and anonymized data might be used when developing portfolio management strategies. The presentation showed how important it is to marry data-driven insights with best-in-class portfolio reporting technology to make informed, strategic decisions when aiming for better performance and risk management for complex portfolios.

Following on, Bill Wyman, president – Family Offices, at Summitas, led the opening panel discussion “Navigating Current Challenges and Future Opportunities.” He was joined by Kristina Conner (BPM) and Rick Higgins (Risclarity). They examined evolving technologies, workflows, and client-facing challenges. 

The right equipment
The second panel discussion was concerned with “Configuring the Right Tools for your Family Office.” Panel speakers were Alan Baron (SS&C Technologies), Ryan Kerry (KnowLedger), and Adam Cleland (Asora).

The panel was moderated by Anne Beal (Deviate Consulting). They discussed how to professionalize the family office with more sophisticated software platforms as well as formalized processes.

The afternoon session started with a keynote about “The Family Office of the Future” by Litan Yahav (Vyzer). He explored uses of AI and real-time data to empower family offices.

Following this talk was a discussion on “AI in the Accounting and Finance Functions of Your Family Office: How to embrace the Revolution.” Speakers – Alexandre Lin, SumIt, Andrew Thomas (Bill), and Alex Lee (Truewind) â€“ were moderated by Sophia Loh (Frank, Rimerman). The panel looked at how integrating AI into the accounting and finance functions of the family office can enhance client value and elevate the team’s contributions. 

All about cybersecurity
The final part of the summit day concentrated on cybersecurity. Tony Gebely (Annapurna Cybersecurity Advisors), who led the discussion about “A Cybersecurity Playbook for your Family Office,” was joined by Warren Finkel (Omega Systems) and Allen Blount (Risk Strategies). This panel explored a multi-layered approach to safeguarding assets, data, and communications. 

Steve Ward and Mark Ghatan (Polaris Risk) who spoke alongside Ben Barrontine (360 Privacy), presented “Shielding the Family Fortress: The Dark Reality of Personal Security in the Digital Age.”

The commoditization of PII exposes HNW individuals to threats and vulnerabilities across different vectors, for example from physical threats to risk of cyber intrusions, fraud, identity thefts and reputational harm. 

As data leaks proliferate, the problem is heightened because personal privacy becomes a never-ending game of “whack-a-mole,” the conference heard. 

The speakers walked the audience through the often-unsuspected trail of breadcrumbs that bad actors exploit and how firms work to remove them from public purview. Speakers also said that proactively managing data and cybersecurity defenses enabled HNW individuals to react swiftly at the first indication of threats.

The summit day included two rounds of technology demonstrations. A number of firms showed their platform: AgilLink, Eton Solutions, K1x, Private Wealth Systems, Sandbox Wealth, SumIt, Summitas.

Among the twelve exhibitors were Sage, Advyzon and SEI.