Here is a summary of a family office-focused interactive session held at this publication's recent fintech summit in New York.

The following article is a recap of a session held in New York City as part of the Family Wealth Report Family Office Fintech Forum. (See a report on the panel sessions of the whole event, held in April.) The interactive session featured Alexandre Lin, co-founder and CEO of SumIt Software, a solution for complex family office accounting, and Wendy McCoy, a consultant to the wealth management industry. (More details on them below.) McCoy has written a summary of the discussion, and we hope readers find this useful.

Left to right: McCoy and Lin

It was such a delight to engage with the audience in this “first of its kind” interactive session. After discussing the importance of spending time exploring problems and challenges deeply prior to entertaining solutions to address identified pain points, Alexandre Lin shared some examples of solutions SumIt has created by following these principles and listening to their users (an easy-to-use platform dedicated to the family office space that connects to Addepar, the fintech platform, and Bill.com, the business management software firm).

We then split into groups by the type of firm you [session participants] represent to examine workflows relevant to you.  

The following ideas surfaced as a result of these breakouts:
The group with the largest representation was our multi-family offices, registered investment advisors, wealth managers and private banks. These firms expressed a brief period of excitement and opportunity after signing a new client. However, that was quickly replaced with a series of very tedious data gathering tasks and work to create access to various systems, feeds, and financial institutions. 

This process is challenging for both the client and the firm, particularly given the inconsistencies across various financial institutions. The following needs statements summarize the identified pain and can be a springboard for brainstorming unique solutions:

-- New clients need a way to stay motivated when providing the information necessary to establish a service so that they don’t let the process languish; 
-- Firms need a way to easily identify missing or incomplete items so that they are not exposed to risk unnecessarily; and 
-- Firms and clients need a way to see the progress against a tedious process so that boredom doesn’t stall the project.

Advisors helping clients with technology selection projects identified challenges associated with mapping existing processes to a future state process and being able to represent that effectively during a demo, being able to visualize the outputs that will be available post-implementation as well as generally struggling to ensure that all relevant stakeholders participate in the process.  

Collaboration is key to ensuring buy-in and that everyone’s needs are adequately represented. Needs statements for this group include:

-- Advisors need a better way to map existing processes to vendor capabilities so that it’s clear what the “after” workflow will look like; 
-- Advisors need an efficient way to capture client requirements so that it will be evident during demos how the vendor solution meets or does not meet them; 
-- Advisors need to be able to verify that the post-implementation processes and reporting will meet the needs of their clients so that expectations are met; and 
-- Advisors need a way to ensure that all stakeholders participate in the vendor selection process so that their needs are not missed and they see the value of the project.

The single-family office team members were split into two groups that explored either cash management or investment management workflows based on their personal remit.  

For purposes of managing cash and liquidity, the greatest pain identified centered on pulling and reviewing what can be a significant volume of bank account information. For those focused on investing, market dynamics weighed heavily on their minds. Carefully designed strategies needed to be re-evaluated to protect against a significant amount of uncertainty and volatility. The following needs were identified:

-- SFOs need an easier way to consume and review bank account data so that reconciliations are quicker and less error prone, and cash positions are known in near real-time; and 
-- SFOs need a way to evaluate allocations against current market conditions so that they minimize exposure to volatility.  

Finally, our smallest group of advisors that did not fit neatly into our other categories explored workflows around the documentation and management of physical assets. They identified a very interesting pain point that is worth exploring across all groups and, as a consultant, has given me something to chew on.  

For example, how can we get whomever we serve, to be more proactive? I might just create a workshop around this topic exclusively! Let’s state the need as such:

Service providers need [to find] a way to help their clients be proactive, so that they don’t end up with a large set of tedious tasks to complete all at once and can provide better service.

About the session speakers

Wendy McCoy
Wendy has spent her career using, building, designing and integrating technology tools to solve business problems. A 10-year stint at IBM afforded her the opportunity to acquire deep design thinking expertise and play an integral part of transformation within multiple functions and business units. In 2021 she changed direction to focus on the wealth tech and services industry first with ECI, an MSP of cloud, cybersecurity and digital transformation to private equity, hedge funds and family offices. Then she had a strategic role at Ledgex, a portfolio management and accounting solution for family offices. Based in Boston, Wendy now provides consulting services to a variety of stakeholders in the wealth management industry.

Alexandre Lin
Driven by frustration with existing accounting software, Alex founded SumIt to simplify family office accounting. As a second-generation leader of his family's real estate ventures in France and China, he now dedicates himself to SumIt. Collaborating with more than 30 family office advisors, he's tailored SumIt to meet the unique needs of the sector efficiently. Alex holds an MBA from Chicago Booth and a master's from the London Business School.