Emerging technology is an area of interest for many family offices when it comes to investing. But what about the technology they use for their own operations?
According to Deloitte Private’s Family Office Insights Series – Global Edition: Defining the Family Office Landscape, 2024, 33% of survey respondents say family offices will increasingly embrace digital technology in their operations.
“Family offices tend to be outstanding when it comes to investing in emerging technology, like artificial intelligence or blockchain or green tech,” says Rebecca Gooch, Global Head of Insights with Deloitte Private. “But when it comes to integrating emerging technology into their operations, oftentimes they’re behind the curve. So, it’s really wonderful this year that a number of family offices started to wake up to that.”
It’s understandable that adopting new technology is a challenge for many family offices due to their small staff.
“Oftentimes they don’t have the infrastructures that a large consultancy firm or accountancy firm or financial institution would have. That’s in large part why they’re kind of more behind the curve on this,” Gooch says. “But more technologies are being developed, and services to support them individually, which is great.”
The availability of technology designed specifically for family offices is a change, says Eric L. Johnson, Deloitte’s U.S. Family Office Tax Leader.
“In the past, I think family offices had to try to retrofit existing technology to serve their needs that was really created for a different purpose,” Johnson says. “What’s been helpful as family offices have continued to institutionalize is the technology companies have taken notice of that and have actually started designing technology specific to the family office industry. Whether it’s the general ledger system or investor reporting system, or a way to store information or to communicate amongst family members, there are now offerings specific to family offices.”
New technology can make family office staff members more efficient, which can help with the staffing challenges family offices often face.
“Including technology as part of how they get work done is really important,” Johnson says. “There’s a long way to go still, in terms of kind of adopting the right technology and having all that technology talk to each other and integrating with how people work. But it has come a long way over the last few years.”
