Operations and technology are no longer just support functions for the family office — they are central drivers of value. Family offices are increasingly treating operational excellence with the same seriousness as investing, recognizing that issues like technology deployment and talent strategy are critical to shaping outcomes.
An informal survey of family office leaders points to a shared set of challenges — and practical lessons — for family offices navigating a rapidly evolving operational landscape in 2026.
“Rising expectations around sustainability, transparency and cybersecurity — combined with talent shortages in advanced technical areas — will push family offices to operate with greater professionalism, agility and strategic foresight than ever before,” says Tina Pepin, executive director of the Pepin Family Foundation.
‘Good enough’ operations are no longer good enough
The quality of a family office’s operations, including its use of technology and its talent management, can directly affect value creation and outcomes — on par with investing. This means operations should be treated as a strategic function, not an afterthought.
Rising expectations on the technical side means a high bar for reporting accuracy and controls — which have real financial impact. This includes up-to-date cybersecurity for all family offices and, for many, AI integration.
Hiring and retaining the right talent will help achieve this operational success. The quality of talent matters as much on the operations side as it does on the investment side.
“Many family offices would say, ‘Well, we have to hire the best talent to do investing, but we can get by with just good enough on the operations side.’ I think that’s a mistake,” says Stacy Dick, operating partner with Wingspan Legacy Partners. “I think you should be hiring the best people you can on both sides of the business, because as far as I’m concerned, a dollar that’s made or lost on taxes is the same as a dollar that’s made or lost on investing.”
Technology adoption is easy — getting the most out of it is hard
For many family offices, the challenge is no longer adopting tools but extracting value from them. Reporting, data integrity and system integration are critical to sound decision-making.
“In 2026, family offices may face mounting pressure to keep pace with rapid geopolitical, economic and technological shifts that demand faster decision-making and more sophisticated risk management,” says Tom Lee, CEO of the Pepin Family Office.
Tool sprawl, partial adoption and lack of commitment can undermine the efficiency that technology is supposed to provide, preventing newly implemented technology from being used to its fullest.
“We have purposely upgraded our systems and processes and are ‘trying out’ a few software tools as we want to be looking forward. But now [we’re] sorting through what has worked, what hasn’t worked because it doesn’t meet our needs and what hasn’t worked because we didn’t commit to using it will be critical,” says Rob Raich, president of Abacus and Associates, Inc.
Consolidated reporting can enable better investment and liquidity decisions, but data quality and consistency are important.
For Patricia Saputo, CEO of Placements Italcan Inc., a key initiative this year will be making sure reporting tools that tie into accounting and tax software have a single source of truth.
“This is important to be able to make proper investment decisions that tie into our asset allocation and investment policy statement, as well as track cash flow,” Saputo says.
The pressure to do everything immediately can be a challenge.
“We are constantly trying to drill down on the one to three most important items to work on, but there is always a sense of wanting to do more, faster,” says Thomas Ruggie, founder and CEO of Destiny Family Office.
Resource allocation is key to operational success
Technology, talent and other elements of operational success require resources — and finite resources can force hard prioritization decisions.
“Our primary challenge for 2026 is resource allocation — ensuring that we deploy both staff capacity and financial resources in ways that maximize value creation for the family,” says Jill Barber, president of CYMI Holdings. “Because our resources are finite, we must be disciplined and thoughtful in how we prioritize initiatives and make decisions. This requires balancing near-term operational needs with long-term strategic goals, and at times, making difficult trade-offs.”
Building efficient operations, including through the strategic use of outsourcing, is one way family offices can achieve this.
“We are focused on determining the most effective ways to fulfill the shared purpose of the family — whether through in-house capabilities or strategic outsourcing,” Barber says. “Our goal is to build efficient, repeatable processes; direct resources toward the highest-value services; maximize staff capacity and talent; and leverage technology, including AI, to enhance productivity and insight.”
Taking family office operations to the next level will require reexamining systems and processes — from technology to talent.
“Our top priority for 2026 is operational excellence for the office as a whole,” says Joshua S. Miller, CEO of Minot’s Light Management. “This will involve a review of our current processes, procedures and associated tools to ensure we are operating efficiently at an institutional level. We want to ensure that the office evolves at the same pace or faster than the family we serve.”