The Family Office Fund Manager

Mandate, family governance and decision rights

Sign a mandate naming each beneficiary group, its spending needs, who can vote, and who can veto. Give public trading, private commitments and related-party deals separate approval limits.

Portfolio construction and implementation

Write a strategic benchmark before selecting managers. Combine liquid assets with the operating company, property and guarantees to show total family exposure. Test fees, turnover, rebalance bands and currency exposure against that benchmark.

Manager selection, costs and performance

Build a one-page scorecard: mandate, comparable benchmark, net return, downside, attribution, mandate drift, capacity and termination criteria. Show time-weighted results for the manager and money-weighted results for the family.

Liquidity, leverage and downside

Build a monthly cash ladder for each legal entity: opening available cash, taxes, distributions, debt service, capital calls and realizable assets. Stress delayed exits and a borrowing-base cut together; identify the first month funding fails.

Private funds, direct deals and valuation

For each commitment show vintage, fees, carry, unfunded balance, cash distributed, remaining valuation and public-market equivalent. Separate manager marks from cash proceeds. Require an independent challenge to valuations during fundraising.

Property, credit and the operating business

Map rent, debt maturity, insurance renewal, tenant concentration and collateral across entities. Underwrite an alternative use of the property and test whether its funding need coincides with that of the family business.

After-tax investing, controls and operational diligence

Map owner, custodian, tax basis, reporting currency and authorized signers before trading. Reconcile independent statements. Verify changes to wire instructions over a known channel. Have local advisers review entity-specific tax and regulatory obligations.

Stewardship, impact and investment committee reporting

Separate investment performance, philanthropic spending and evidence of impact. For each stated goal record a baseline, evidence owner, review date and conditions for ending the allocation.

People, technology and continuity

Set a succession and incident-response drill: who can access the ledger, authorize a trade, challenge a model or suspend a transfer when the CIO is absent? Record exceptions and close them at the next committee meeting.