Family wealth requires institutional-quality investment governance. It does not require institutional bureaucracy. We provide the investment capability that allows families to govern their wealth with the discipline of an institution and the flexibility of a family.
Most advisory arrangements for family wealth were designed for a different context. The retail model provides product recommendations and transaction execution, but not governance infrastructure. The institutional model assumes a committee structure, a regular meeting cadence, and a separation of personal relationships from investment decisions that most families neither want nor need. Family offices sit between these models, and the question most families are working through is how to build investment governance that fits the family, not one that requires the family to fit it.
Why Family Office Investment Is Different
Every other sector page in our library addresses a board or committee with defined terms of reference, reporting obligations, and governance structures shaped by regulation or charitable purpose. Family offices may have some of these structures. Or they may have none.
A family office might have a formal investment committee with independent members, documented policies, and quarterly reporting. It might also have a single family member who makes investment decisions after a conversation with a trusted adviser. Both arrangements are common in New Zealand. Neither is inherently wrong. The problem arises when the governance model no longer matches the complexity of what is being governed: a portfolio that started as a managed fund and a rental property has grown to include international equities, alternatives, direct investments, multiple managers, and currency exposures. The advisory arrangements that worked when the portfolio was simpler now feel inadequate, but the family is not sure what the alternative looks like.
Our companion guide on adviser business models explores how different fee structures and incentive models shape the advice families receive, and why understanding the model matters as much as evaluating the adviser.
From Informal to Structured: An Investment Management Progression
Most families do not arrive at structured investment governance in a single step. They progress through it as the portfolio grows, the family expands, and the governance demands become more visible. Understanding where your family currently sits is the starting point for any governance conversation.
1. Informal
Investment decisions made by one or two family members. Personal, intuitive, fast. No formal investment policy or structured review.
Investment decisions are made by one or two family members, often the wealth creator. The decision-making is personal, intuitive, and fast. There may be an adviser, but the relationship is between the adviser and the individual, not between the adviser and a governance structure. There is no formal investment policy, no documented risk appetite, and no structured review process. This works when the portfolio is manageable and the decision-maker has strong judgement. It stops working when the portfolio becomes too complex for one person to oversee, when the decision-maker's capacity changes, or when the next generation begins to have a legitimate interest in how the wealth is managed.
2. Hybrid
Some structure introduced. Regular family meetings include investment discussion. Patriarch or matriarch retains final say. Transitional.
The family introduces some structure without formalising everything. There may be regular family meetings that include investment discussion. One family member coordinates information from advisers for the broader family. Some decisions are documented. But the governance remains personal rather than institutional. This works as a transitional stage, introducing transparency and broader participation without requiring the family to adopt a corporate model. The risk is that it becomes permanent when it should be temporary: family meetings that discuss investments without a documented framework for making decisions, recording rationale, or reviewing outcomes feel like progress but do not provide the accountability a growing portfolio requires.
3. Structured
Formal governance framework. Investment committee, documented policy, defined decision rights. Framework exists independently of any individual.
The family has established a formal governance framework: an investment committee (which may include independent members), a documented investment policy, defined decision rights, and reporting designed for governance oversight. The framework exists independently of any individual family member and would function if the current decision-maker stepped aside. This works when the portfolio is complex enough to justify the governance cost, or when the wealth spans multiple generations or branches. The risk is that the structure becomes bureaucratic and the family disengages from it. An investment committee that meets quarterly to review reports nobody reads is process without purpose.
4. Delegated
Investment function outsourced to a professional partner. Family retains governance authority: risk appetite, objectives, values, performance review.
The family separates governance from implementation. The investment function is outsourced to a professional partner accountable for portfolio construction, manager selection, implementation, and reporting. The family retains governance authority: setting risk appetite, investment objectives, values alignment, and reviewing performance. This removes the burden of managing multiple adviser relationships and producing consolidated reporting, and requires clear delegation boundaries so the family knows exactly what has been delegated and what it retains.
The governance progression also explains why intergenerational wealth transitions are difficult. The statistics are well known: roughly 70 percent of family wealth is lost by the second generation, 90 percent by the third. The common explanation is that later generations lack financial discipline. The more accurate explanation is that the governance did not keep pace with the family's growing complexity. The wealth creator's children inherit the wealth but not the intuition that informed its management. Without a governance framework that provides the context and decision-making structure the wealth creator carried in their head, the next generation faces investment decisions without understanding why the portfolio is structured the way it is. A family that builds structured governance before the generational transition forces it gives its wealth the best chance of surviving that transition.
What Makes the Investment Function Different for Families
An outsourced investment function for a family office provides the same capability as a dedicated Chief Investment Officer: investment research, portfolio construction, manager selection and monitoring, transition management, and reporting. The difference in a family context is that the function also needs to accommodate things that institutional portfolios typically do not involve.
Legacy assets. Illiquid holdings that carry emotional significance are common. A direct property the family has owned for decades, a private business interest, or a concentrated equity position the wealth creator is not willing to sell. These may not be optimal from a portfolio construction perspective, but they are real, and the investment function needs to work around them.
Differing risk appetites across generations. The wealth creator may have a high tolerance for volatility. Their children, conscious of their responsibility to preserve what was built, may be more conservative. A grandchild may have views on fossil fuel exposure that the rest of the family has not considered. The investment function needs to accommodate these differences within a single portfolio framework, or recommend a structure that allows differentiation where it is warranted.
Values alignment. A family may have strong views on industries, communities, or causes that reflect the family's values rather than any standard ESG classification. The investment function needs to understand and implement these preferences without treating them as constraints to be minimised.
Governance integration. The investment function sits within whatever governance structure the family has chosen. If the family has a formal investment committee, the investment function reports to it. If the governance is less formal, the function adapts. The principle is the same as with any institutional client: the investment function serves the governance structure, not the other way around.
Our companion guide on selecting and monitoring your investment partner explores the evaluation framework in detail, including the questions families should ask when assessing whether their current advisory arrangements are still right for the portfolio's complexity
Continuing to Build Investment Knowledge
Effective investment governance depends on the people making decisions having enough context to engage meaningfully with what is in front of them. For families, this is a particular challenge: different generations may have very different levels of investment experience, and the family members who participate in governance today may not be the same people who participate in five years.
The common thread is that the education is designed for the people who actually govern family wealth, not repurposed from content written for investment professionals.
We provide ongoing education outside the governance meeting agenda, so that learning does not compete with decision-making. This takes three forms.
Workshops
Allow family members to explore specific topics in more depth than a governance meeting permits. These might focus on a forthcoming strategic asset allocation review, an emerging asset class the family is considering, or the governance implications of a generational transition. We schedule these in the lead-up to significant decisions, so the family arrives better prepared.
Research publications
Give family members access to our thinking on the issues that matter to institutional investors in New Zealand, from how different adviser business models create different incentives to the frameworks for evaluating manager performance. These are written to be genuinely useful to non-specialist readers: practical frameworks, clear analysis, and specific takeaways.
Webinars
Provide a flexible format for family members to stay current with developments in investment markets, governance best practice, and the practical aspects of managing a family's investment portfolio, without requiring travel or a significant time commitment.
How We Work with Family Offices
The level of investment support we provide is shaped by each family's governance needs, the complexity of the portfolio, and where the family sits on the governance progression.
Advice Only
We provide independent investment advice, research, and governance frameworks. The family makes all investment decisions and manages implementation through their existing advisers. This works well for families with strong investment capability who want an independent perspective, or for families at the beginning of their governance journey who want to understand their options before committing to a deeper relationship.
Partial Delegation
The family sets strategic direction, risk appetite, and any values or exclusion requirements. We handle the elements the family chooses to delegate: manager selection and monitoring, portfolio rebalancing, transition management, or governance reporting. The scope is documented and can be adjusted as the family's governance evolves.
Full Delegation
The family establishes the governance parameters: risk appetite, investment objectives, values framework, and any constraints. We are accountable for the investment function within those parameters: portfolio construction, manager oversight, implementation, and reporting. The family maintains governance oversight and the authority to adjust the framework at any time.
In all three models, the family retains governance authority. What changes is how much of the investment function the family handles directly. The right model is the one that fits where the family is now, with the flexibility to evolve as the family's governance matures.
We treat privacy as a foundational requirement. Our reporting, communications, and governance processes are designed for confidentiality. We do not publish client lists, reference family office clients by name, or discuss one family's arrangements with another. For many families, the willingness of an advisory partner to treat discretion with genuine seriousness is not a secondary consideration. It is a prerequisite.
