"Non-Financial Fiduciary Services" Are No Longer An Option And "Softer Side" Services Rightly Enter The Fiduciary Conversation

The “enhanced family office” model will dominate the industry. Marketplace demand is the driver.

It’s at Wells Fargo’s newly rebranded division called Abbot Downing. It’s at Wilmington Trust. And it's at US Bank’s new offering, Ascent Private Capital Management.

The big guns have finally recognized that offering so-called “softer” services is no longer an option for attracting high net worth and ultra high net worth clients.

The new moniker “non-financial fiduciary services” is a monumental step in the industry’s revolution. It’s a speaking and writing topic that is intimately familiar. Now it’s finally going mainstream.

It’s quite rightly been thrust into the fiduciary conversation. “Non-financial” consists of legitimate assets that currently go largely, if not completely, unmanaged. These are the organic assets, the intellectual, social, and human capacities of family members.

The ideas that materialize into enterprises transforming them into financial capital are economic resources. The family has privileged access to these resources. Individual family members own them. These are the criteria the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) uses to define an asset.

Without these assets, a client has no financial and material assets. Whatever happens with the organic assets directly affects the financial and material assets. It’s that basic.

How then, can fiduciary duty only apply to the management of the financial and material assets?

Shouldn’t there also be a set of fiduciary standards for the management of these organic assets? That’s the point where the fiduciary conversation really begins to mean something to clients.

You can say this is either a service provision or a fiduciary conversation. In reality, they are one and the same.

The ultra high net worth market is small. Competition will only grow more fierce.

There are 4.8 million households with between $1 million and $4.99 million; 600,000 have between $5 million and $9.99 million; 124,140 have $10 million to $29.9 million; 47,860 have over $30 million; and 10,000 have over $50 million.

The “family office” label will become even more misused as brokerages and private banks across the globe scramble to stay competitive. Even if they are not the dominant advisory component in the relationship, they will vie to take part.

The US is still the dominant player with 3.1 million of the world’s wealthy. As an independent RIA, you are best positioned to offer the bespoke level of service they demand.

Incorporating the management of your clients’ organic assets into your wealth management paradigm not only makes sense, it’s a global game you can't afford not to play.

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