Starting or creating a family office
Which Recurring Processes Should Be Mapped Before Opening the Office?
Short answer. Map the work that repeats each week or month, assign an owner, and document the steps, timing, and records it requires. Start with essential finance, reporting, investment, and adviser coordination tasks. Clear procedures help a new office operate consistently and make it easier for another professional to take over.
Map the recurring work before the office opens so each important task has an owner, a schedule, and a clear method. In my experience, an office becomes dependable when people can see how work moves from request to completion, and another professional can step in without relying on informal knowledge.
Start With Work That Repeats
List the tasks that must happen every week, month, quarter, or year. Include bill payment, cash oversight, bookkeeping, account reconciliation, reporting, tax document collection, investment review, and coordination with outside advisers. Add family service requests and records management if the office will handle them. The list should reflect your planned responsibilities, not a generic office template.
For each process, record who initiates it, who reviews it, what information is needed, when it is due, where the result is stored, and who handles exceptions. Define the handoff between the office and the bank, custodian, CPA, attorney, or investment adviser. Talk with your attorney or CPA about legal and tax requirements that affect a process.
Assign Clear Ownership
A process needs one person accountable for completion, even if several people contribute. Set a backup owner for important deadlines and describe when an issue must be escalated to the family or an executive. For investment matters, state who prepares materials, who reviews them, and who has authority to make or approve a decision. The office's governance and approval structure should be written down so that the process does not depend on assumptions.
Keep instructions practical. A useful procedure gives the next person enough detail to complete the task, including the source records and the expected final output. Put office wide procedures in an operations binder or shared reference, then maintain role-specific instructions for tasks tied to a particular job. The steps on single family office operational processes and single family office governance can help frame that work.
Review and Update the Map
Test each procedure with the person who will perform it. Check whether the required statements, approvals, contact details, and deadlines are available. If a task only works because one person remembers an unwritten step, revise the procedure. Set a regular review point and update the record when roles, accounts, entities, or family priorities change.
Begin with processes that protect cash, preserve accurate records, meet outside deadlines, or support decisions. Add lower priority services after the core work is running. This keeps the setup focused while giving the family a clear picture of the office's workload. Use the family office business plan to connect daily procedures with the office's stated purpose, and the family office cost calculator to consider the staff and systems those procedures require.
These processes should be documented within an overall operations binder dedicated to the family office.
Sources: How to Start a Family Office. Informational only, not financial, legal or tax advice.