Outsourcing Family Office Operations for Middle Eastern Families

For generations, the Middle East’s most prominent families have excelled at building extraordinary businesses. Across the region, there has been a growing trend to professionalise approaches to wealth management. Yet, many families still identify a skills gap within their organisations, particularly in the areas of investment, governance and long-term wealth preservation. This type of specialised expertise is typically offered by an outsourced family investment office, designed either to provide full service or fill the gaps in the private operations of high-net-worth families, helping to future-proof their wealth.  

Flexibility and rigour

One major appeal of outsourcing family office services is scalability. Consulting experts outside the family can boost institutional discipline while offering the flexibility to scale up or down as circumstances – or skills gaps – demand. Support from an established family office helps a family consolidate their assets into a single and convenient view, even when they are diversified across multiple geographies, generations and managers. 

Features such as a bespoke ‘investment policy’ framework can be transformative, enabling families to sit down with their advisory team and articulate together their risk appetite, objectives, time horizons and any other notable extenuating circumstances – a crucial starting point for any family office relationship. 

A culture of custodianship

In many parts of the Middle East, wealthy families describe a strong culture of stewardship in which capital is not ‘owned,’ but passed from one generation to the next. This culture of custodianship – and the need to ease the pressures and responsibilities it may create – sits at the core of a true family office model.  

The emphasis placed on continuity and custodianship fits hand in glove with families who have built up generations of sector-embedded expertise within a family business. Be it manufacturing, real estate or construction, the network of experts and their collective intellectual capital are part of what creates a rich community for family office clients.  

Though the skills that have made the family succeed as entrepreneurs may not automatically translate into navigating markets or setting asset allocation, their contacts and risk management knowledge should be welcomed into any properly functioning family office ecosystem. 

Bridging generational gaps

Wealth evolves as families evolve, leading to potential friction if shifting priorities are not effectively managed. For example, the founder who builds the business may prioritise capital preservation, while the next generation places greater emphasis on global diversification. Outsourcing family office services helps to bridge these generational shifts in several ways.  

One of the most important ways is by embracing the next generation, which allows families – advised by a third party – to ensure that their voices are ‘heard’ in a controlled, professional forum. This helps a family to stay aligned even as its members’ priorities diverge.  

As the Middle East region enters a new phase of internationalisation, the need is growing for families to shore up their governance and structures. Younger generations are coming to the table with fresh expectations of how to ensure the safe and smooth transition of wealth across the generations.  

Where families may have dozens of members and multiple branches, spread across several jurisdictions, it becomes a necessity rather than a luxury to ensure that the family is supported within a flexible, rigorous and customised framework.  

We’re ready to help you! Contact us today to learn more or to begin outsourcing your own family office operations. 

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