发布时间：2022-07-26
传承宝典｜家族办公室角色的变化（上）
导读
伴随监管的加强、社会整体争讼的增加以及全球经济失稳的风险，家族办公室也在努力应对两大挑战：客户的咨询更多，同时对家族办公室的专业水平也提出了越来越高的要求。Stonehage Fleming合伙人兼家族办公室负责人安德鲁·诺兰（Andrew Nolan）认为，需要对家族办公室的角色和责任进行更严格的定义，使其能够适应当前的环境。
本文内容由雷梭勒家族办公室根据Stonehage Fleming文章编译整理，版权归原作者所有。
家族办公室没有现成的蓝图，因为每一个家族办公室是为了满足所服务家庭的特定需求而设计。然而，过去二十年来存在一些明显的趋势，任何一个家族在筹建新的家族办公室或者审视现有家族办公室的作用时，都需要对此加以考虑。诚然，目前外部环境的剧变，对现代家族办公室的基本概念及其经济可行性发出了挑战。给家族办公室界定目标并设计一个工作模式，从而能够以经济高效的方式切实实现这些目标，变得前所未有地重要。
传统的家族办公室
尽管从理论上讲，家族办公室应该“按照目的而设立”，但是大多数家族办公室已随着岁月变迁发生了演变，新的功能根据不同事件的发生相继添加了进来。
在过去，许多家族办公室在一开始是以家族企业或者房地产公司的分支机构起步的，其主要作用是行政管理、记账、处理交易、管理信托和其他金融工具。家族往往直接听取律师、会计师、股票经纪人和土地经纪人等专业顾问的建议，而家族办公室则负责执行这些建议。
从管理者到顾问/守门人的演变
在过去二十年间，家族办公室的角色已经逐渐从管理者和执行者，演变为家族与专业顾问之间的顾问和“守门人”。
这种角色的巨大转变有四个主要原因：
1.人们对于专业咨询的需求更加频繁、更加专业化，这反映出社会环境日益复杂且争讼增多。许多家族需要一个"守门人"来识别问题、选择合适的专家、理解和解释专家提供的建议，并将这些建议纳入更广泛的视野。
2.特别是财富管理，这一领域比二十年前要复杂得多，出现了大量新的产品、战略和结构，需要广泛的分析和持续的监测，以确保找到正确的解决方案和合适的顾问。依靠单一的股票经纪人或投资经理的日子已一去不复返。
3.快速变化且不稳定的经济环境带来更多风险，使人们需要对家庭财务进行全方位且高度复杂的风险管理。
4.各个家族本身已变得更加复杂，这主要是因为他们越来越国际化，同时也因为许多家族有多重的商业利益。
当前模式的问题
问题是，对咨询的需求增长如此之快，以至于对于一个典型的家族办公室而言，即使只是做到当一个有作用的守门人，都是一种挑战。
税务合规要求越来越复杂、监管越来越多、外部环境争讼加剧，这些因素的综合影响，甚至让那些规模最大、资源最丰富的家族办公室都在接受能力的考验。许多家族也确实忙于应对最新的税务或监管规定的变化，以至于几乎没有时间考虑大局，特别是家族战略、治理和传承规划。
对家族办公室的角色定义不明确，往往会导致家族办公室和外部顾问之间思维混乱，工作重复，从而使问题更加严重。例如，一些家族办公室已经超越了自己的能力所及，试图复制外部资产管理人的角色，却缺少关键要素或资源来提供完全合格的服务。这么做不仅低效，而且埋头在家族事务某一方面的过多细节当中，可能会让家族办公室偏离其核心责任：实施家族更广泛的财富战略。
要讲清楚人们对一个家族办公室有何期望，听起来简单，但实际上却可能难得多，因为这需要非常精确地阐述家族、家族办公室与外部顾问之间的关系，包括在达成决定和执行层面。这将涉及对以下几个方面的分析：
1.家族自身
2.家族集体事务的主要方面
3.家族在多大程度上希望将其财富管理委托给家族办公室，而不是直接与专业顾问和私人银行建立关系
1.家族历史和境况
每个家族的情况各有不同，因此家族自身的境况、规模和历史都应该明确反映在其所需的服务中，主要包括以下方面：
假设客户甲是一位有两个年幼子女的第一代企业家，客户乙是一个绵延了五代的大家族，其200名家族成员分散在世界各地，家族领导人是对商业不特别感兴趣、也较少参与日常决策的家族长辈，那么为这两者管理家族办公室显然是完全不同的。
同样，强烈影响家族办公室角色的因素也包括家族资产持有结构和资产的复杂度，以及将家族决策与长期战略和目标相结合的治理框架。家族办公室通常是家族治理过程的监护人，而对于持有许多不同信托和公司的大型家族而言，家族办公室则需要相当的技能和经验，以确保关键决策能够反映整个家族的利益。
英文原文
The Changing Role of the Family Office
Family offices are struggling to cope with the growing demands for advice and expertise arising from increased regulation, a more litigious society and the risks of an unstable global economy. Andrew Nolan argues the need for tighter definition of its role and responsibilities to enable the family office to adapt to the current environment.
There is no blueprint for a family office, as each should be designed to serve the particular needs of the family concerned. There have, however, been some clear trends over the last two decades which need to be considered by any family establishing a new family office or reviewing the role of an existing one. Indeed the extent of the changes now taking place in the external environment is challenging the fundamental concept of a modern family office and its economic viability. Never before has it been more important to define the objectives and to design a working model which can realistically meet those objectives in a cost efficient manner.
THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY OFFICE
Whilst a family office should in theory be ‘purpose built’, most have evolved over decades, new functions being added on in response to events. Many started as offshoots of a family business or an estate office.
The role was primarily administrative, keeping accounts, processing transactions and administering trusts and other vehicles. The family would take advice directly from professional advisors such as lawyers, accountants, stockbrokers and land agents and the family office would be responsible for implementing that advice.
EVOLUTION FROM ADMINISTRATOR TO ADVISER / GATEKEEPER
Over the last twenty years, the role has gradually evolved from administration and implementation to adviser and ‘gatekeeper’ between the family and their professional advisers.
There are four main reasons for this significant change of role:
1.The need for professional advice is more frequent and more specialised, reflecting an increasingly complex and litigious environment. Many families require a ‘gatekeeper’ to identify issues, to select appropriate specialists, to understand and interpret the advice they give, and to integrate that advice into the broader picture.
2.Wealth management, in particular, is vastly more complex than twenty years ago with a plethora of new products, strategies and structures, which require extensive analysis and ongoing monitoring, to ensure the right solutions and the right advisers. The days of relying on a single stockbroker or investment manager are now a distant memory.
3.The increased risks of a fast changing and unstable economic environment have brought a need for highly sophisticated risk management across the full spectrum of family finances.
4.Families themselves have become more complex, primarily because they are increasingly international, but also because many have multiple business interests.
THE PROBLEM WITH THE CURRENT MODEL
The problem is that the need for advice is growing so rapidly that it is challenging for a typical family office even to meet the requirements of being an effective gatekeeper.
The combined impact of ever more complex tax compliance, increasing regulation and a highly litigious environment is testing the capabilities of even the largest and best resourced family offices. Many indeed are so busy responding to the latest tax or regulatory changes that they scarcely have time to consider the bigger picture, especially family strategy, governance and succession planning.
The problem is often exacerbated by loose definition of the role of family offices, causing muddled thinking and duplication of effort between the family office and external advisers. Some family offices, for instance, have already overreached themselves in trying to duplicate the role of an external asset manager, without the critical mass or resource to deliver a fully competent service. Not only is this inefficient, but by immersing themselves in excessive detail in one aspect of the family’s affairs, they can be distracted from their core responsibility of implementing the family’s wider wealth strategy.
Defining what is expected of a family office can be more difficult than it sounds, as it involves articulating very precisely the relationship between the family, the family office and external advisers, both in reaching decisions and in the implementation. It will involve analysis of:
1.The family itself
2.Key areas of collective activity
3.Extent to which the family wishes to delegate the management of its wealth to a family office, rather than through direct relationships with professional advisers and private banks
1. THE FAMILY HISTORY AND CIRCUMSTANCES
Whilst each one is different, the services required will strongly reflect the circumstances, size and history of the family itself:
Clearly it is a very different proposition to run the family office for a 1st generation entrepreneur with two young children than for a 5th generation family with 200 members scattered around the world, led by senior family members who are not particularly interested in business and are thus less involved in day to day decisions.
Equally, the role of the family office is strongly affected by the complexity or otherwise of the structures through which the assets are held and the governance framework which aligns family decision making with long-term strategy and objectives. The family office is often the guardian of family governance processes and in larger families, with many different trusts and companies, it requires considerable skill and experience to ensure key decisions reflect the interests of the family as whole.
本文转载自雷梭勒家族办公室，如有侵权，敬请告知删除。
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