We understand wealth.

A family office manages the private assets of wealthy families without being limited to financial issues. The concept can be traced back to the 19th century, when entrepreneurs like John D. Rockefeller set up administrative structures to preserve their values across generations. A Single Family Office manages the assets of just one family, while a Multi Family Office looks after several families in parallel. As the term “Family Office” is not uniformly defined, the range of business models operating as “Family Office” differ considerably.

Kontora sees itself as an architect of complex asset structures. The range of services extends from teaching theoretical basics to the search for and due diligence of attractive investments. The controlling and reporting of these assets is also an important service we provide. A further focus is the planning of company successions, taking tax, legal and family aspects into account. As an independent family office, Kontora works exclusively on a fee basis and waives any kind of commission. This ensures that we always and exclusively act in the interest of our clients.

Family offices invest in a diversified manner - similar to many private investors. However, while the latter are generally limited to products traded on capital markets, family offices take advantage of all liquid and illiquid investment opportunities. The investment philosophy of the multi-family office Kontora is based on the so-called Yale model: this strategy, developed by economist and Yale foundation board member David F. Swensen, incorporates not only securities that are traded on capital markets but also illiquid investments such as real estate, corporate investments and alternative investments.

The goal is to minimize risks by driving down the correlation between the individual investments in the portfolio. The investment horizon should be long-term.

A Multi Family Office is aimed at wealthy families and successful entrepreneurs who want to preserve and increase their wealth. The range of offered services includes advice on all aspects of strategic asset allocation, the search and due liligence of investment opportunities with exceptional return opportunities and portfolio controlling. The assignment of a family office is suitable for people who already have a large amount of assets or who expect this to happen in the future - for example, as a result of a forthcoming company sale. In this case, it is advisable to make contact at an early stage so that tax advantages can also get exploited.

The Multi Family Office Kontora aims to understand wealth in all its complexity - and to apply this understanding in the best possible way for the benefit of the clients. For this reason, an exceptionally high level of service is offered, covering all aspects of advice, implementation and monitoring. Kontora has high competence in all asset classes, especially in the areas of real estate project development, direct investment in companies, private equity and alternative investments – on a global scale.

The question regarding the minimum asset size for which a family office could be installed is a question about the cost of running a family office. It can not be answered in a generalized way. The needs and requirements of the clients are too individual for that. Nevertheless, there are a few guidelines to help you find your bearings: in principle, setting up a single family office involves significantly higher costs than mandating a multi-family office – generally, family-owned structures require a mid three-digit million euro amount.

With multi-family offices such as Kontora, it depends on the scope of the desired services. A mid double-digit million figure should be available for comprehensive asset management including consulting, investment activities and portfolio monitoring. A commitment that is limited to several individual investments can already make sense with an investment volume in the lower double-digit million euro range. There are no barriers to entry for consulting services; these are billed by Kontora on an hourly basis.

Multi Family Offices, which serve several wealthy families, are more cost-effective than Single Family Offices, which work for just one family only. They can use economies of scale and pass on price advantages to their clients. The fee is usually a percentage of the assets under management. The amount varies depending on the assets, but usually ranges from 0.5 percent to 1.0 percent per year.

The services offered by Kontora go beyond mere asset management. Accordingly, the accounting model is more differentiated: Consulting services are offered for an hourly fee, support in the search for and due diligence of investments is charged for a fixed fee and a success fee for each investment. Controlling and reporting, in turn, is charged per monitored asset. Generally, the expense-based cost model results in a price advantage for the clients, since they only pay for the services that are actually used.