Family offices have been managing private assets for around 150 years without limiting themselves to specific financial issues. A single-family office just looks after one family while a multi-family office is responsible for several at once. As the term isn’t protected, the differences on the family-office market are vast.

As a multi-family office, Kontora views itself as the architect of complex asset structures. Our range of services covers consultancy (strategic asset allocation), looking for and screening attractive investments at home and abroad, as well as the financial reporting of complex assets. Another focus is succession planning while taking tax, legal and family considerations into account. We’re happy to teach our clients the tools of the trade.

A service office primarily manages wealth – for instance, by monitoring investments and reporting. The Kontora service office handles all admin jobs at a very high level. First of all, we place all liquid and illiquid investments in one standard system to provide a solid foundation for analyses and any improvements. Our clients can easily access all accounting transactions online via our state-of-the-art reporting system. Consequently, liquidity planning for hundreds of private equity funds is child’s play.

The offering is primarily directed at large single-family offices that want to use their resources more efficiently. But it’s also aimed at foundations, churches, pension funds, and non-profit organisations.

We’re delighted that Kontora stands for investment expertise in all asset classes. Clients chiefly interested in growing their assets will benefit from our skill set. Doors are opened for them to top, hand-picked projects – especially to highly prized private equity, venture capital, or international real estate projects with restricted access.

A full-service family office looks after the whole of a client’s wealth. The investment office team, on the other hand, only ever invests some of it – but always in the low double-digit-million-euro range at least.

Family offices always adopt a long-term, diversified investment strategy. While private investors are limited to products traded on the capital markets, an experienced family office will embrace all liquid and illiquid investment options. The best family offices find exclusive access to rare opportunities or create these themselves. Kontora is one of those.

Our philosophy is based on Swensen’s Yale Model. In addition to securities, we add real estate, equity investments, and alternative investments to generate attractive returns. Asset classes with little correlation help reduce the risk to the portfolio.

A family office is interesting for families, entrepreneurs, foundations, and institutional organisations that want to maintain and increase in value. And who would disagree with that? Equally beneficial are the resulting higher returns, lower risks, greater tax breaks (or lower tax burdens) – and often all of these at once.  

One thing’s for sure, all clients will have more time to focus on their own businesses or interests. After all, not everyone wants to coordinate operational units such as banks, accountancy firms, or facility management companies themselves.

As one of the leading family offices, we specialise on the crème de la crème of projects and offer access to these frequently unique opportunities. We also give our clients the chance to join forces on projects. They can then achieve much greater success than even the most able of clients can on their own. As already mentioned, it’s the result that counts.

There’s no straight answer to whether a family office is worthwhile because each client’s needs are unique. However, there are a few metrics to guide you. Founding a single-family office from scratch always involves much higher costs than a multi-family office. Setting up structures specific to a family typically requires a sum in the mid three-digit-million-euro range.

As for multi-family offices like Kontora, it depends on the scope of services required. A figure in the mid two-digit-million-euro range covers comprehensive wealth management including consulting, investing, and portfolio monitoring. Commissioning the investment office to look after a limited investment portfolio could already make sense for investments in the lower double-digit-million-euro range. Our consultancy services are open to anyone because Kontora bills these on an hourly basis.

Due to economies of scale, multi-family offices operate more cost effectively than single-family offices The fee is often a percentage of the assets managed, usually 0.5 to 1 percent p.a. depending on the asset size.

Kontora is independent of third-party products (and third parties themselves) and therefore only works for a fee and not a commission. This safeguard ensures that we only act in the client’s interests.

As we offer more than just asset management, we also have a more nuanced invoicing model. Consulting services attract an hourly rate, support in seeking investment opportunities and providing the associated due diligence a fixed fee and each completed investment a success fee. On the other hand, financial reporting is charged based on the assets monitored. The time-based cost model is better value for clients who only pay for the services they actually use.