How Technology Is Changing the Impact Of a Family Office

While family offices once mainly had a data collection problem, today they have a direction problem. Information is more accessible than ever due to aggregation tools combing through investments, entities, and custodians, but collecting the data is only one half of the equation. The other, and perhaps more important, part is determining how this data can be used to improve the operation, function, and role of the family office.

Joe Quinan, head of Family Office Services at PNC Private Bank, recently spoke with Crain Currency on the importance of technology in the operation of a modern-day family office, and he said the real shift isn’t just about better tech, but about dealing with a more complicated environment. “We're seeing a lot of families today going from just managing wealth to managing the complexity of that wealth, and that's where technology can come into play,” he says.

Family office technology stacks have always been built around customizing a system to fit your specific situation, but as wealth becomes more complex and investments expand across public, private, direct and global assets, the technology one chooses to manage it must be deployed just as deliberately.

Don’t Dive Into Technology Until You Understand Your Needs

While it’s easy to be impressed by the capabilities of modern-day technology stacks, it’s important to match the need of the stakeholders to the tech, and not the other way around.

Quinan points to a pattern where technology platform decisions are shaped by familiarity rather than fit. Families are used to certain systems, systems they may have been using for decades up to this point. This will frequently lead them to technology that matches those systems instead of aligning with how their wealth management needs have changed over time.

“The space is wide open,” Quinan said, pointing to the growing number of vendors and rapid advances in capabilities. “There’s a lot for a family office to take into account before they deploy a technology stack within their own office.”

This is why, as with any financial situation, it’s important to define the gap or the need and then determine how to go about solving it. Identifying potential blind spots and goals along with who will be responsible for them and how decisions will be made is important.

The last thing families need is a piece of technology they can’t effectively deploy or utilize. At its core, the tech stack should mirror the family office itself. If the office is built around flexibility and customization, the technology needs to reflect that. If it doesn’t, technology becomes another constraint.

From Managing Wealth to Managing Complexity

The role of the family office has transformed drastically over the years, and companies have worked diligently to offer the technology to match it.

The shift Quinan describes from managing wealth to managing the complexity surrounding that wealth spans multiple areas:

Layered investment structures, including LLCs and family partnerships;
Increased exposure to private markets with less transparency and longer time horizons;
Multi-jurisdictional tax obligations and regulatory requirements;
Philanthropic commitments tied to long-term funding strategies; and
Multi-generational family dynamics with different expectations and levels of engagement.

This distinction matters. It’s not just the size of wealth that drives the need for infrastructure. It’s how that wealth is structured and how many moving parts are attached to it.

“If I’m holding a Q1 investment committee meeting two weeks after the close of the quarter,” Quinan said, “I should be able to have as up-to-date information as possible…with the technology that is out there today.”

Data aggregation platforms can give you a single view. They give family offices a clear, consolidated picture of their wealth at a moment’s notice, whether that’s simply a tax-centric office or a multi-faceted (investments, philanthropy, education, etc.) one. They make a monumental task manageable and allow the offices to focus less on collection of the information and more on timely decision making based on that consolidated information.

One Data Set, Different Stakeholders

Aggregating the data is one thing, but every facet of a family office being able to utilize it is another. Investment teams, tax professionals, philanthropy leads, and family members all rely on the same underlying data, and a well-structured tech stack allows shared information to drive coordinated decisions.

A tax advisor identifying gains can immediately influence portfolio decisions. A philanthropy team can use the same dataset to understand available liquidity and track commitments. Family members can access a simplified view without needing to delve too deep, if they choose.

“You have to take all those constituents into account,” Quinan said, “and maybe choose to weigh them differently.”

“If there's a tax accountant in the office and a chief investment officer, they can work off of a data aggregation platform that would provide them the same information. They're consuming it differently, of course, but the chief investment officer can see performance, can see holdings down to the tax-lot level and can make a determination, such as, ‘My tax accountant down the hall told me we've got too much in gains this quarter. I can look up quickly, see if there may be losses elsewhere in the portfolio to offset that and make some trades based on that information,’” he said.

Not every stakeholder needs the same level of detail, and not every preference carries the same weight. The system needs to remain usable and relevant, and overbuilding at the beginning is an area where families can run into issues.

One Platform Doesn’t Rule Them All

There is no single platform that fully supports a family office. Most operate with a combination of systems. A core aggregation platform may handle reporting and data consolidation, but additional tools are required for tax compliance, CRM, or specialized workflows. Even then, those systems rarely cover everything.

“There are platforms that may get me 80% of the way there,” Quinan said, “but I may still need some add-on technology.”

While this will work acceptably for many, multiple systems mean more integration points, more dependencies, and a greater possibility of breakdowns.

“I've also seen families that have built their own in-house proprietary reporting platforms,” continues Quinan. “It gets them to a place where they're not married to a particular vendor.”

This doesn’t even begin to touch on the cost, which can start as low as several thousand dollars a year for more straightforward family office situations, to hundreds of thousands (if not more) a year for situations like multi-family offices, highly complex financial situations, and industry-best security, depending on the partner.

Family offices are high-value targets. They manage significant assets, often with concentrated authority and access to sensitive financial information. Weak controls and poorly designed systems create vulnerabilities; a reason due diligence is crucial. This doesn’t mean manual processes are better, however, because they lack the data, speed, and reconciliation that leads to their own problems.

Governance around the technology is a C-Suite issue and should be handled as diligently as the financial assets the clients hold. Cybersecurity and business recovery matters need to be constantly monitored and tested to ensure safety and security. Access and entitlements related to the technology should be granted on a need-to-know basis as it relates to each staff member’s role within the office.

The Truth About Technology And A Family Office

No two family offices operate the same way, and no two offices are identically structured. The technology now available improves efficiency like never before, but it also highlights the stark differences among offices.

The expectation is no longer just access to information – it’s speed, coordination, security and confidence. The systems need to reflect how the families operate, because then they can reduce the complexity instead of adding to it.

A well-designed and deployed technology stack for the family office delivers:

Consolidated portfolio visibility across all assets and entities regardless of the location;
Efficiency by reducing the manual collection of data from spreadsheets, emails and bank statements, reducing errors and omissions;
Control — allowing for strong governance, transparency while delivering entitlement controls and security; and
Scalability by allowing consistent reporting for family members and the family office staff with the ability to grow with the family complexity without overloading administrative bandwidth.

Ultimately, this isn’t just a technology decision, it’s an operating model decision. The families who get this right don’t just manage wealth more efficiently, they make better decisions, across generations.

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (“PNC”) uses the marketing names PNC Private Bank® to provide investment consulting and wealth management, fiduciary services, FDIC-insured banking products and services, and lending of funds to individual clients through PNC Bank, National Association (“PNC Bank”), which is a Member FDIC, and to provide specific fiduciary and agency services through PNC Delaware Trust Company or PNC Ohio Trust Company. PNC Private Bank es una marca registrada de The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

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