June 7, 2022 / by Meraki Global Advisors
Family offices designed to invest and grow the net worth of ultra-wealthy families have grown in number, size, and sophistication. This has been driven by shifting economic and market forces, alongside families’ increasing desire for flexibility and control. By sharpening their due diligence, expertise, and ability to isolate the right combination of idea, team and asset allocation – many family offices have emerged as institutionalized players. These modern offices have established themselves as sophisticated investors in today’s public and private market ecosystem.
Many institutionalized family offices pursue an intensive approach supported by best-in-class service providers. Critical and complex functions—such as portfolio and risk management—are frequently outsourced to experts to attain first-in-class service. Here we examine how outsourced trading can deliver a greater level of institutionalization to family offices, which can be both cost-effective and value generative. With an understanding that each family office has unique and specialized needs, we explore various trading desk models and analyze key points when seeking to maximize the value from traders.
While many family offices have large exposures to real estate and external alternative managers, they also have exposure to yield products in the form of corporate and government bonds, FX, equities, and ETFs. Services supporting these traditional asset classes often fall short when compared to the sophisticated infrastructure family offices have grown accustomed to accessing via their alternative manager investments.
Trading family office assets is one such service with significant runway for optimization. Customarily, family offices have traded their bonds and equity holdings through private banking relationships. Trading through a private bank, however, is expensive and constricted. This approach limits liquidity sources and typically does not utilize professional highly experienced multi-asset traders.
To address the shortcomings of trading through a private bank, some of the largest single-family offices have built internal trading desks. While this solution provides a key benefit—superior execution—it requires large capital outlays to operate a single-family office, let alone the considerable costs for recruiting a team of top talent to work solely for one family. This strategy also incurs high costs to maintain the systems required to run a trading desk, not to mention the additional operational risks that follow. It is no surprise then that only a small percentage of families set up their own family office.
For most family offices, the value proposition of an internal trading desk is sub-optimal due to likely operational redundancies—most commonly, periods of inactivity during which no trading takes place. Without an immediate value additive task or project to fill the gap when traders have down time, the operational burden and fixed costs of an internal trading desk make it an ineffective solution. Furthermore, internal family office trading teams are often undersized, so execution quality suffers during busy and volatile days.
Family offices that partner with an outsourced trading provider garner the same—and in most cases, superior—institutional-quality execution generated by an internal trading desk but accomplished at a more efficient cost. Outsourced trading services empower family offices to cost-effectively achieve execution results in line with the high quality of service they have come to expect in the other areas of their business.
Family offices can choose from a range of models to secure the most compelling value proposition. In a variable cost model, for example, a fee is charged per trade. Family offices can also opt to pay a fixed monthly fee for all services rendered. The decision is often based on the number of trades and additional services a given firm requires.
When considering an outsourced trading provider, family offices can maximize the potential advantage by partnering with a firm positioned to deliver on key objectives, such as:
About Meraki Global Advisors
Meraki Global Advisors was founded with a rebellious determination to deliver truly conflict-free services to asset managers. Headquartered in Park City, Utah with offices in New York and Hong Kong, Meraki provides outsourced global multi-asset trading, leverage management, and capital introduction services to the asset management industry. Meraki Global Advisors LLC is a FINRA member and SEC Registered. Meraki Global Advisors (HK) Ltd is licensed and regulated by the Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong.
For more information, visit the Meraki Global Advisors website and LinkedIn page
Contact:
Mary McAvey
VP of Business Development
(646) 666-7041
mm@mga-us.com