From archaic information to AI automation: A blue ocean opportunity for family offices
There’s no limit to the number of hours a family office can spend mired in PDFs and spreadsheets tracking private investments.
Information on private investments is spread out among numerous data providers and fund managers, sometimes numbering in the hundreds. Each source presents data in its unique format, resulting in the tedious task of collecting and analyzing it, and consuming valuable time and resources through manual processing.
So, issues like human error and outdated information are common occurrences in this process. And private equity investment reporting is often a quarter — if not six months — delayed.
You would think, there has to be faster and more efficient technology for private investment tracking in 2024. And you’re not wrong. There’s a blue ocean opportunity for family offices to act now to adopt technology that will save them time and money, improve their information security, and enable them to provide a client service experience, complete with timely reporting.
Rising to the challenge of tracking private investments
Historically, the problem of tracking private investments is manifold. Family offices can have dozens or even hundreds of funds, all of which have their own capital call, distribution, and statement schedules — and the documents supporting those activities vary as much as the investments themselves.
For family offices, ensuring the accurate and timely reconciliation of these information sources is essential. Yet, the current process is both manual and chaotic, consuming significant amounts of time and making it challenging, if not impossible, to conduct quarterly — let alone monthly — reconciliations. And upholding any consistent reporting schedule requires a herculean effort.
But the real price is paid in compromised timeliness and inaccuracy of the information. And by extension, the client service experience.
But all of this can be solved with the right technology. AI technology is already providing a small group of family offices — the early adopters and first-movers — with a sophisticated alternative to the status quo.
In practice, this looks like automated document and data handling for faster and more accurate private investment tracking. And the difference those capabilities make for family offices are tangible in cost-saving operational enhancements:
- Bulk document ingestion and processing
- Accurate and timely portfolio valuations instead of waiting for quarterly reports
- Cost-effective extraction of structured and unstructured data in real time
- More time spent analyzing data than recording it
- Data granularity that’s easily traced back to its document source
- Increased speed and efficiency with data audits and problem solving
- Automatic document storage for better security
For private equity investment tracking, the future is now.
An opportune time to evolve beyond quarterly statement PDFs
Rare early adopters aside, family offices have their own idiosyncratic needs and complex legacy systems as reasons to resist the inevitability of digital transformation, despite having much to gain by evolving beyond the PDF for private equity investment tracking.
But the opportunity at hand for family offices is bigger than immediate operational improvements, considering that Millennials and Gen X will inherit a significant $84 trillion from baby boomers by 2045. And it’s safe to say their expectation is for up-to-date information readily available at their fingertips rather than wading through infrequent, static PDF reports.
The big opportunity for family offices is to adopt technology that will evolve their capabilities in line with their client’s evolving expectations, so they can support them long-term. Because far from a fleeting fad — or a concern that can wait until 2045 to be addressed — the expectation for stronger tech capabilities is already the new normal for family office clients.
Today, 77% of wealth owners are already seeking out a complete online view of their total financial position across all assets, and 39% have already switched advisors in the last three years in pursuit of things like improved digital capabilities (20%).
While the family offices of yesteryear did just fine with a cautious approach in adopting new technology, their next gen clients have spoken — and the family offices of today and tomorrow will have to take a digital leap to meet them exactly where they are.
With the ongoing maturation and adaptation of AI and automation technologies, family offices have fewer excuses to delay their adoption. Instead, they can anticipate a seamless transition, benefiting from the experiences and lessons of early adopters.
Because in the grand scheme of things, this technology isn’t even new anymore — early adopters are already reaping the benefits of leveling up their private equity investment tracking capabilities.
A solution built with family offices in mind
Family offices are uniquely qualified to enjoy the operational and cost-saving benefits of AI’s full potential — and that’s why Masttro released Doc AI in early 2023 as their first major AI offering.
After experimenting with their own in-house R&D, they turned to user feedback to find areas where AI developments would make the biggest impact. It was evident that tracking private investments posed a recurring challenge for family offices.
With expertise in alternative investments more generally, Masttro believed they could provide value for users whose clients have private investments. To that end, DocAI became their first technological foray into the space.
But it’s just the beginning. There’s a gap in the wealth tech market for a provider that offers expert technological assistance around private investments and plugs that data into a 360-degree wealth view of the whole estate — and Masttro is committed to filling that gap.
Challenge the status quo with Masttro’s Doc AI
To bypass the historical challenges of digital transformation and leapfrog straight into the future, family offices need a solution like Doc AI.
Because revamping workflows around direct and private investments comes with positive ripple effects. — data, documents, and user permissions all in one place. No more PDFs floating around email chains and Downloads folders. Faster work and reliable reporting, at no cost to security.
Founded in 2010 by wealth experts working in a multigenerational family office, Masttro is personally invested in continuing their tradition of providing powerful technological solutions to family office challenges.
Level up your document and data handling with Masttro’s Doc AI. Get in touch to stay ahead of the curve.
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Masttro is a global wealth technology platform that provides wealth owners and family enterprises with a 360-degree view of net worth across all financial and non-financial assets, banking relationships, currencies, and ownership structures through an intuitive, client-centric user experience. |