Deviate Consulting is a professional services firm based in Indianapolis that provides a full suite of accounting and software consulting options for single and multi-family offices. Our software focus includes QuickBooks and multiple investment accounting, portfolio accounting and wealth management platforms prominent in the industry.

2022 was a busy year for technology evaluations, software selection projects, and staffing changes. Family office conferences also resumed in person and allowed friends and colleagues to reconnect and catch up on work and personal topics. At Deviate, we saw a few trends emerge this year across the space.

• Data Automation Platforms – Data automation platforms via OCR (optical character recognition) have emerged over the past few years, with an influx of competitors coming to the table in 2022. OCR is based on machine learning, which is a subfield of AI (artificial intelligence). It is the process that converts an image of text into a readable text format. The goal is to streamline operations for documents such as capital account statements, capital calls & distributions, K1s, and more. Target clients include family offices, wealth managers, institutional investors, accountants, and advisors.

• Outsourcing Bill Pay – At the onset of COVID, family offices found themselves without their printers and check stock available for accounts payable functionality. Enter stage left: bill pay outsourcing, ACH and wire payments. There are several players in the space, and most are currently or working on integrating with accounting platforms across the globe, making life easier for family offices and wealth managers.

• Data Sharing Across Vendors - APIs – Speaking of integrations, vendors are finally opening up their APIs and sharing data with their partners and “competitors.” Gone are the days of siloed vendor relationships, which is a huge benefit to clients. Why reinvent the wheel when you can integrate and help other partners? Those who have not received this memo surely will soon. We can all play nice and improve the entire family office industry!

2022 was a year of growth for the family office industry, especially for technology and family office software platforms.  Start planning your 2023 initiatives early and be on the lookout for relevant conferences and virtual information sharing.  The FOX community has many resources and industry peers willing to share their experiences and help guide you in the right direction.