Big hedge fund news in February 2015 is that WE Family Offices and MdF Family Partners have formed an alliance spanning the Atlantic that is beneficial to global ultra high net worth families, according to the Funds Society (2015). This is very beneficial for ultra high net worth families from the United States, Europe and Latin America. This is because they are facing considerable and rapidly increasing change and globalisation regarding their wealth management. As a result more than ever they need independent advice that is free from conflict. The fact that these two organisations have created this alliance is excellent news for such families.
In summary, according to the Funds Society, the WE Family Offices has offices in the United States, located both in New York and Miami. The organisation currently looks after the needs of more than sixty five families. In total, this means that it advises in more than $3.4 billion. At the same time MdF Family Partners is based in Madrid. It also benefits from offices in Barcelona, Mexico City and Geneva. This firm helps more than twenty different families and it is believed to currently advise on more than €1 billion. The organisations have agreed and signed on an alliance agreement. This gives both firms the benefit of the resources of the other, as well as the ability to leverage the other’s network and intellectual capital. Of course the clients of these firms will reap the rewards of these benefits. Clients that are served by each of the different firms will remain being advised by that same organisation, but will benefit significantly from their increased access to a platform of global investment that has an in depth knowledge and a wider range of wealth planning services.
The Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of WE Family Offices, Maria Elena Lagomasino explains that the alliance has been created specifically to help ultra high net worth families deal with the challenges that they face from globalisation, as well as allowing them to better leverage the opportunities that are out there. Meanwhile, the Managing Partner of MdF Family Partners argues that the partnership is an excellent, complementary match, since both MdF and WE were built up based on the same principles. These principles are independence and trust. Both organisations have been successful in their own right with what they do, providing boutique advisory services to a very niche group of the extremely wealthy families.
One of the important success factors of any organisations planning to work together, whether in mergers or acquisitions or even in partnerships such as in this case of WE Family Offices and MdF Family Partners is an alignment of company cultures. Being able to work together effectively means that both organisations need to be coming from the same place in this regard. If not, working together can be very challenging and the relationship can break down very quickly. This would destroy the potential synergies that could be achieved for the customers, the ultra high net worth families. However, the good news is that in this case, company cultures were thought about in advance. Indeed a Managing Partner of the WE Family Offices, Santiago Ulloa explains that the values, culture and vision of each of the companies is considered to be “highly compatible and aligned”. This will allow the partnership to provide a very high standard of service to families that may come from either the United States, Europe or Latin America.
Reviewing this news it seems clear that both WE Family Offices and MdF Family Partners have put their ultra high net worth clients first when thinking about how to progress their businesses. This may make the partnership a target for new clients to explore. Taking the partnership forward responsibly appears as if it will offer a wide range of different benefits to ultra high net worth clients that its competitors may not necessarily be able to, especially the diverse information the conjoined companies will now have regarding their respective target markets. It remains to be seen how well the partnership will perform, but it certainly appears as if it is off to a great start!
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