A well-established high-net-worth family typically already has a network of advisers: a long-standing lawyer, a notary, one or more private bankers, a tax adviser, perhaps a fiduciary. These relationships are often long-standing, built on personal trust and an in-depth knowledge of the family's situation. The question is therefore not how to replace these advisers, but how to orchestrate them more effectively.
The coordination problem
Specialist advisers — however excellent in their own domain — generally work in silos. The tax lawyer does not systematically communicate with the banker. The notary preparing a succession agreement is not necessarily informed of the holding structure currently being modified by the fiduciary. The investment manager does not know about recent real estate commitments that alter the overall risk profile.
In a complex estate, this fragmentation has a real cost: inconsistent decisions, missed optimisation opportunities, unnoticed risks and duplicated work. The value added by a coordinator is not knowing better than the specialists in their fields, but seeing the whole and ensuring its coherence.
What a coordinating family office does
A family office positioned as a coordinator plays several complementary roles:
Aggregating information
The coordinator maintains an up-to-date overview of the family's wealth: all banking positions, all holding structures, all real estate commitments, all insurance policies, all active mandates. This map is the foundation of every well-informed decision.
Preparing and monitoring mandates
Before engaging a specialist adviser, the coordinator prepares the brief: wealth context, known constraints, the mission's objective and its articulation with other parties. After delivery, it ensures that the adviser's conclusions are integrated into the overall picture and that agreed actions are effectively implemented.
Supervising coherence
When a decision is made in one area — for example, a restructuring of the family holding — the coordinator identifies the implications for other areas: impact on personal tax returns, on the terms of the succession agreement, on guarantees provided to the bank. It alerts the relevant specialists and coordinates the necessary adjustments.
Preparing governance bodies
The coordinator prepares family council meetings, holding annual general meetings and annual reviews with banks. It produces summary documents, formulates key questions and monitors the follow-through on decisions.
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A concrete coordination example
Consider a family contemplating the sale of a majority stake in a family business. The typical stakeholders are numerous: an M&A lawyer, a tax adviser for the transaction structure, the bank for sale financing and post-sale liquidity management, a notary for the deed, a fiduciary for the accounting aspects.
Without a coordinator, each party delivers its work in parallel and the family — often already under considerable emotional and operational pressure — must ensure coherence between all of them. With a coordinator, that function is assumed: expertise is sequenced correctly, information flows between parties and the family receives a consolidated summary rather than separate opinions to reconcile.
What the coordinator does not replace
It is essential to be clear about what the coordinating family office does not do:
- It does not provide legal advice under Swiss law — that is the lawyer's role.
- It does not draft notarial deeds — that is the notary's role.
- It does not make investment decisions — that is the banker's or mandated manager's role.
- It does not prepare tax returns — that is the tax adviser's role.
Its value added is orthogonal to these specialisms: it improves their collective effectiveness without claiming to replace them.
Building the relationship with existing advisers
When Ridger is mandated to coordinate an existing network of advisers, the first step is an introductory meeting with each of them. The objective is to clarify roles, establish communication protocols and define areas of responsibility.
Experience shows that high-quality professional advisers generally welcome the introduction of a coordinator: it allows them to focus on their core expertise and to receive better-prepared briefs.
To discuss the organisation of your adviser network, Ridger invites you to a confidential meeting.