01 — Investment oversight and portfolio architecture

Investment & Wealth Architecture

We design and oversee how capital is allocated, structured, and reported across the full portfolio — independent of any bank, manager, or product.

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What this covers

Five fronts we cover in every engagement.

Investment policy and allocation architecture: A written investment policy that defines the family’s objectives, risk posture, liquidity needs, and the rules of the road. The allocation is built around those constraints — not around what any single manager happens to sell.
Manager selection and oversight: We help select, contract, and monitor the external managers who actually run the capital — public markets, private equity, venture, hedge funds, real estate, private credit — and consolidate their results into a single view.
Direct, co-investment, and club deal coordination: When the family wants direct exposure to specific deals or co-invests alongside other principals, we coordinate diligence, deal documents, and reporting so the rest of the portfolio remains coherent.
Risk and exposure analytics: Concentration, currency, liquidity, counterparty, and look-through risk — measured against the policy, with quarterly reviews and an early-warning view, not a quarterly surprise.
Independent performance reporting: A single, custodian-agnostic report of how every part of the portfolio is performing — net of fees, by entity, by asset class, by manager, in the currency the family thinks in.

When families engage us on this

When it makes sense to begin.

After a liquidity event

A founder has just received cash from a sale or IPO and needs an allocation strategy and an oversight model before deploying capital — not after.

Multi-manager fragmentation

Several banks and managers each report differently, in different currencies, on different cycles — and no one has a true total picture.

Generational transition

A new generation is preparing to inherit or take an active role and needs to see, understand, and govern the full portfolio without depending on legacy advisors.

How we work on this

The rhythm, in four phases.

01
Diagnostic

We read the current state — entities, custodians, managers, mandates, fees, reporting cadence, and the gaps between them.
02
Architecture

We propose an allocation framework, a manager map, a reporting model, and a governance cadence aligned to the family’s decision rights.
03
Implementation

We coordinate the moves — onboarding new managers, decommissioning the wrong ones, building the reporting layer, and integrating data feeds.
04
Oversight

We run the ongoing rhythm — quarterly reviews, exception flags, policy adherence checks, and the questions advisors should be answering for the family.

What we do — and what we don’t

The boundary of the engagement — written without ambiguity.

We coordinate, design, and modernize. We do not manage client assets, give regulated investment advice, provide tax or legal opinions, or act as your trustee, custodian, or accountant. Where those mandates are required, we identify, vet, and integrate the right specialists into your operating model.

We do

Designing the investment policy and allocation architecture.
Selecting, contracting, and overseeing external managers and counterparties.
Building independent performance, exposure, and risk reporting across all custodians.
Coordinating direct investments and co-investments end-to-end.

We do not

We do not manage client assets in a discretionary or advisory capacity.
We do not provide regulated investment advice or sell financial products.
We do not hold custody of client capital or execute trades.
We do not provide tax or legal opinions; we coordinate with the family’s specialists.

In more depth

The written version of the thinking.

This pillar exists for the same reason a building has an architect: not to lay the bricks, but to make sure the whole structure stands together. We sit one layer above the managers, the platforms, and the products — designing how the portfolio fits the family, not the other way around.

Why families bring us in here

Most families don’t lack managers. They lack a coherent view. Capital is spread across three or four banks, two or three private equity sleeves, a venture book, a real estate vehicle, and an operating company position. Each statement looks fine in isolation. The total picture is a quarterly puzzle.

Our job is to make that picture continuous, comparable, and decision-ready.

What independence means here

We are not paid by the managers we work alongside. We do not accept retrocessions, placement fees, or product commissions. When we recommend that a mandate be terminated, our fee structure does not change. When we recommend that a manager be retained, our fee structure does not change. That is the only sustainable model for an oversight layer.

Questions we hear often

Direct answers to the questions we hear most often.

Do you act as an investment manager?

No. We are an independent oversight and architecture layer above the managers. We help design the policy and select, contract, and monitor the managers who actually run the capital. We never take discretion over client assets.

Are you tied to a specific bank or platform?

No. We are deliberately independent. We work with the custodians, banks, and managers the family already uses (or wants to use) and we never accept retrocessions or product commissions from third parties.

How do you measure performance?

Net of all fees, in the currency the family thinks in, on a consolidated basis across every custodian and every entity. We aim to make the full portfolio legible in a single view — not just legible within each manager’s statement.

Can you help with direct investments and private deals?

Yes. We coordinate the operational side of direct investments and co-investments — diligence support, documentation, structuring options, reporting — while specialist counsel and tax advisors handle the legal and fiscal opinions.

Do you charge based on assets under management?

No. Our fees are flat or project-based and disclosed upfront. We have no incentive to grow assets we don’t even manage.

Related capabilities

— Next step

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