At this year’s Money20/20 USA Family Office & WealthTech Summit, MYFO Founder and CEO Simran Kang moderated Winning Family Offices: Why Customer Experience Is Your Moat, alongside Kathy Butler, Vice Chair and Office of the CEO at CIBC Capital Markets, and Lisa Oleson, Chief Financial Officer at Tricor Pacific Capital, one of Canada’s largest family offices.

‍

The discussion focused on what it takes for banks to serve family offices well, from understanding the full picture of a family’s wealth to using technology to support more informed, personal service.

‍

‍

‍

Relationships are the moat

‍

For banks serving family offices, the relationship is what sets the experience apart. Families want their bank to understand them, not just their accounts. The better a bank understands a family’s structure, investments and priorities, the better positioned it is to anticipate needs and provide relevant advice.

‍

For CIBC, that understanding is central to delivering a better client experience. That’s why CIBC chose to partner with MYFO. Technology can give bankers a more complete picture of a family’s financial world, helping them spend less time piecing together information and more time focused on the client.

‍

As Lisa Oleson highlighted during the discussion, families want their bank to know them. That understanding helps banks provide more relevant support as a family’s needs and circumstances change.

‍

‍

Why serving family offices requires a different approach

‍

Family offices can represent significant, long-term relationships for a bank, but serving them well comes with specific challenges.

‍

Family wealth is spread across systems. A single family’s assets may span custodians, private funds, operating companies, real estate, trusts and holding structures. Without a consolidated view, it can be difficult for a bank to understand the full relationship and identify where it can provide relevant advice.

‍

Generic AI tools raise security concerns. Using general-purpose AI tools to process statements and entity documents can expose sensitive family information to systems outside a bank’s approved environment. Banks need solutions that meet their security, privacy and regulatory requirements.

‍

AI processing can become costly at scale. Repeatedly parsing complex documents and reprocessing information as it changes can drive up compute costs. Institutions need a way to structure and maintain information over time, rather than repeatedly starting from scratch.

‍

Building in-house takes time and resources. Developing the necessary data integrations, security controls and infrastructure internally requires significant investment. Institutions need to weigh that commitment against the time and resources required to serve clients better.

‍

Thank you to Kathy and Lisa for a candid conversation, and to Money20/20 for bringing the industry together.

‍

If your bank or wealth institution serves family offices, book a demo with MYFO to see how we can help.

‍