Quick Answer

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Portfolio reporting tells a family office how its investments are performing. Wealth reporting tells it what the family owns, what it owes, how wealth is structured and what the complete financial position looks like.

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For most sophisticated family offices, portfolio reporting alone is not enough.

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A family may own public securities alongside private equity, venture capital, operating businesses, real estate, trusts, holding companies, cash and debt. Understanding that complete picture requires wealth reporting.

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MyFO combines portfolio information with the broader family balance sheet, entity structures, liabilities, documents and forecasting, making it particularly well suited to family offices whose wealth extends beyond traditional investment accounts.

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Key Takeaways

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• Portfolio reporting primarily focuses on investments and performance.
• Wealth reporting encompasses the family's complete balance sheet.
• Family offices often require both.
• Private assets and liabilities are major reasons portfolio reporting alone becomes insufficient.
• Wealth reporting must understand legal and beneficial ownership.
• MyFO is designed around the family's overall financial structure rather than only its investment accounts.

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What Is Portfolio Reporting?

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Portfolio reporting organizes information about an investment portfolio.

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Typical questions include:

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• What do we own?
• What is our asset allocation?
• How did the portfolio perform?
• What contributed to performance?
• How are managers performing?
• What is our exposure to a particular security, geography or sector?

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For liquid investment portfolios, these are fundamental capabilities.

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Sophisticated portfolio platforms can also provide performance attribution, benchmarking, risk analytics and private-market analysis.

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What Is Wealth Reporting?

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Wealth reporting expands the scope beyond the investment portfolio.

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It asks:

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What is the family's complete financial position?

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That can include:

• Public investments
• Private equity
• Venture capital
• Direct investments
• Operating businesses
• Real estate
• Cash
• Trusts
• Foundations
• Personal assets
• Collectibles
• Mortgages
• Credit facilities
• Other liabilities

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The objective is not simply to calculate investment performance.

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It is to understand family wealth as a whole.

Portfolio Reporting vs. Wealth Reporting

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Why the Difference Matters for Family Offices

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Imagine a family with:

• $75 million in public investments
• $100 million in private funds
• $150 million operating business
• $80 million real estate
• $20 million cash
• $50 million debt

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A portfolio reporting platform focused on the $75 million public portfolio may provide extremely sophisticated analysis.

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But it does not necessarily answer:

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What is the family worth?

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The family's economic life extends far beyond its brokerage accounts.

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Ownership Makes Wealth Reporting More Complex

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Suppose the family owns a building through three layers of entities.

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Reporting the building at its full value without understanding those ownership percentages can overstate the family's economic interest.

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Family office wealth reporting therefore needs to model:

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Family → Trust → Holding Company → LLC → Asset

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This is fundamentally different from simply grouping investment accounts.

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Private Markets Blur the Line

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Private markets sit between traditional portfolio and wealth reporting.

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Family offices increasingly need to track:

• Commitments
• Capital calls
• Distributions
• NAV
• Unfunded commitments
• IRR
• DPI
• RVPI
• TVPI

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Because private-market information often arrives through documents, reporting also becomes an operational data problem.

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See our Private Markets Reporting for Family Offices guide for a deeper discussion.

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Liabilities Matter

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Portfolio reporting tends to emphasize assets.

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Wealth reporting should include liabilities.

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A $25 million property with $15 million of debt does not contribute $25 million to family net worth.

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The same principle applies to credit facilities, private loans and other obligations.

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Reporting Should Also Look Forward

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Performance reporting is inherently historical.

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Family offices also need to know:

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• What capital calls are expected?
• What debt is maturing?
• What distributions are expected?
• What cash will the family need?
• What happens if we make another investment?

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Connecting wealth reporting with forecasting makes the information more useful for actual decisions.

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How MyFO Approaches the Problem

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MyFO brings investment information into a broader family-office structure.

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Assets and liabilities can be connected to entities, ownership, documents and expected cash flows.

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That means the family can move from:

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How did our portfolio perform?

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to:

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What is our complete financial position and what happens next?

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When Do You Need Portfolio Reporting?

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Portfolio reporting may be sufficient when:

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• Most wealth is held in traditional investment accounts.
• Investment analysis is the primary objective.
• Entity structures are relatively simple.
• Non-financial assets are not material.
• The organization primarily functions as an investment office.

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When Do You Need Wealth Reporting?

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Wealth reporting becomes increasingly important when:

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• Wealth is spread across multiple asset classes.
• Private investments are significant.
• Real estate or operating companies are material.
• Ownership structures are complex.
• Liabilities need to be incorporated.
• Multiple generations or stakeholders require different views.
• Liquidity forecasting matters.

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Most modern family offices fall somewhere toward this end of the spectrum.

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The Bottom Line

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Portfolio reporting answers an important question:

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How are our investments doing?

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Wealth reporting answers the larger one:

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What is the family's complete financial position?

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Family offices with complex assets generally need both capabilities working from the same reliable data.

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MyFO is designed around that broader wealth-reporting problem, bringing investments together with entities, liabilities, documents and forecasting in one connected environment.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Is wealth reporting the same as investment reporting?

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No. Investment reporting is a component of wealth reporting, but wealth reporting encompasses assets and liabilities beyond the traditional investment portfolio.

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Does wealth reporting include investment performance?

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Yes. Investment performance remains important, but it is presented within the context of the broader family balance sheet.

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Why do family offices need wealth reporting?

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Because family wealth frequently includes private assets, operating businesses, real estate, complex ownership structures and debt that cannot be adequately represented by conventional portfolio reporting alone.

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Can MyFO do portfolio and wealth reporting?

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MyFO consolidates investment and other financial data into the broader family-office balance sheet while connecting that information to entities, liabilities, documents and forecasting.

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