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January 22, 2024

The Schroders Family Office Service team reflects on winning Family Office Provider of the Year

Spear's Awards 2023 winner: Schroders Family Office Service was named Family Office Provider of the Year, in association with AP Executive

By Spear's Partners

‘We’re very lucky to still be a family-owned and family-controlled business, with all the rigour of a FTSE 100 company, but the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation of a family office at its heart.’ That’s the assessment of Clare Anderson, UK head of Schroders Family Office Service, of the unique ownership structure which sets the Schroders Family Office Service team apart. 

[Click here to register for updates on the Spear’s Awards 2024]

A ‘very long-term view’

The 43 per cent stake in Schroders held by the Schroder family enables Anderson and her team to take a ‘very long-term view’, she says. ‘There are families I can think of that have been clients of ours for over 70 years.’ 

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Amid sweeping social and economic challenges, many of the nearly 200 families of ‘family office scale’ supported by the team are now reassessing their long-term strategies. For Samuel Bosanquet, director of family office services, working out how UHNW families can achieve their aims and navigate successful handovers is ‘number one on the priority list’. As members of the next generation of these families come through, it’ll be a ‘big change, but it’s going to be fantastic for those families’, he says. 

[See also: What does 2024 hold for family wealth?]

Where larger families have ‘complicated needs’, there has been a drive to ‘professionalise’ in recent years – and to formalise some existing family governance policies, says Charlotte Filsell, who heads the family office services team in the UK, having joined the business when it acquired Sandaire three years ago. But it’s just as important that Schroders can fulfil the role of a single family office ‘for those families who may not wish to have their own family office’, she adds. 

[See also: Who won at the Spear’s Awards 2023? The complete list of winners revealed]

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‘We can also support existing family offices by augmenting the resources they have internally,’ Filsell says. The team has taken advantage of the latest enhancements in technology with a new ‘toolkit’ that consolidates and simplifies reporting for a family office’s entire asset base – a platform that is offered to all clients. 

Schroders Family Office Service took home Family Office Services Provider of the Year at the Spear’s Awards 2023

Global leaders

Meanwhile, a series of key partnerships has positioned Schroders as a global leader in family office expertise. Earlier this year the firm partnered with the London Business School to support their inaugural family office conference, conveying an impressive array of senior family office representatives and academics from around the world. 

‘There were fantastic roundtables,’ says Bosanquet. ‘A really broad range of subjects were covered, from psychology to how families can make the most of their charitable giving.’ The team has funded research by the Impact Investing Institute, with Schroders working on a project to further understand the ‘obstacles, accelerators and practical considerations’ around impact decisions.

What’s most rewarding for Anderson, she says, are ‘all the times the team pulls together to overcome the hurdles faced by families to help them thrive’. 

Click here to register for updates on the Spear’s Awards 2024

This feature is published in Spear’s Magazine Issue 90. Click here to subscribe

Cover: Cat Sims

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