Family office manager: Does your family have one?

A couple of years ago I read, Thomas J. Stanley's "Millionaire Women Next Door", and I had one of Oprah's aha moments. Chapter 17 is called "Why not run the family office?". He wrote about Susan, who handled all of the financial issues, such as budgeting and making investment decisions. She treated her role like a job and helped her family achieve financial independence. I could relate to Susan and it has become my mission to emulate her success. If you get a chance, find this book at your library and read this chapter.

After reading about Susan, I realized that my role in our family is not just of a wife, mother, and home-keeper, but as the family office manager. In our marriage, I handle the finances. I have an interest in personal finance and my husband would rather eat bugs than deal with this subject.

I might manage the family finances, but we make all financial decisions together and I review everything with him. Recently, when my husband needed to purchase a new laptop because his current one was on the verge of breaking into two pieces, he came to me to ask if we had the money for him to make the purchase. It was a necessary expense, but also an expensive one and neither one of us would ever make such a large purchase without consulting with the other person.

My husband does get involved with some financial activities; he did an amazing job negotiating the purchase of our last vehicle. He is actively involved with any major purchase, like a car, computer, or home improvement project. He enjoys researching those things and I would rather eat bugs.

What does a family office manager do and what are their responsibilities?

In our family, my responsibilities include:

• Track spending vs. the budget.


• Review budget. Where are we over-spending? How can I reduce the grocery budget? Do we have enough money for Christmas gifts? Where can we reduce spending so we can start saving for college funds?...on and on and on...


• Reconcile all accounts: checking, savings.
  


• Pay bills in a timely manner.


• Manage and monitor our emergency savings & Health Savings Account.


• Project short term cash needs.


• Manage retirement planning: how much will we need? How can we reduce our fees, but increase our return? Research funds and asset allocation breakdown. Make sure we max our contributions.


• Taxes: I work with an accountant because of our business taxes. I also make sure we take advantage of as many deductions as possible.


• Monitor and reduce our liabilities: I recently refinanced our mortgage and car loan, hubby came along to sign on the dotted line. Now if I can get rid of this student loan.
  


• Prepare our Family Balance Sheet and review with my husband.


• I am sure there are many more that I can't think of at the moment.

This arrangement works in our home and our marriage. In our home, the family office manager happens to be me, the wife, but it could be either partner. The key to success is trust, communication and organizational skills.

Does your family have an office manager?

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