Family offices have always been careful about confidentiality. They deal with some of the most sensitive financial information a family has - its entities, investments, ownership structures, bank accounts and transactions.
But as family offices become more digital, the security conversation also needs to change. Cybersecurity is often discussed in terms of attacks, passwords and phishing. These are important. But there is another question family offices should be asking: how much control do we actually have over our data?
That means knowing where the data sits, who can access it, what permissions apply and what happens when information is moved outside the systems designed to protect it.
This matters because family offices are increasingly consolidating information that was once spread across banks, custodians, spreadsheets and different advisers. Bringing that information together creates enormous value. It gives the family a clearer and more current view of its wealth. But concentration also makes the underlying architecture more important.
At Asset Vantage, one principle we have followed is to keep each client's data physically isolated. An administrator with access to one client's environment does not automatically have access across other client environments. Families can also choose the geographic jurisdiction in which their data resides.
These may sound like technical decisions. They are really decisions about ownership and control.
There is another dimension to control that family offices should consider: who ultimately controls the technology provider itself? Understanding a vendor’s ownership and cap table can matter, particularly where investors or shareholders may have interests elsewhere in the financial ecosystem. For a family office entrusting a provider with highly sensitive information, knowing who sits behind the technology, and whether there could be potential conflicts of interest, should be part of the due diligence.
Control also needs to extend to how people use the system every day. Different members of a family office, external advisers and service providers may need access to different information. That access should not be assumed simply because someone is part of the organisation. Permissions need to reflect what each person actually needs to see and do. And as people or responsibilities change, those permissions need to change with them. In my view, good security is as much about controlling everyday access to information as it is about protecting the system
from an external attack.
AI makes the question more important
AI introduces another dimension. Family offices are understandably exploring how AI can help with analysis, reporting, reconciliation and other everyday tasks. We see considerable potential here. But there is also a simple contradiction that I increasingly notice.
A family office may spend considerable time ensuring that its financial information sits within a controlled environment with clearly defined permissions. Someone can then export that information and upload it into a general AI tool without applying the same scrutiny to where that data is going or who can access it. The convenience of getting an immediate answer can sometimes make us less careful about the information we are sharing.
There is another issue. AI is only as useful as the information it is working with. If the underlying financial data is incomplete, fragmented or poorly reconciled, a sophisticated model does not solve that problem. It simply works with what it has been given.
This is why I believe the conversation should not become one of public cloud versus private cloud, or AI versus traditional software.
The more useful questions are much simpler: Who owns the data? Who controls it? Who can access it? And when AI is used, what information are we allowing it to see?
For family offices, those questions will become more important as technology becomes more deeply embedded in how wealth is managed. The future will certainly involve more AI. But it will also require something much more fundamental: knowing that the data beneath it remains accurate, secure and under the family's control.
Insights Focus is a marketing initiative for sponsored posts. No VCCircle journalist was involved in the creation of this content.