Structuring the Family Office. Insourcing versus Outsourcing Decisions for Real Estate Investments into Foreign Markets

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,2, EBS European Business School gGmbH (Strascheg Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SIIE)), language: English, abstract: The term family office (FO) is a hot buzzword in the financial services industry today

(Bowen Jr., 2004). As their wealth increases, families will at some point likely turn to

advisors to assist with the management and protection of their prosperity. These

professionals working under one roof are commonly referred to as family office

(Cestnick, 2011).

Like any business operating in the capital markets, family offices focus on the

achievement of superior performance and investment return maximization. Yet, in a

globalized world, markets have turned out to be fairly volatile during the past two

decades. In particular as a consequence of the 2008 financial crisis, markets have been

turbulent all around the world (Adair, Berry, Haran, Lloyd, & McGreal, 2009). Still

today, Europe - as an economic entity - appears to be sensible to the offshoots of the

financial and economic depression (Adair et. al., 2009).

During such times, the axiom for a family office may be contrasting: If only few

reputable investments turn out to be profitable, the primary objective rather has to be

the diversification and securitizing of assets and risks (Basel Committee on Banking

Supervision, 2011).

Hedging against inflation and economic disruptions, both gold and real estate, often

considered the classical alternative investments, have lately received increasing

attention by academic scholars and practitioners (Bond & Seiler, 1998; Enns, 1979;

Preston, 2011; Worthington & Pahlavani, 2007). Real estate, in particular, is

considered favorable by some as, unlike for gold, capital gains are not the sole source

of income and positive cashflows on income properties may be achieved on a

reoccurring basis (McKnight, 2010).