Insights from the Family Wealth Alliance Fall Forum
Recently, the SumIt team attended the Family Wealth Alliance Fall Forum in Chicago. The event brought together hundreds of bright minds in the family office space, from leaders of multi-family offices to technology innovators and researchers.
SumIt’s participation at the event reinforced our role in shaping the future of family offices. It was a pleasure to connect with leaders in the space — as always — and hear the struggles that keep their FOs from reaching their full potential.
Since work and personal lives are so intertwined, many leaders also shared how these inefficiencies creep into their evenings and weekends, taking time away that they set to spend with family and friends.
Over several days of panels and discussions, one theme kept resurfacing: the most successful family offices are those that embrace technology early, stay agile amid constant change, and choose partners who deeply understand their workflows and operations.
Success today means reclaiming the hours lost to inefficiency. With that, below are our key takeaways from three impactful sessions at the event.
What makes a high-performing family office
Unsurprisingly, technology emerged as both the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for modern family offices. The best-performing family offices are proactive about technology and operational excellence, and their results clearly differentiate them from other FOs.
A few statistics stood out:
Nearly 70% of family offices recognize that technology is essential to performance and efficiency…Yet half of them regret not implementing new systems sooner!
So, while the industry knows that digital transformation is critical, many firms are still hesitant to take the leap. It’s costly, time-consuming, and often requires hours of additional training for employees who are already spread thin. We get it, and we hear it loud and clear.
Yet, the cost of waiting is only growing. Time is lost, and operations become outdated and inefficient — and, perhaps the most costly of all, firms become unable to meet rising client expectations.
The top performers are taking a different approach. They see technology as a strategic enabler for how their teams work rather than a box they need to check to stay competitive. Decisions are made easier and clients experience deep, true value — but only if the technology is used wisely.
At SumIt, this resonated deeply. We work to make our platform intuitive and easy to adopt, and our ultimate goal is to build software that reduces the friction that often slows down transformation. When it comes to improving the family office experience, the message is clear that technology should make things simpler, not more complicated.
The economics of family wealth: Rethinking change
Another panel, “The Economics of Family Wealth Research,” explored how rapid shifts in markets, technology, and expectations are transforming how family offices operate.
One panelist captured it perfectly: “10 years ago, firms built 5-to-10-year roadmaps. Now, the landscape changes every six months.”
This acceleration has created a new kind of challenge in the industry. Rather than being slow to evolve, many organizations now struggle with too much change — and, on top of that, FOMO (the fear of missing out). Every few months seems to bring new capabilities and features, so decision-makers often delay adoption out of uncertainty.
“Should we wait for the next upgrade?”
“If ABC software has this new feature, then it’ll only be a few months until XYZ also implements it.”
As the panelists pointed out — and as our team at SumIt has been saying all along — there is no perfect solution. Technology will always keep evolving, so what matters is finding a partner who evolves with you.
We’ve built a platform tailored for the family office space, but more importantly, we see ourselves as an agile partner. We want to grow alongside our clients and know that we need to remain flexible if we want to truly serve our customers and solve their problems. The real competitive edge in modern software comes from flexibility and trust.
The art of technology selection
The final session we attended was a lively panel on technology selection, featuring several experienced leaders — Rick Higgins, Michelle Odom, and Wade Spencer. It focused on offering a practical roadmap for making better technology decisions within family offices.
The discussion revolved around three key questions:
1. How do you decide what “the right” technology looks like?
Successful firms start by defining clear criteria. Features or price points are factors, yes, but alignment with long-term strategy, governance processes, and team needs is more important. Without that clarity, even the best tools can underdeliver.
2. When do you know it’s time to make a change?
One common signal is when critical workflows begin to slow down. For example, if it’s taking weeks to generate reports or too long to access insights for decision-making, that’s a clue that your systems are actually holding you back.
3. How do you choose in an era of AI and constant innovation?
It’s a great question. The panel agreed that the market will likely see consolidation among technology providers, but family offices shouldn’t chase trends. Rather, focus on having strong internal governance and a clear understanding of what you need. From there, choose an implementation partner that you’re confident will deliver on filling your gaps.
We couldn’t agree more. The goal isn’t to find software that does everything — that is not feasible and certainly not realistic. Instead, FOs need to find a trusted partner who knows their world and is ready to evolve together.
Partnership as the common thread
The most successful family offices choose relationships rather than tools. That message came through again and again in nearly every discussion at the Family Wealth Alliance Fall Forum, and we’re reaffirmed in this mindset.
SumIt continues to invest in events like the Family Wealth Alliance Fall Forum because these conversations help us stay close to the challenges and opportunities our clients face. Our goal is to help family offices perform at their best through innovative, tailored technology, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to connect and learn from family offices as we continue to scale.
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