How to Use This Evaluation Framework

The criteria below are organised into eight categories, each covering a distinct dimension of platform quality. For each criterion, assign a score of one to five and a weight reflecting its importance to your office. Multiply score by weight for a weighted total, then sum across all criteria to produce a composite score for each vendor.

Review your weightings before the evaluation begins — not after seeing the demos — to prevent anchoring bias toward platforms that happen to perform well in areas you later decide to prioritise.

Category 1: Data Coverage and Quality

Data is the foundation of everything a family office platform does. Poor data coverage forces manual workarounds that undermine the value of the entire system.

Custodian connectivity: How many custodians does the platform connect to directly? Does your primary custodian have a native integration or a manual upload process?

Alternative asset support: Does the platform handle private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, real assets, co-investments, direct deals, and debt instruments natively — or via workarounds that require manual data entry?

Document processing: Can the platform ingest capital account statements, K-1 tax documents, capital call notices, and distribution notices directly from fund administrators, or must these be keyed in manually?

Data validation and reconciliation: Does the platform flag data discrepancies automatically, and how are reconciliation breaks surfaced and resolved?

Historical data migration: How far back can historical data be imported, and what format is required? Who does the migration work?

Category 2: Key Features to Look For

Multi-entity consolidation: Can the platform consolidate across hundreds of legal entities — trusts, holding companies, LLCs, foundations, international structures — into a single performance view?

Multi-currency: Does the platform handle multiple functional currencies with daily exchange rate updates, and can reports be produced in any currency?

Performance calculation: What methodologies are supported (TWR, MWR, IRR for illiquid assets)? Can performance be sliced by entity, asset class, manager, geography, or custom grouping?

Reporting customisation: Can report templates be built and modified by your team, or does customisation require vendor professional services? How long does a new custom report take to produce?

Family portal: Is there a client-facing portal for family members? Is it white-labelled, and can access be granularly controlled by entity or asset class?

Mobile access: Is there a mobile application or a responsive web interface for viewing portfolios on the move?

Category 3: Accounting and Tax

General ledger: Does the platform maintain a full double-entry general ledger, or does it rely on an external accounting system for the books of record?

Tax lot accounting: Does the platform track tax lots, calculate realised and unrealised gains, and support FIFO, LIFO, and specific identification methods?

K-1 and Schedule support: Can the platform produce or import K-1 data and map it to the appropriate tax schedules?

Entity accounting: Does the platform support investment company accounting, trust accounting, and operating entity accounting within the same system?

Category 4: Security and Compliance

Security is non-negotiable for a family office managing significant private wealth. A platform that cannot meet your security requirements should be eliminated regardless of its other qualities.

SOC 2 Type II certification: Has the platform completed a SOC 2 Type II audit? Ask for the report and review the scope and any noted exceptions.

Data residency: Where is data stored? Can you specify a jurisdiction (US, EU, UK) for data residency, and is this enforced contractually?

Encryption: Is data encrypted at rest and in transit? What key management approach is used?

Access controls: Does the platform support role-based access control with granular permissions at the entity and asset class level? Is single sign-on (SSO) supported?

Audit trail: Does every data change, user action, and report generation create an immutable audit log?

Penetration testing: Does the vendor conduct annual third-party penetration tests?

Category 5: Implementation and Onboarding

Timeline: What is the typical implementation timeline for an office of your complexity? What has driven implementations to take longer than planned?

Internal resource requirements: What is expected from your team during implementation — how many hours per week, over how many months?

Data migration support: Who is responsible for migrating historical data? Is this included in the implementation fee or priced separately?

Training: What training is provided at go-live? Is ongoing training available as staff turns over?

Project management: Does the vendor assign a dedicated implementation manager, and how is progress tracked?

Category 6: Support and Ongoing Service

Support channels: Is support available by phone, email, and chat? What are the response time SLAs for critical issues?

Support hours: Is support available during your business hours, and is after-hours emergency support available?

Account management: Is a named account manager assigned to your office, and how frequently do they proactively engage?

Product updates: How often is the platform updated? Is there a user community or advisory board for clients to influence the roadmap?

Client-to-staff ratio: Approximately how many client offices does each support engineer serve? A high ratio is a warning sign for service quality.

Category 7: Integration and Openness

API availability: Does the platform publish a documented API that allows you to extract data for use in other systems? Is the API included in the license fee or priced separately?

Pre-built integrations: What third-party systems does the platform integrate with natively — accounting packages, CRM, trading systems, document management?

Data export: Can you export all data at any time in a standard format (CSV, JSON, XML)? Is this self-service or does it require vendor assistance?

Category 8: Pricing and Contract Terms

Pricing model: Is pricing based on AUM, number of entities, number of users, or a flat fee? How does pricing scale as your office grows?

All-in cost: What is the total annual cost including platform license, data feeds, user seats, implementation, and ongoing professional services? Get this in writing before signing.

Contract length: What is the minimum contract term? Are multi-year discounts available?

Data portability on exit: If you decide to leave, can you export all your data in a usable format? Is there a fee for this?

Price escalation: What are the contractual limits on annual price increases at renewal?

Termination rights: Under what circumstances can you terminate early without penalty?

Scoring Your Results

Once you have scored all vendors across all categories, calculate weighted totals and rank the field. Before making a final decision, sense-check the scores against your gut instinct — if the highest-scoring vendor feels wrong, review which criteria drove the result and whether your weightings reflect your actual priorities.

Next Steps

With your evaluation complete, move to the reference-check and contract stages outlined in the [Software Selection Guide](/family-office-software-selection). For vendor profiles and side-by-side comparisons, use the comparison tool on this site.