The primary aim of a private bank is to collect and manage its clients’ financial assets, and get them to sign up for their own proprietary products.
Wealth managers, who often have limited resources, serve clients with relatively smaller asset levels and are essentially paid through the financial products that he/she recommends (with riskier products often being more profitable).
An independent family office like MJ&Cie has a uniquely independent advisory role when it comes to wealth management. We are paid on a fee-only basis, providing bias-free perspectives and premium resources to support your strategic decision-making before ensuring that your decisions are executed efficiently and effectively.
MJ&Cie does not distribute any products itself and acts in the capacity of a purchaser of services (from banks, wealth managers, etc.) designed to implement the strategy defined with each of our clients. Planning to hand down wealth across generations requires a long-term approach, in line with each family’s values.
A family office is not meant to replace these experts. They are all essential to the client and offer services in their field of expertise.
Our role at MJ&Cie is to ensure overall consistency and coordination between all these experts, while anticipating the implications of the actions they take on the others.
Like an orchestra conductor, MJ&Cie makes sure that your expert professional advisors are working constructively and that the client’s aspirations are fully taken into account.
Family offices are advisory firms that oversees their clients’ private wealth structuring, long-term planning and development, and continuously monitor their overall assets. Family offices deal with clients’ short-term concerns and coordinate their long-term strategy with them.
To ensure the utmost objectivity and integrity, a family office like MJ&Cie has to be completely independent.
Single-family offices are a structures set up by a single family. A single-family office only works for its specific family (often large international business dynasties).
Multi-family offices, on the other hand, work for multiple families. In recent years, so-called “multi-family office 2.0” structures have emerged featuring pooled costs and resources, lower prices and standardized services.
MJ&Cie is unique in its positioning as a multi-single-family office. Since 2001, we have advised a select number of clients, each one of which is unique and enjoys entirely personalized support along with dedicated resources.
Independence: Certain multi-family offices are subsidiaries of banks or management companies, or are connected to businesses that may add an element of bias their services.
In contrast, MJ&Cie – which is controlled exclusively by our Partners – is able to remain fully objective and neutral.
Transparency: Unlike many businesses that call themselves family offices, MJ&Cie does not distribute any products and has no ties to any service providers (these are systematically selected through calls for proposals). The sole criterion for selecting service providers and products is the client’s best interests. Client fees are MJ&Cie’s sole source of revenue.
Proprietary tools: MJ&Cie has its own quantitative optimization tools and its own asset consolidation platform. We have developed an exclusive customer service process for each of our clients, based on an iterative performance-enhancing methodology.
Expertise: MJ&Cie brings together a powerful skill set. The members of our Advisory Board and our employees are all recognized, experienced specialists. Our multidisciplinary team is steadfastly focused on protecting our clients’ best interests.
International: MJ&Cie works with both French and international clients. To meet their needs, MJ&Cie also has an office in Switzerland, a truly multilingual, multicultural hub renowned for its in-depth expertise in business, currencies, markets and international operations.
MJ&Cie is a strategic partner for each family, working alongside clients to coordinate and summarize the work of all their regular providers. Like an architect, MJ&Cie safeguards against risks, streamlines services and saves our clients a lot of precious time.
If we acted as managers, we couldn’t be totally neutral, objective advisors! We don’t manage assets, but rather to select and continuously oversee asset managers according to our clients’ objectives and asset allocations.
Backed by years of professional investment experience, MJ&Cie’s Asset Monitoring team is ideally placed to conduct and develop relations with asset managers, liaising with clients and ensuring that everything is clear to them.
MJ&Cie helps families achieve their long-term, cross-generational goals through family support, philanthropy, strategic wealth management and investment advisory services, legal and tax planning, and personal administrative services.
Our services help families manage all their assets, while also providing independent insights to help ensure their best interests are being taken into account.
MJ&Cie prepares younger generations for their future responsibilities: each family has its own personalized governance structure.
Aside from our technical expertise, at MJ&Cie we are committed to ensuring that each family’s unique values and history are respected and passed on.
As entrepreneurs themselves, MJ&Cie’s senior executives know how important good management when it comes to securing private interests. Entrepreneurs must be able to focus on developing their business while locking in the value they create. MJ&Cie frees you up from day-to-day asset management concerns, offering an array of solutions that meet your needs (such as personal administrative services, investment execution and monitoring, private equity and club deals).
If that were the case, our clients (many of whom have been with us since our inception in 2001) would have left long ago.
MJ&Cie has a fully transparent pricing model, and our only source of revenue is the fees paid by our clients. These fees are set upfront as a package deal to avoid having to constantly review and update the scope of work and pricing. That helps assure each client that MJ&Cie is completely focused on preserving their interests.
Of course, MJ&Cie’s services have a cost. This cost should be measured against the overall organizational optimization, which generates substantial savings; monitoring and negotiating payment terms with service providers; enhanced risk management; and performance that is more in line with each client’s objectives and investor profile. But first and foremost, what we offer is convenience and peace of mind thanks to personalized, professional support in managing all your assets, fully aligned with your interests.
Working with MJ&Cie makes most sense over the long term. However, as our contract terms are open-ended, clients have the option of terminating the contract at any time, with 3 months’ notice.
It’s more a question of whether our services fit your needs – in terms of family and wealth management, governance, legal, tax and organizational considerations – than about your level of financial assets strictly speaking. As such, while we do have a minimum fee amount, MJ&Cie endeavors to offer fee packages that are in line with each family’s assets. MJ&Cie chooses to work with a limited number of clients in order to ensure highly personalized expertise and a close relationship with each one.
In the interests of efficiency, MJ&Cie does not offer concierge services, which require substantial human and organizational resources. As in other fields, MJ&Cie is happy to identify and select concierge service providers if you require them. However, MJ&Cie does offer personal administrative services including help with administrative management, property management, personnel management, personal accounting and payments, insurance management and more general administrative support services.
MJ&Cie is deeply committed to ethics, engagement, accountability, respecting each client’s individuality and promoting family harmony.
Our open-mindedness and foresight provide us with the inspiration to propose innovative solutions. We are constantly working to hone our highly responsive professional service delivery.
MJ&Cie is a socially responsible family office. We aim to align everything we do with the principles of the UN Global Compact.