A flexible partner to single-family offices, foundations, and internal teams.
High-net-worth families with an existing internal team, such as a well-structured single-family office or foundation, often face a choice when looking to scale their investment capabilities. They either can hire additional staff, taking on the expense, risk, and complexity that entails, or seek out a trusted external partner.
Legacy Knight provides a unique partnership model ideally suited for this kind of engagement in which we step in as an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer, or OCIO. In this capacity, we professionalize investment capabilities without duplicating any of the family services that already are well taken care of.
Learn more about our OCIO platform and why it is well-positioned to complement single-family offices and foundations looking to level up their investment capabilities.
The multi-family office was created to give wealthy families the same level of control, privacy, and personalization as a single-family office, without the cost and complexity of building one from scratch. However, the industry has shifted over time, and too many firms have adopted a one-size-fits-all model that looks more like high-net-worth wealth management than true family office services.
We’re working to change that. At Legacy Knight, we preserve the intimacy, flexibility, and deep engagement of a single-family office while offering the resources, reach, and investment access of a larger platform.
What is an OCIO?
An Outsourced Chief Investment Officer, or OCIO, is essentially our platform of investment management, reporting, operational support, and outsourced diligence capabilities that is provided without the complement of our family office services.
Single-family offices or foundations often require additional support to professionalize their investment services. OCIO platforms like ours enable them to bring in external expertise with reduced risk, less management, and more experience than when hiring internal staff.
In addition to broadening capabilities and access to investment opportunities, family offices also choose to partner with OCIOs to create vital redundancies that guard their investment programs in worst-case scenarios.
How do OCIO engagements work?
Just like Legacy Knight’s family office engagements, the partnership is bespoke when we act as an OCIO. In some cases, a family office or foundation will choose to hand off the entirety of their investment lane to us. In others, the relationship consists of very specific segments, with the family retaining the majority of the portfolio and using our OCIO services as a complement.
As always, we create a customized strategy built around a family’s goals, risk tolerance, and the themes they’re both interested in and want to avoid. It’s about centering on our client’s intent, rather than fitting them into a preset model. That’s just as true when providing OCIO services as it is when providing family office services.
What does the partnership look like?
Legacy Knight works hand in hand with the in-house teams to ensure continuity and collaboration, rather than competition, when we’re brought in as an OCIO.
Aspects such as due diligence, risk management, and decision-making are handled collaboratively, blending their internal perspectives with our institutional expertise to make sure the family ultimately is being served at the highest level, which is everyone’s goal.
At the end of the day, the OCIO team is a 20+ person bench of on-demand professionals offering cost-effective depth, so we’re all standing by ready to help the internal family office team shine rather than attempting to replace their work.
How are communications handled?
Like all elements of the engagement, communication cadences are predicated on the family’s preferences. Generally, quarterly portfolio reviews are standard, alongside frequent (often weekly or bi-weekly) touchpoints, but the cadence is truly bespoke.
What’s more important than a specific communication rhythm is maintaining transparency, staying client-aligned, and validating stakeholder feedback.
What sets Legacy Knight’s OCIO platform apart?
While Legacy Knight isn’t unique in offering OCIO services, there are some clear points of difference between our platform and most others.
Unlike many OCIO platforms, which typically focus on endowments and foundations, we can source and do diligence on direct opportunities. We also have the ability to underwrite third-party or network-sourced investments on behalf of clients, which is atypical of OCIO platforms.
Access is another distinct advantage of using Legacy Knight as an OCIO. We provide access to institutional-quality private investments, negotiated with favorable terms, as well as co-investment opportunities. Lastly, our OCIO platform also has a technology advantage, with tools that provide real-time consolidated reporting across custodians and outside investments.
Ready to take the next step?
Lastly, we will continue to grow with intention.
In an industry in which the term multi-family office has been diluted, we’re committed to restoring and evolving its promise. We are small enough to know each family well, resourced enough to deliver at the highest level, and experienced enough to anticipate needs before they arise.
Our mission hasn’t changed since the day we began: to help families build, enjoy, and protect a legacy worthy of their names. That’s what “different by design” means to us — and why we believe we’re creating a new generation of multi-family office.
