Understanding and Utilizing Closely Held Family Office Groups with Mark Tepsich

12 snips

May 22, 2025

Mark Tepsich, Executive Director at UBS Private Wealth Management, shares his expertise on closely held family office groups. He discusses the growing trend of firms creating in-house family office teams to provide tailored wealth management solutions. Mark delves into the rationale behind these structures, emphasizing their role in effective governance and decision-making. He also reflects on his journey from general counsel in a family office to a design specialist, highlighting the importance of collaboration and trust among advisors in the wealth management landscape.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

From Unpaid Intern To Family Office General Counsel

Mark began in 2008 working unpaid at a family office and stayed through law school, later becoming general counsel.
He spent a decade at that family office and then built a family office platform at an RIA before joining UBS.

INSIGHT

Two Essential Family Office Service Buckets

Family office services fall into advisory (strategy, governance, tax planning) and operational (accounting, reporting, bill pay) buckets.
Firms need both capabilities to serve complex private wealth effectively and retain clients.

ANECDOTE

Family Meetings Can Be Emotional And Productive

Mark described family advisory sessions where emotional moments occur and families clarify values and purpose.
He cites colleague Nicole facilitating meetings where participants sometimes cry, which he views positively.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

This week, it is my pleasure to speak with Mark Tepsich, Executive Director and Family Office Design and Governance Specialist in the Family Office Solutions group at UBS Private Wealth Management. Prior to joining UBS, Mark spent several years with a NYC based investment advisory firm, where he built the firm’s family office platform, which included designing the infrastructure, services, tech solutions and vetted third party professionals such as law and tax advisory firms. Prior to that, he spent a decade at a large single-family office where he served as General Counsel of a dynastic, multi-generational family, advising on family office structuring, governance design, personal, estate and income tax issues, as well as business formation and operations, investment due diligence and real estate development.

Many firms and institutions serving UHNW family clients are creating in-house family office groups and centers of excellence. Mark talks about this trend, explains its rationale, and outlines the different varieties of internal family office groups, and what capabilities they usually offer.

We then delve a bit deeper into the rationale, addressing why it makes sense to create these internal family office teams, and describing the scenarios when it makes sense for a UHNW family client to engage with such closely held family office groups. Mark also paints the picture of how these internal groups fit within the broader advisory and service provider ecosystem of players serving the UHNW and family office clientele.

Mark offers his practical tips on how UHNW clients should go about identifying and selecting the external partners they work with and what process they should follow – including how to identify, compare, and select internal family office groups that are part of a larger wealth advisory firm.

Finally, Mark shares his views on now the UHNW and family office ecosystem is evolving, highlighting how the different kinds of firms and internal family office groups not only coexist but actually collaborate with each other with the goal of to providing their (often shared) clients the best possible advice, solutions, and service.

Enjoy this illuminating conversation with one of the leading practitioners in the UHNW family wealth management space.