What’s a Family Office – and Why It Matters for Your Business Exit
If you’re a business owner starting to think about stepping back, selling, or handing the reins to the next generation, there’s one key question you need to ask:
“How will I get the value out of my business – and manage it for life?”
That’s where this week’s Exit Insights podcast comes in.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword and Kevin Harrington break down the differences between IFAs, wealth managers, and family offices – and explain why Fabric takes a unique approach by combining business architecture with family office services.
???? “Don’t grow your business without planning how to extract the wealth. And don’t plan your financial life without knowing how the business will fund it.”
Here’s what you’ll learn in the episode:
???? Key Insights:
- Why traditional financial advisers often fall short for business owners
- How Fabric’s two divisions – Private Office and Business Solutions – work together to support a seamless transition
- What exit planning really means (hint: it’s not always about selling!)
- The risks of assuming your business is worth what you hope it is – and how to avoid disappointment
This episode is especially useful for first-generation business owners who’ve built something valuable and now need to figure out how to protect it, pass it on, or cash out – without stress.
???? Practical Tips:
- Start planning early – even if your exit is years away
- Get an independent valuation (don’t just guess!)
- Build a business that runs without you
- Align your business and personal financial strategies
Whether your goal is to retire, reduce involvement, or pass the business on to your children or management team, Fabric helps you make sure it happens on your terms.
Transcript
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (00:00)
Welcome to the podcast that’s dedicated to helping owners prepare for exit so you can maximize the valuation. And then when you’re ready, exit on your terms. This is the Exit Insights podcast presented by Fabric. I’m Darryl Bates-Brownsword and regularly joined by my guest and business partner, Kevin Harrington. Thanks for joining us today.
Kevin Harrington (00:22)
Hi, Daryl. What’s on your mind today then? What are we going to be ⁓ sharing with our audience?
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (00:31)
Kevin, know how to straight to the heart of the big questions. So ⁓ what I thought we should discuss today is a couple of things that have been coming up recently with when I’m talking to partners and potential clients who are really interested in what we do. they’re asking, what is it that you guys at Fabric do? What is it that’s different to other business advisors, consultants, coaches? And then of course, the other side of the business ⁓ is that, yeah.
the wealth management side, what do you guys do? What is a family office, a private office? You’ve got that private office arm of your business. It’s a regulated side of the business, but what’s different between them and your everyday IFA or wealth manager? So I thought, what better topic to explore? And instead of assuming that everyone listening to the podcast understands that, let’s dig into it and explore what is a family office? And then why is that?
such a good idea to link that with the business architects and fabric business solutions and how they work seamlessly and just weave together so nicely.
Kevin Harrington (01:38)
Yeah, that’s a good one. ⁓ I’ve been, as you’ve been asked quite a few times, what are we doing now? Why are we doing it? And so on. And we explain that one half of Fabric is the family office business, which is the earliest bit to get started a few years ago now. And I think a small number of people have got a really good understanding of what a private or a family office is. I reckon
most people don’t really know. And I reckon the ones in between that say, yes, yes, yes. ⁓ And really having the clue. And it’s one of those things that perhaps they think they’re supposed to know about. And why should they? Why should people always know every bit of terminology we have? But it is the crux of the fabric offering is the whole family office piece, isn’t it? Because it is
It’s not an IFA and it’s not a wealth management business. Although from a distance, people could get confused or assume it’s the same. So it’s probably best if we start on that, isn’t it? And then move on to how the business architect side of the business works in harmony with that.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (02:58)
I think that’s the place to start. Yeah, because I think you nailed it. You said that there’s a lot of people out there who may nod and go, yeah, yeah, I know what a private office is and they’ve heard about it, but they’re not really sure of the distinctions and perhaps got to a point where they feel uncomfortable asking. And I think that’s relevant to a lot of the businesses we work with because most of the clients we work with are first-generational business owners. They’ve started something from scratch.
And they’ve been very successful in building a business that six, seven figures ⁓ in revenue and therefore got a significant valuation potentially that they can tap into. And one of their biggest goals or desires, or I guess even fears is how do I transition? How do I transfer the wealth that I’ve built in my business, the biggest asset I’ve got? How do I extract that safely and transition it
out of the business where I’ve got full control. I then got a whole new problem that I need to manage it and look after it. And if I’ve been really successful, I’ve created some generational wealth. So I don’t want to get hit with mega taxes. How do I manage that and transition it? So it’s a really big issue and a cause of concern for many of the business owners. And some of them are addressing it and some of them are just sort of putting it in the back burner and going, it’s not a problem for today.
But if you don’t start thinking about it today, it will be a problem today and tomorrow really quickly.
Kevin Harrington (04:28)
I just had a picture in my mind when you were speaking there of the two sides of fabric, one being the business architect side, the business solution side, and the other being the family office side. And I think one of the interesting things is that both activities help people on a continual basis. It’s not a, let’s go off the general hospital, get me broken collarbone fixed type thing.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (04:50)
Yeah.
Kevin Harrington (04:57)
It’s not a one-off trip. It’s a permanent thing. So the business solution side is about saying, well, you’re going to exit your business one day, even if it’s only handing it over to the family, but you also need to grow it and make it successful on the way. So that’s a continual thing, business efficiency and effectiveness and the ultimate succession planning and exit. That’s the business solution side and the wealth management side of it, which is a family office.
is again a continual thing. It’s already happening, but make it happen properly, come and deal with the team at Fabric. And it goes on throughout that individual, that business owner’s career and life and becomes a multi-generational thing because it rolls into future generations. And the concern that we always trip across, I know it’s a frustration for me.
is people understanding really what a family office is. And there’s three things going on that we’ve mentioned already. There’s that IFA, there’s the wealth manager and the family office. And IFA is the thing that most people have tripped across. Now, if I successfully managed to annoy anyone with my comments, our contact details will be at the end and ping us a message and I’ll send you an explanation or an apology as well, or both perhaps. But yeah.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (06:23)
as appropriate.
Kevin Harrington (06:24)
But an IFA is a thing that many people historically have tried to avoid. Because they sense it’s a bit like the secondhand car salesman, it’s a bit like the estate agent. It’s people that have got something to sell, and they really are going to try and convince you that what they’ve got is what you want, rather than understanding an entire holistic global view of things. So an IFA is
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (06:35)
Yeah.
Kevin Harrington (06:54)
Yes, they’re regulated and so they should be. And they’re challenged and must provide unbiased financial advice. And they recommend products. That’s how they make their money. When you buy the product, they make money off it. Sometimes they charge you a fee for them to even recommend the product, which is perfectly okay. And it’s tailored to that individual. But all it is, is a simple understanding the customer type interview.
and going, ⁓ what you need is a pension or what you need is life assurance. And it’s selling a product. There’s a great place in the market for that.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (07:29)
I and to
100 % a great place. And as you’re talking, you’re reminding me of an episode we did before, where we talked about where IFAs were working with business owners of SMEs, and trying to put together a financial plan for them. And the business owner would go, well, in three years time, I want to sell my business for five mil. And they put that down as part of the financial plan. And I remember you and I critiquing that and going, look,
from a concept perspective, it’s the right thing to do. But without any verification of the business valuation, just taking that from the business owner, that plan is flawed and based with no real validation of the valuation. So yeah, we talked about that. We’ll see if we can find a link to that episode and put it in the show notes here.
Kevin Harrington (08:25)
Yeah, and in that situation, it’s just as bad if the business has been overvalued, is undervalued. They both lead to huge inefficiencies. And this is where the wealth manager starts to gain some currency, some credence, because a wealth manager, in my little pyramid of things, wealth managers moving up the chain a bit, a wealth manager offers more holistic.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (08:33)
Yeah.
Kevin Harrington (08:53)
financial planning advice, and we’ll look at investments, we’ll look at taxes, we’ll look at estate planning and so forth. And because it’s more complex, it’s typically for people, high net worth individuals, and helping them manage assets in a broader sense than just what you’re to do with your income to buy an annuity in the future or whatever.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (09:19)
Yeah, which investment product to purchase.
Kevin Harrington (09:22)
Yeah. And then further up the scale, we’ve got the family office or sometimes known as a private office. And this is a wholesale change of thinking. Because yes, it does all that financial planning, investment, taxes, state advice, I mentioned for the wealth manager. But it’s taking ⁓ a view of the person and the organization and the family. It’s looking at
investments, business affairs, succession planning, and sometimes is even covering concierge services for people to manage their lives so they can get on with doing what they want to do. And the amount that people consume from a family office is down to their circumstances, of course. But generally speaking, with people that are right for a family office, the more of those services they consume, they tend to have easier, managed lives.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (10:12)
Thank
Kevin Harrington (10:18)
and can do more of what they’re good at and do more of what they have fun at doing. And the fundamental difference is that the family office is saying, it’s not just me looking after the individual who happens to run a business and sorting out, will they have enough money to retire and so on. It’s about saying, really, what do you want to achieve? Do you want with your assets and your money, do you want to be able to leave a…
a legacy of any sort, do you want to share it? Do you want to help future generations, your family? Do you have things that your philanthropic side particularly wants to help? Well, how can that be done efficiently and effectively? And it’s to go so far beyond straightforward wealth management that it’s a different and a powerful service.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (11:06)
Yeah. So if we were to pull it together, we’d go, hey, look, IFA sell financial products. Wealth managers help you to grow your wealth and private offices or family offices, they manage the entire lives of the business owner or the shareholder of the business and they look after legacies.
Kevin Harrington (11:24)
That’s a wonderful summary. I didn’t hear myself say one or two of those words, but that’s good. But yeah, that is it. so Fabric is a family office. And that’s where the Fabric business started as a family office. And as you go sort of to wealth and then back to IFA, we do all those things, but we’re absolutely independent.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (11:29)
You used all of those words.
Kevin Harrington (11:53)
We’re regulated, FCA regulated, all that stuff, and we’re genuinely hold of market. We’re tied to no one, absolutely no one. Which means, yeah, which means we’ll find what you need, not what we’ve got in the stock drawer over here.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (12:11)
Yeah. So so there’s the the looking after the shareholders wealth and what we found and what Tim found is that a lot of his clients that he’s working with were self first generational business owners and and they’d created significant wealth ⁓ often got stuck in their business. And there are a few, I guess, holes or opportunities or gaps in their business where through the experience we recognized opportunities to
build significant or increase the business valuation significantly, de-risk it for the shareholders and therefore contribute to the wealth of the business owner, the shareholder in that way. And therefore creating a common thread between their business and their lives outside of the business. So that’s how fabric was born, looking after the whole lives ⁓ or the fabric of the shareholder.
weave the value of the business, their biggest asset, through to looking after it outside of their business, extracting it outside and often extracting it outside, but not always, and ⁓ just tapping into things. And I guess, yeah, it can be confused that we’re, all we want to do is extract the, or create an exit for the owners, but that’s not always the case. We talk about exit planning.
⁓ but that just means the business is a better run business and a more profitable business. If the business is exit ready. Why? Because you’re creating, you’re extracting the owner out of the business or the dependence, the reliance on the owners. You removing that they can still keep the business, and, and, and keep it in the family. ⁓ but it means they’re moving on. They’re creating a transition. They’re creating a succession strategy. The business valuation goes up.
doesn’t mean they have to execute a transaction. So there’s the, I guess, the transition point. Then it moved into Fabric Business Solutions being created. And we talk about the advisors in Fabric Business Solutions as being business architects. What’s your take on that, Kevin? Business architects as opposed to consultants or advisors.
Kevin Harrington (14:32)
It’s the analogy that is always the quickest and easiest to use around building a home. If you, yes, absolutely. And I was looking at a place ⁓ last week, not with any real, just casual interest rather than looking to buy it. And it was so obviously built by a builder. That was the quickest and easiest way to create that side elevation.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (14:39)
Yeah, Sylvia’s one, isn’t it?
Kevin Harrington (15:01)
The other side elevation didn’t need any particular attention because you couldn’t see it. All standard size windows, doors, no imagination to it. And it looked functional, not wonderful. It be even worse of course, if you gave the job of building a house to an electrician or a plumber, because that’s not what they do. So actually, how do you get the great house or the great business you want? You go to an architect.
And an architect spends time listening, watching how you respond to questions, listening to what you say, asking who’s going to be living there in five years time, 10 years time, is the family going to grow? Is it going to downsize? Do you have animals, pets? Do you have cars? How do you spend your time at home? you have to work from home? Do you want to do enjoy films, enjoy music, whatever it might be. And then they’ll take all that information.
and try and create the optimal home for you. So it’s not a house, it’s a home where you can do all those things you want to do in it to its best. And the architect will specify how it should be constructed. So then it becomes the output from an architect is the start point for retaining the builder, the electrician, the plumber, the groundsman, the foundation, the groundworks people and so on.
And too often, consultants present themselves to businesses and go, what’s your problem? Oh, that’s your problem. Oh, I can help with that. And surprisingly, they can help with any of it. And they’re just taking that one bit in isolation, rather than taking a long term view, a complete view of what what that business owner wants to achieve. And, and to do that, I what we do is we look at how they got there. That’s actually quite informative.
and then you look at where they wanna go and then we work on a plan that becomes something the business owner approves. We don’t run the business for the business owner. What we do is respond to their express requirements to make their home, their business as we’re calling it. And that’s a big difference. And we do this with a perspective of how people want to live their lives
through the time they’re in their business and after they’ve exited it. So they could exit through family succession planning, management buyout, trade sale, whatever. We take a view that will help people with our architecture of their business so they can achieve those future life ambitions. And all of sudden this is starting to sound a bit like a family office. But we’re doing it from a business perspective rather than an asset and a wealth perspective. There is this crossover you talk about
Darrell, you mentioned the fabric ⁓ overlay of two things that are threaded together. And that’s our unique difference. I challenge people to go out and readily find anyone that’s got the scope and capabilities of fabric around the family office solutions that could be provided, which are immense and well established. And also the business architecture, the business solutions piece we provide.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (18:02)
Yeah and
Kevin Harrington (18:26)
that helps people grow that wealth for the family office to help manage, that helps people exit that business so that the family office is helping achieve the objectives also for the clients. It’s that melding together of those fabrics, threading it together that is unique and absolutely powerful. And we feel, I know we both feel passionate about this and is that
Why would you do one without reference to the other? Why would you grow a business without knowing how you can look after money? Why would you have a plan to look after the money if you don’t have a plan to run the business better and in a way that makes it truly efficient and effective?
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (19:08)
Yeah, I think you’ve, as always, Kevin, you’ve pulled the story together really nicely. what I take out of that, and I think what the difference is, is that we’re looking at it through the shareholder lens, whereas other advisors, a CFO may come in and they’ll look at the business and they’ll go, how do we grow the business? How do we make the business more profitable? How do we make the business more efficient, compliant, and make sure it meets all the governance laws and what have you, and the strategies in place? But they’re looking at the business perspective.
a risk analyst will go, are the risks in the business? What are the risks with the strategy? What are the risks of exposure? And if the business, if something would happen and the business couldn’t operate, they’ll look at the risks. ⁓ Whereas what I love about Fabric is that helicopter view, if you like, that overview and going, let me look at the top. Let’s take maybe even a CEO perspective of the business and the business strategies. But I’m looking at it through the shareholder lens and going,
Okay, so the business is successful, but then what does the shareholder want to do? They want to extract some of that wealth out of the business and whether it’s in profits, dividends, whatever. And then they go, how do I leverage that? So how do I de-risk my whole life? How do I financially manage my whole life and my family? And it’s that shareholder perspective that I find is the subtle difference in approach to the way other advisors approach things.
Kevin Harrington (20:33)
Yeah, I would never expect anyone to be able to initially take in the breadth of what we’ve just covered in one go. I know when we’ve been talking in the past, it’s taken us quite a while to work out how we summarize and simplify what we’re talking about. And the reality is also, you see, that for each individual listening to what we’re talking about,
their situation, their family situation and their business situation is unique to them. There may be some similarities here and there with other things we’ve come across in the past, but it is their business. And it’s
With that in mind, people need to say how’s this going to work for them? And really, I think the sensible approach here is to say, okay, Fabric, come and talk to us. Daryl, can I have a phone call? Kevin, let’s have a chat about, I want to know more about this, how it would apply to me. Because we’ve talked about it at a ⁓ top level, how this gets tailored to an individual business becomes really exciting.
even just the order of events that we do, we don’t have to go from one step to step A to B to C to D to E. It’s what’s right for the business, what’s immediately required, it might be step D. Then we might backtrack and do B because it’s become more relevant. But it’s all down to the unique demand and requirement and ⁓ the best solution for that individual person.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (22:10)
Yeah, it’s really quite exciting when we’re having a look at the whole picture and knowing that, exit isn’t the only answer. It’s transition to the next generation. And sometimes that generation is family. Sometimes it’s the management team, the loyal, the longstanding management team. There are so many different options available for how do we exit the owners out of the business on their terms, at their pace, and keeping it relevant and exciting and ⁓
and de-risking for them and working with all our partners that we’ve got that can support the various aspects of the different parts of the strategy.
Kevin Harrington (22:49)
Yeah, it’s…
specifically here, we’re talking about the differences I was talking about between us and regular business consultancies is we take a business architecture approach. And the business architect is saying, this is what we need to do. And every now and again, you need a specialist. ⁓ And with that in mind, you’re you’re hinting there at the CFO Center, for example, as being one of our one of our partners that we’re really thrilled to be working with.
they quite often are the people that can provide that specialist input either for a short piece of work or a longer term. What’s needed will, you know, has to be decided and the business owner will know what feels right. And then for risk management, our lovely partners at Partners and other people to be talking to for so many things, because I’ve yet to find anything from a business perspective that they can’t ensure.
They can even ensure statements you make during your exit from the business. What a wonderful thing. So you’re getting rid of the risk of making a bad statement to a purchaser of your business, because it can be insured. But they understand risk like no one else. again, they’re up for a chat. And our role is to, at the right moment, introduce them.
so that they can do the piece of work that’s needed by a business owner.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (24:23)
Yeah. So let’s pull it all together. We’ve got private office, looks at your whole of life and your family all around leaving a legacy. It’s around how do you build and manage the wealth that you’ve created? business solutions is about ensuring that you are creating wealth in your business and not as opposed to just ticking along nicely. It’s going, you’ve been successful. You’ve created this magnificent business.
You’ve scaled it up, but have you created the value of the business? Have you made sure that that business is robust and resilient from the owner’s input so that the valuation of the business is there so that you can leave a legacy and hand it on to the next generation in whichever way you desire, whatever that looks like. ⁓ So it’s and I know this sounds going to sound cliche, but it is the I guess the essence of fabric is it’s your business.
and your wealth woven together. What else would you pull to summarize for listeners today, Kevin?
Kevin Harrington (25:29)
I mean, you’ve kind of done it there, but the I think the
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (25:34)
Just in case
we missed anything.
Kevin Harrington (25:36)
I think that the key overarching point is, don’t try and grow your business and make it efficient and effective without considering the family needs and your ongoing individual needs outside of business. Don’t go and plan your financial life and your family’s life and children’s education, etc, etc. As in isolation of the business is providing the money and the cash and the wealth.
to pay for these things, they’re inextricably linked and that’s what you must bear in mind all the time.
Darryl Bates-Brownsword (26:12)
Kevin, as always, thanks for sharing your exit insights with us today.
Kevin Harrington (26:17)
Thanks, Darryl.
About Kevin Harrington
Having worked in technology, telecoms, consumer electronics, payments, media and publishing, Kevin has enjoyed an interesting career history that embraces product and services businesses at all stages of their journey.
Before joining Succession Plus he was CMO with The Panoply plc, a digitally native technology services company, founded in 2016, with the aim of identifying and acquiring best-of-breed specialist information technology and innovation consulting businesses. He joined The Panoply from Tungsten Network where he was Chief Commercial Officer.
Previous roles have included working with SMEs and large international businesses. Some highlights are Managing Director at the Emerging Payments Awards and the Prepaid Awards; Managing Director of Gx; Director of Sodexo Motivation Solutions; Global Marketing Director at BBC Worldwide; Product Group Marketing Manager with Sony UK.
His career started out in a completely different direction. His first two full-time roles were as a junior in an architect’s office and a civil engineering technician. Some of his drawings and designs were constructed and are still standing.
If you would like to learn more about how to start preparing your business, then you can get more information here: https://page.succession.plus/it-all-begins-with-insights-exit-insights
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Darryl Bates-Brownsword
Darryl is a dynamic, driven Business Mentor and Coach with over 20 years of experience and passion for creating successful outcomes for founder-led businesses. He is a great connector, team builder, problem solver, and inspirer – showing the way through complexity to simplicity.
He has built 2 international multi-million turnover businesses; one now operating in 16 countries. His quick and analytical approach cuts through to the core issues quickly and identifying the context. He challenges the status quo and gets consistent, repeatable and reliable business results.
Originating in Australia, Darryl’s first career was as an Engineer in the Power Industry. Building businesses brought him to the UK in 2003 where he quickly developed a reputation for combining systems thinking with great creativity to get results in challenging situations.
A keen competitive cyclist, he also has a B Eng (Mech) Engineering and an MBA.