Family offices are currently evolving. No longer focused solely on wealth preservation, today’s leading family offices are increasingly responsible for navigating governance, technology, next-generation engagement, and the complexities of managing family systems across generations and jurisdictions. 

In this interview, Carlota van de Koppel, Chief Operating Officer at Bedrock, shares her perspective on what distinguishes exceptional family offices, the operational challenges many families continue to face, and how technology, AI, and changing generational expectations are reshaping the future of private wealth management. Drawing on her experience across entrepreneurship, consulting, and family office leadership, she offers practical insights into building resilient structures that balance long-term stewardship with adaptability in an increasingly complex world.

You’ve worn many hats across different roles: entrepreneur, consultant, and now COO of a leading family office. How would you describe your approach to family office operations, and what drew you to this space?

My past and current professional experience have in common a focus on clarity: understanding what really matters, where decisions should sit, and how to build structures that support good judgment. What drew me to the family office space is precisely that intersection between human complexity and systems thinking. You’re not just managing portfolios or processes, you’re stewarding a living system that includes capital, people, governance, values, and risk, often across generations and jurisdictions.

When done well, a family office can balance professionalism with humanity: an organisation that builds institutional‑grade resilience without losing agility, discretion, or cultural coherence. That combination of long‑term stewardship, operational design, and human complexity is what keeps me deeply engaged in this work.

Operationally, my present preferred approach is to keep the core lean but strong. I believe a family office should be vertically integrated in judgment, not in headcount, owning decisions, data, and accountability internally, while partnering externally for specialist execution.

Family offices today do much more than just manage wealth. What makes a great modern family office?

A great modern family office recognises that its role has expanded from the stewardship of assets to the stewardship of a family system. While investment performance, tax coordination, reporting, liquidity, and privacy remain critical, families increasingly expect clarity around decision-making, risk visibility, next-generation involvement, and maintaining alignment as structures become more global and complex.

What distinguishes the strongest offices is their ability to provide a coherent, consolidated view of the entire system, across assets, liabilities, entities, advisors and family structures, rather than fragmented interactions and reporting across silos. Importantly, they recognise that long-term stewardship is not purely technical. Sustaining a sense of joy, purpose, and passion must remain integral, as they keep people engaged with the activity and ensure families stay connected to the “why” and to one another.

As COO at Bedrock, you see what happens behind the scenes. What are some common mistakes family offices make today?

There are a few patterns that come up consistently. One is misunderstanding the scale. Assuming that larger teams and more infrastructure automatically lead to better outcomes. In reality, scale strengthens a family office when it improves capability faster than it increases friction. It can enable better talent, stronger systems, and improved access, but it becomes a burden when it introduces bureaucracy, fixed costs, and slower decision-making.

Another common misconception is around professionalisation. It is often equated with becoming more corporate, when in practice it should be about becoming clearer, more consistent and more reliable, without losing the family’s ethos. That means sharper mandates, defined decision rights, stronger governance and more deliberate talent development. Finally, many family offices still underinvest in operational resilience. Cybersecurity, data integrity, permissions, business continuity and navigating jurisdictional complexity are no longer back-office concerns; they are core operating priorities, particularly in the age of AI.

Many NextGen family members want to do things differently from previous generations. What changes are you seeing from the next generation today?

Many next-generation family members are not only focused on preserving and growing wealth, but on aligning it more closely with their own values, whether through philanthropy, impact investing, or changes in how portfolios are constructed. There is a growing confidence to challenge inherited decisions and reshape approaches where needed.

At the same time, there is a stronger desire for transparency, engagement, and understanding of how the family office operates. Rather than simply receiving outputs, many next gens want visibility into how decisions are made, how trade-offs are navigated and what responsible ownership looks like in practice. This often comes with more explicit questions around purpose, identity, governance and the broader impact of capital. Next gens wish to have as much insight as is needed for them to valuably be able to contribute to the family and by extension the family office.

The most successful transitions are not about replacing one generation with another, but about balancing continuity with evolution; preserving core values while allowing each generation to contribute in a way that feels authentic and meaningful to them.

AI and technology are changing every industry. What excites you most about how technology could change family offices in the future?

What excites me most is the potential for technology to move family offices from manual coordination to true decision architecture. The real opportunity lies in creating a trusted digital backbone; a coherent, permissioned view of entities, assets, liabilities, obligations, advisors and decisions, enabling a significant improvement in both the quality and speed of decision-making.

This is where AI becomes particularly powerful. Built on reliable, structured data, it can support synthesis, scenario analysis and insight generation, helping families navigate complexity with greater clarity and confidence.

However, the goal is not to automate everything. The greatest value comes from combining technology with trusted data, accountable oversight and human judgment. In that sense, technology doesn’t replace the family office; it raises the standard for what it needs to do well. Importantly, it also creates a compelling entry point for next-generation engagement. For many younger family members, technology and AI offer a tangible way to get involved, take ownership and contribute to shaping the future of the family office.

Family offices are built for the long term, but the world is changing very quickly. How do families stay stable while still adapting to change?

I think families stay stable not by resisting change, but by being clear about what should remain constant and what should be allowed to evolve.

The constants are usually values, purpose, trust, governance principles and a shared understanding of what the wealth is ultimately for. Those are the anchors. Around that, families need to remain adaptable in how they operate, whether that is in their resourcing model, technology stack, investment structures, risk controls or the way they involve rising generations.

That is why governance matters so much. Good governance reduces ambiguity, helps manage conflict and allows change to happen in an intentional, thoughtful way. As families become more global and more complex, that clarity and control become even more important for maintaining alignment over time.

Looking ahead, what do you think family offices will do 10 years from now that is very different from now?

I think family offices will become leaner in structure, increasingly holistic, more digital in infrastructure, and more hybrid in resourcing. We’re likely to see fewer offices trying to internalise everything, and more focusing their internal teams on what truly matters. Families will retain control over decision rights, mandate setting, data ownership, reporting standards and advisor coordination, effectively owning the judgment and integration layer while leveraging external expertise for execution.

Technology will also fundamentally reshape the economics of the model. As AI reduces the cost of planning, drafting, extraction and analysis, the value added and hence focus will shift towards trusted data, supervision, auditability and decision quality.

Beyond the technical, I expect the most effective family offices to be far more intentional about taking care of their most prized asset – namely, the family itself. This will mean further next‑generation inclusion and education as much as creating the structures, language, and shared understanding that allow families to stay aligned over time.

Ultimately, purpose, governance, and continuity will be seen to matter just as much – if not more – as performance in preserving wealth over time.

Closing

As family offices continue to adapt to changing technologies, shifting generational priorities, and growing operational complexity, the need for thoughtful governance and clear decision-making has never been greater. Carlota’s insights highlight that successful family offices of the future will not be defined solely by investment performance, but by their ability to combine purpose, resilience, innovation, and family alignment.