The Architecture of Family Capital.
Prefer to explore on your own? Download the UMFO AI assistant and add it to your Claude or ChatGPT — to work with the capital frame inside the family.
Who we work with
The founder
A first asset already abroad.
The jurisdiction is mostly simple, but no longer entirely one country. Capital is concentrated in the operating business. Succession is not on the table yet, but the children are old enough to ask what their role will be. The work today: building the rules while there is still time to do it without pressure — no exit, no crisis, no sudden change.
The second generation
A diversified portfolio.
Assets sit across asset classes and across several jurisdictions. Several branches of the family carry different interests. All six forms of capital are in play at once. The work: a shared investment policy, family governance, and rules of distribution that hold across jurisdictions and outlast the current circumstances.
The next generation
Of an age to make their own decisions.
Often living in a country that is not the family’s. A share of the family capital already exists; the formal roles and powers are still taking shape. The transition is happening through them. The work: a structured way to step into the family capital — through education, governance, and a clear format of participation.
How we look at capital
The family inherits the first three forms of capital and passes on the last three. That is why governance matters.
How our work is built
01 — Jurisdictions
Working across jurisdictions
Families with capital almost always live in more than one country at once. Assets, residencies, businesses, and education are spread across several jurisdictions, each playing its own role in the life of the family.
Each of these countries runs on its own law, its own tax logic, its own risks. Each one has its own specialists: a corporate lawyer, a tax adviser, a private banker, an accountant. Each of them sees one part. None of them holds the whole picture.
Our job is to build the frame in which these advisers work together rather than in parallel. We do not replace any of them. We hold the axis on which their advice aligns and stops contradicting itself.
02 — Generations
The generational transition
The handover of capital and roles to the next generation is something families with capital are doing for the first time in their history. Our capital is young: first-generation founders are still in full strength, and they already see the edge of what hands-on management can hold.
Preparing for the transition does not come down to a will, and it does not come down to restructuring assets. It is the work of family governance, of educating the next generation, of setting the rules for entering the business, of clarifying roles and expectations. It cannot be compressed into a six-month engagement.
So we treat the transition not as a single event but as an episode in a long body of work. If the family has spent years in the same frame of capital, the handover becomes the continuation of that work, not the point at which the structure has to be assembled in a rush.
03 — The beginning
How the work begins
With a Diagnostic of the family. Four to eight weeks of structured work across ten areas. The output is a package of documents that stays with the family: a framing note, a first version of the investment policy, a stress protocol, and a list of priorities for a three-to-five year horizon.
Fees are discussed during the introductory conversation. They depend on the shape of the capital and on how many members of the family will be part of the work.
Team
UMFO was founded by three partners with institutional backgrounds in family office practice, investment advisory, corporate law, and impact consulting.
Tetiana Honcharenko
Business Advisory Partner at Crowe Mikhailenko and founder of Paragraf. Previously CEO and co-founder of Founders League. Author of a book series on endowment funds. Co-founder of Protopia Garden. Strategy, investments, longevity, jurisdictions.
The first step: an introductory conversation
Thirty minutes with one of the partners. We look together at whether your family’s task and our expertise are a fit. If they are, we move into the Diagnostic. If they are not, we say so plainly, and if we can point you to someone better suited, we do.
Introductory conversation