Family offices, how their diligence differs

Family offices vary in how they invest and who decides. Learn the family’s priorities, portfolio needs and working process before tailoring the conversation.

A family office may have a principal making investment decisions, a professional team, an investment committee or a combination. Private-market appetite also varies. Start by understanding this family’s existing portfolio, liquidity needs and reasons for considering your fund, rather than treating the meeting as a smaller pension-fund pitch.

Questions to understand the family’s priorities

Liquidity. Ask about commitment pacing and liquidity needs. Explain the fund’s actual terms and any relevant options without promising an exit route the fund cannot provide.
Personal context. Where relevant, explain why you are building the fund and how the strategy relates to the family’s interests. Confirm who participates in the investment decision.
Co-investment. Find out whether direct participation matters to this family. Explain any co-investment policy and rights accurately; a fund commitment should not imply guaranteed access.

Tailor the conversation without changing the facts

Keep the fund economics and supporting evidence consistent across pitches. Change the emphasis to answer this family’s questions, whether those concern liquidity, direct participation, a market the family knows or the team’s experience. Avoid assuming that a personal narrative will carry more weight than the numbers.

Co-investment arrangements can change how a family works with a manager. Discuss the policy and expectations directly rather than inferring them from a category-wide statistic.

When the LP has backed a first-time manager before

Ask what worked and what did not in the prior relationship. Then respond with evidence about your own team, reporting, incentives and investment process. The fact that this is a first fund does not, on its own, establish either stronger alignment or lower risk.

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Perspectives by Colibrí Strategies: practical notes for GPs and the LPs who back them.

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Where this leads in Blueprint

In the productEvaluator LensThe Evaluator Lens reads your materials for co-investment structure and narrative fit, narrowed to the family office archetype.

Rehearse the questions this LP is likely to ask.

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Questions to understand the family’s priorities

Liquidity. Ask about commitment pacing and liquidity needs. Explain the fund’s actual terms and any relevant options without promising an exit route the fund cannot provide.

Personal context. Where relevant, explain why you are building the fund and how the strategy relates to the family’s interests. Confirm who participates in the investment decision.

Co-investment. Find out whether direct participation matters to this family. Explain any co-investment policy and rights accurately; a fund commitment should not imply guaranteed access.

Tailor the conversation without changing the facts

Co-investment arrangements can change how a family works with a manager. Discuss the policy and expectations directly rather than inferring them from a category-wide statistic.

Family offices, how their diligence differs

Questions to understand the family’s priorities

Tailor the conversation without changing the facts

When the LP has backed a first-time manager before

One answer like this every week

Rehearse the questions this LP is likely to ask.

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Family offices, how their diligence differs

Questions to understand the family’s priorities

Tailor the conversation without changing the facts

When the LP has backed a first-time manager before

One answer like this every week

Rehearse the questions this LP is likely to ask.