Novum currently manages nearly ten billion dollars on behalf of just over forty families. Over the past eight years, the multi-family office has expanded in scale without changing course, gradually structuring its teams and areas of expertise to cope with increasing complexity. Gabriele Gallotti reflects on this journey and on the conviction that growth only makes sense if it remains controlled and focused on quality.
What services do you offer today that you hadn’t anticipated when Novum was founded?
We do not currently offer any services that we had not anticipated when Novum was founded. Our ambition was to build an outsourced single-family office for the families we support, providing the most comprehensive coverage possible of their wealth management needs, with the deliberate exception of concierge services.
However, what has changed significantly is not so much the nature of the services as their intensity, their depth and, above all, the profile of the families who have joined us. Initially, we had in mind a clientele with assets of between 50 and 250 million francs or dollars. That was our implicit frame of reference. Eight years on, this baseline has changed considerably. We now work very regularly with families with several hundred million, some of whom are already organised around internal family office-style structures. In such cases, our role naturally changes. We complement existing arrangements, reinforce certain areas of expertise, or take charge of areas that families do not wish to internalise further.
Two areas, however, have taken on a significance that I had not anticipated. The first is estate planning. Over time, the relationship of trust has deepened to the point where families entrust us with extremely sensitive matters. This is no longer simply a matter of traditional wealth structuring, but of continuity planning, organising for unforeseen events, and detailed documentation of existing structures, accounts, legal vehicles and key contacts. In some cases, this goes as far as drawing up detailed instruction manuals for spouses or children.
The second pillar is wealth consolidation. We made the decision very early on to handle this in-house, even though it is probably one of the most operationally demanding activities. It would have been much simpler to outsource it, as many market players do. Over time, this decision has proved to be one of our key differentiators. By retaining complete control of the process, we are able to build a fully bespoke consolidated statement for each family, as well as reporting tailored to its structure, needs and approach to managing its wealth.
How has your range of services developed and expanded over time?
The most significant development has undoubtedly been in alternative investments. When Novum was launched, they played a relatively minor role. We preferred listed markets, which were more transparent, more liquid and more familiar. But our experience on the ground quickly changed that perception. Families express genuine, structural needs for private assets, whether in private equity, property, private debt or infrastructure. And these needs are not incidental; they are central to the creation and management of a modern wealth portfolio.
We have therefore gradually strengthened our resources and expertise in this area. Private assets cannot be improvised. Investment horizons are long-term, the structures can be complex, and the consequences of a poor decision can be felt for a long time. With hindsight, this was undoubtedly the right course of action. This kind of expertise cannot be imposed.
The other major transformation concerns technology. Eight years ago, I probably would not have imagined the scale it would take on within our model. Today, it accounts for a significant proportion of our internal investments. It isn’t directly visible to clients, but it has become fundamental to everything relating to operational efficiency, data quality, consolidation and team coordination.
At present, on which services do you primarily focus your value proposition?
I think the question is almost misleading. We don’t sell isolated services. We sell a comprehensive ability to deliver. Every family has its own priorities. Some are very investment-focused, whilst others are more concerned with wealth structuring, family governance, financing or succession planning. It would be artificial to rank these aspects in order of importance.
Our model is actually based on two main areas. The first is the family office in the broadest sense. This covers wealth consolidation, banking relationships, loans, payments, legal structuring and estate planning. The second is the investment sphere, which covers both traditional markets and private assets.
But the real value does not lie in the segmentation of these services. It lies in their integration and in the ability to deliver a level of analysis and execution that the client did not necessarily expect. This is often where the difference lies – in the gap between what is expected and what is actually delivered.
What has been the most noticeable change in your client base since Novum was founded?
It concerns the average size of our client relationships. We currently serve 45 families, for whom we manage $10 billion in assets. And as I mentioned earlier, we now work very regularly with families holding several hundred million. They were clearly not our initial target clients.
But beyond the wealth threshold, it is the nature of the demand that matters to us. We seek out families who want a comprehensive and integrated approach, without any fragmentation of the relationship. We do not create value by managing an isolated portion of a family’s wealth. Value is realised when we have a comprehensive understanding of the entire estate: structures, cash flows, legal constraints and family dynamics. It is only under these conditions that our model becomes fully relevant.
How do you see these families’ expectations evolving over time?
Fundamentally, I do not think expectations have changed fundamentally. What is changing is the context. Media and macroeconomic cycles – pandemics, inflation, geopolitical tensions, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies – follow one another in rapid succession. Each time, there is a sense of a structural shift.
But when we look at wealth management over the long term, the fundamentals remain surprisingly stable. Discipline, consistency, risk management and a long-term vision are still the core principles. Our role often involves guiding families back to these fundamentals, whilst avoiding overreactions to trends or cycles. The most striking development concerns private assets, but this reflects our ability to respond to them rather than the emergence of an entirely new need.
Where do you see your main growth opportunities?
My view of growth has changed profoundly over time. I remember that at the very beginning of the Novum venture, I deliberately wanted to limit our growth. I was convinced that beyond a certain size, the quality of service would inevitably end up deteriorating. Eight years on, I have to admit that reality has made me change my mind.
Our growth has been far greater than I could ever have imagined. But it hasn’t come at the expense of quality. This has led me to realise that the real issue isn’t growth in itself, but the quality of that growth.
I like to talk about sustainable growth. It is not the assets under management that make our business difficult to scale. It is the families we support. Today, we manage nearly $10 billion for 46 families, with a team of 45 staff. It is this balance that enables us to maintain an extremely high standard of service.
But growth is not just about figures. To grow, we must also be able to attract the best talent. People who do not join a company solely for the salary. They want to be part of an adventure, a vision, an ambition, and to have a genuine success story to tell. We then need to retain them, giving them the sense that they themselves are contributing to this value creation and that they are part of Novum’s ‘equity story’.
The most encouraging aspect is that this is a virtuous cycle. If we continue to meet our key performance indicators – namely sustainable growth, rigorous recruitment and consistent service quality – then our clients will naturally continue to grow their wealth. And when wealth is well managed, it naturally tends to grow over time.
What are the key figures for understanding Novum’s trajectory since 2018?
We currently serve 45 families, with approximately $10 billion in assets under supervision, and we employ 45 staff members. What is striking is the almost linear relationship between the number of families and the number of our staff members. One family, one staff member. This symmetry is no coincidence. It says something fundamental about our business and the way we have chosen to run it. Above all, we rely on people.
How can a multi-family office scale up whilst maintaining a high level of personalisation?
In our model, personalisation cannot be standardised. It depends on the quality of our teams and their ability to manage complexity. That is why growth and recruitment must absolutely proceed at the same pace.