Family office reporting still ends in Excel. The PDFs are why.

Disclosure: I co-founded Mitosis Labs, which runs Private SuperIntelligence. This is an adaptation of the original guide written for family offices.

Citi Institute's May 2026 report on AI in the family office found that monthly reports from advisers are manually consolidated into Excel due to privacy concerns. The 2026 RBC and Campden Wealth North America Family Office Report found that 73% of offices believe investment reporting is too manual, a top concern for three years running. The ingestion problem is documents, not a missing feed.

Custodian APIs do not eat the PDF pile

RBC and Campden found that 86% of North American family offices invest in private markets, and that direct investments now average 45% of that book, ahead of funds at 36%. Capital account statements, valuation letters, K-1s and ownership changes arrive as PDFs and email. Portfolio software such as Addepar, Masttro or Asora aggregates custodian data and handles complex entity structures. Addepar describes turning "multi-custodial data, illiquid alternatives and complex legal entities" into one source of truth. The inputs still have to be read first.

Citi names data privacy as non-negotiable and reports that offices pass over AI tools that cannot guarantee data security. Interviewees worry about storing sensitive financial data and about third-party vendor access. Citi also found many offices lack confidence in AI-produced reports, and calls this "a major roadblock to full AI automation." If you would re-check every number anyway, Excel on the office's machines is easier to defend.

Four jobs for a reader, not a new system of record

Citi's interviewees describe ingesting data from custodian APIs, extracting information from tax forms, and processing insurance documents into consolidated views. In a reporting cycle that is:

1. Collect from inboxes and portals. Log gaps.
2. Extract figures with a citation to the page.
3. Reconcile against the portfolio system or ledger. Flag a call booked to the wrong entity, a distribution that does not match the notice, a statement that disagrees with last quarter's close.
4. Draft commentary a person validates. Citi found the most sophisticated users treat AI output as a draft, starting with a full review and moving to spot checks as confidence builds.

Ask every vendor where data lives and whether you can choose the location, whether it or its model providers train on yours, who can see family information, whether every number cites its source, whether it works with software you already run, and how you delete it at the end of the contract. Replacing the system of record is usually the wrong first project.

We built Private SuperIntelligence as an AI concierge for one family office, working across that office's own email, documents and data with citations, within permissions you set, alongside the portfolio software you already run. The provider keeps no copy of the work and trains nothing on it.

Speak with the founders

Private SuperIntelligence takes a limited number of families at a time so every one gets the same standard of service. Book a private call to talk through your office with Alex Morris.

Prakshal Jain (PJ), Co-founder and CTO, Private SuperIntelligence (by Mitosis Labs)

Alexander Morris, Co-founder and CEO, Private SuperIntelligence (by Mitosis Labs)

Originally published at privatesuperintelligence.si.

Sources: Citi Institute, May 2026 https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/ai_in_the_family_office.pdf ; RBC/Campden via PR Newswire, 2026-09-29 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2026-rbc-and-campden-wealth-report-north-american-family-offices-shift-from-caution-to-optimism-amid-great-wealth-transfer-ai-acceleration-302892391.html ; Addepar, Masttro and Asora home pages, accessed 2026-10-15. Addepar fragment rechecked 2026-10-29.

Piece ID: FCR1-DEV