Who we are?
Our Family Office Services help our clients pass on their abundance to the next generation.
Our focus is to develop the tools, methodologies, and analyses you need to achieve your intention to build a lasting legacy.
What we are not?
Trustee
Trustees Corporate Managers and Administrators provide an instrumental service to organize a client’s wealth. We do not provide these services ourselves and we do not act as trustees or directors of a company. We can accept mandates as protectors, advisors, or external members of the family council to provide further color to the intentions of the structures in place. We help coordinate projects between the client, the tax advisors, and the trustees to ensure that these are implemented efficiently.
Asset Manager
We believe there are many good asset managers out there and we do not provide asset management services to our clients to stay independent of the asset management process. We apply modern mathematical models to quantify both the performance and risk metrics of a portfolio. Together with the family and the asset managers, we improve these metrics. We help our clients define the purpose of the investment objective and the Investment Policy Statement. We can also organize and assess beauty contests for asset management mandates.
Tax expert
A client is best advised to have his team of local tax experts help him or guide him through a constantly changing field of complex issues. Together with tax experts, we do provide clients with an actionable strategic plan. The details we leave to the tax experts. We provide our clients with an understandable summary of the framework within which the family can operate without falling foul of the guidelines given by the tax expert. The same applies to the assets managed by asset managers: are these managed most efficiently from a net tax perspective?
Accountant
We do not provide our clients with accounts of trusts or holding companies for taxation or reporting purposes. We focus instead on providing you with the insights you need to rest assured that the asset management process is working as effectively as possible toward supporting your legacy goals.
Lawyer
We do not provide any legal services. Similar to both the trustee and tax planning services, we help coordinate the activities of the lawyers involved in strategic projects.
What we do, is …
Provide you with the Family Office tools, methodologies, and analyses needed to create and maintain your legacy goals. This we do with a focus on your Four Abundances. If you are searching for a bigger Why or have found that the Entrepreneurial Spirit has gone stale within the family, then we are the right partner for you.
Independently analyze the performance and risk metrics of asset managers to incrementally improve these along with the financial intentions of the family and its legacy goals through the definition of Investment Policy Statements.
Our Family Office expertise is in the creation of specialized and unique tools you need to succeed in passing on your wealth to the next generation.
As a first step, we assess the status quo. Then we devise a tailor-made strategy that fits your individual needs, and finally, we put the systems in place to consolidate your family abundance in a family council, allowing it to be further improved over time.
As a result, your assets will be managed more efficiently, your family will be more involved in shaping your legacy, you will be able to start new, exciting, and invigorating projects and see them come to fruition, and you will find more time to replenish precious energy and be ready to make long-term strategic decisions for the generations to come.
Our Team
Nicholas Schwarz
Founder and Managing Partner
Nicholas Schwarz has enjoyed a 20-year career advising family offices and high-net-worth families and individuals on their international tax and asset management needs. He has worked and lived in Switzerland, Australia, and Austria, where he currently resides with his wife and daughter.
His career began at KPMG Switzerland, where he specialised in advising clients on international taxation. After completing his formal education as a Swiss Fiduciary with a focus on taxation, Nicholas earned an MBA in Wealth Management from the University of Manchester. Prior to this, he obtained an Honours Degree in Philosophy. He is also a certified Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. Nicholas continuously enhances his expertise in investment performance measurement, financial analysis, and financial risk management through the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) and the Global Association of Risk Professionals (FRM). He is a registered Finance Professional in Austria.
Nicholas’ practical experience includes setting up systems and processes for family offices, as well as developing reporting tools for wealthy families to provide greater transparency and a clearer understanding of strategic risks in asset management. He has advised families and asset managers on enhancing portfolio performance and reducing risks, ensuring a more secure and efficient asset management process. In addition, Nicholas advises wealthy families on inter-generational wealth transfer, the adoption of family governance and family values, and the introduction of family council meetings.
Operating from Vienna, Austria, Nicholas leads a team of analysts, programmers, and advisors dedicated to providing innovative and tailored solutions to his clients.
Currently, Nicholas is conducting doctoral research at SDA Bocconi School of Management, focusing on the role of information asymmetry in client-advisor relationships within family offices. This research informs his ongoing development of innovative tools to help family offices and wealthy families ideate, coordinate, and strategically manage their legacies. He is also working on a book based on his research, aimed at providing families and advisors with strategies to address wealth management challenges and cultivate trusted advisory relationships.
Elena Jansa
Senior Data Analyst
Elena has a way of bringing clarity to things that are often hard to see. Working across portfolio analysis, accounting, and reporting, she ensures the numbers are accurate and presented in a way that is clear and meaningful. She is particularly strong at uncovering what sits beneath the surface — patterns, inconsistencies, or connections that might otherwise go unnoticed — and translating them into insights that are easy to understand and act on. She bridges the technical and financial side of portfolios with a broader, more holistic view of wealth, always keeping the client’s perspective in mind. Alongside this, she has a genuine interest in how wealth can be used with intention, especially in the area of philanthropy.
Maria Fougstedt-Becker
Project Manager
Maria Fougstedt-Becker brings 20 years of experience in basic project management coupled with the leadership of employees from the field of software development in an international environment to the table.
Born in Helsinki, Finland, raised in Helsinki, Vienna and Tokyo, she carries not only professional but also personal experiences from acting in the multicultural field. She has lived with her husband in Vienna since 1990, 2003, and 2008 two sons expanded the international family. In parallel to her profession, Maria also completed her studies on business administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. She speaks four languages (Finnish, Swedish, English, and German) fluently.
In addition, Maria is continuously trained in project management. Her career to date is characterized by growth and further development in project management, the introduction of new systems for project management and their use. She worked on the evaluation of SAP for project management, then managed projects via MKS (later PTC), used a tool specially designed for time tracking, and most recently JIRA. Maria Fougstedt-Becker’s experience ranges from working with the systems as well as evaluating the need for functionalities of the software tools. Maria has not only successfully completed projects as a project manager, from the budgeting phase to the delivery of the product in an international environment, she was also appointed as the head of a project manager group where she led her project managers and managed strategic projects.
Rebeka Kulcsar-Kurdi
Brand Manager, Designer
Rebeka studied traditional art techniques at the University of Fine Arts in Budapest, specialising in scenography. She has since built a versatile career as a designer, working across large corporations, startups, and private clients, with experience spanning print, digital, and motion design.
At Cecily Group, Rebeka works at the intersection of brand, marketing, and product development. She leads branding initiatives, shapes marketing campaigns, and contributes to the company’s public image. Her role focuses on clarifying positioning, aligning messaging, and translating complex ideas into coherent systems across digital products and communication.
During the company’s startup phase, she also acted as a strategic sounding board for leadership and product decisions, supporting clarity, alignment, and direction from early concept through launch.
Valentina Rangelova
Data Wrangler Extraordinaire
Valentina was born and raised in Sofia. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Accounting and has many years of experience in the banking industry, with a strong focus on financial markets. She has joined our team as a Financial Analyst. She plays a key role in the preparation of the reporting and wealth planning for family office clients. Primary duties include analyzing financial data, monitoring market trends and managing risk. In addition, she maintains accurate accounting for the investment portfolios, ensuring compliance with accounting standards and regulations. In her free time, Valentina enjoys spending time with her family and being in nature. She also holds a professional qualification as a Paramedic, certified by the Bulgarian Red Cross.