For decades, family offices have operated in a unique place within institutional finance. They are too sophisticated for private banks, yet often too small or too unconventional for large prime brokers built to serve multi-billion-dollar hedge funds. The result has been fragmented infrastructure, limited access, and platforms designed more for the bank’s economics than the family’s needs.
Mark Daniels, Head of Platform Sales at Clear Street, believes that dynamic is finally shifting.
“We’re a very fast-growing, global, technology-driven financial services firm,” Daniels says. “Our roots are in fintech, and the idea behind Clear Street was simple: build a modern platform for global capital markets.”
The consolidation in the prime brokerage industry has reduced options for family offices, particularly those under $500 million in assets. Large bank-owned prime brokers face strict regulatory and capital requirements and increasingly allocate resources to their largest hedge fund clients. Smaller or more nuanced mandates struggle to find a home.
Over a career that includes Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Bank of America, Daniels has seen firsthand how major institutions define acceptable clients.
Prime brokers are structured to favor high turnover, leverage-heavy hedge funds that generate consistent fee streams. “They want clients that trade a lot. They want commissions. They want leverage. They want shorting so they can use securities lending,” Daniels explains.
Family offices often operate differently. They may trade less frequently, use lower leverage, and run hybrid strategies that blend public and private investments. That difference can make them less economically attractive to a traditional prime broker.
Clear Street’s thesis is that a modern, vertically-integrated infrastructure can profitably serve segments that banks have deprioritized.
“Our cost structure is a fraction of what the banks have,” Daniels says. “We’re not spending nearly as much on maintaining a 30- or 40-year-old tech stack.”
Nearly half of Clear Street’s approximately 900 employees are technologists. The firm self-clears, controls its infrastructure end to end, and has built a unified system across equities, options, futures, fixed income, and expanding asset classes. That architecture matters for family offices seeking consolidated visibility across complex portfolios.
“Most family offices have a blend of public and private investments,” Daniels says. “They would love a platform where they could incorporate everything and see a full risk picture of that. We have that with our platform, Clear Street Studio. It is a key differentiator for us.”
Clear Street Studio functions as a centralized command center, providing real-time risk, margin visibility, and consolidated reporting across asset classes. For family offices accustomed to reconciling multiple custodians and spreadsheets, the shift can be meaningful.
“When we show a client Studio, they can see their risk in real time and understand how critical that is in very volatile markets.” Daniels says. “They can make informed decisions very quickly, another key differentiator.”
Execution is only part of the equation. Many family offices are building internal investment capabilities but lack institutional-scale infrastructure. Clear Street positions itself as a consultative partner as much as a trading venue. Its Business Consulting team assists with operational build-outs, technology integration, and vendor coordination. Its Capital Introduction platform connects families with curated managers and strategies aligned with their mandates.
The firm also invests heavily in education and relationship building.
“Family offices sometimes need more investment from their prime brokers,” Daniels says. “They sometimes need more investment from you. They come to us because the banks aren’t willing to make that investment, and we are.”
Clear Street’s model emphasizes long-term relationships rather than immediate fee maximization.
For family offices that have historically assumed there were only a handful of prime brokerage options, awareness itself is becoming part of the story.
“Sometimes when we talk to family offices, they think there are only five choices,” Daniels says. “They think they have to go to a bank because nobody else is out there.”
Clear Street is working to change that perception. “We have all of the capabilities of those larger players, and we’re a lot more flexible, a lot more understanding, and we’re going to spend time with them.”
As more family offices internalize asset management and operate with institutional rigor, the demand for infrastructure without institutional rigidity is rising. Clear Street is betting that the firms once considered too small or too different are in fact central to the next phase of prime brokerage.
