Integrating Art into the Balance Sheet: A Practical Playbook for Family Offices

John Jessen, Head of Business Development

For decades, collectibles have been treated as passion assets - emotionally significant but financially invisible. Today, that mindset is shifting. According to the Deloitte Art & Finance Report, more than 60% of wealth managers are now integrating art and other collectibles into total-wealth reporting. According to the last UBS Art Basel Report, the average UHNWI has 15% of their total net worth allocated to Fine Art - and many have other collectible assets on top of that. This is a very significant allocation and is on a par with their Private Equity holdings. And yet, many Family Offices still lack a structured framework for bringing these assets into formal financial strategies. Many do not know where to begin, and as some do not know what they do not know, they chose to ignore massive and diverse opportunities. The opportunity is clear: collectibles are not just an heirloom - they are a tangible store of value, a collateral asset, and a strategic lever in long-term wealth planning. In times of uncertainty, such assets have over centuries gained in favour and we notice today that as personal wealth increases, so does the allocation towards collectibles rise, within overall wealth. At Overstone, we demystify the opacity of collectibles by combining our deep, human, in-house expertise in collectibles, with very sophisticated data science. Armed with actionable data, Overstone’s SaaS platform enables collectors, their family offices and private wealth managers to make calculated decisions with their collectibles, as they are used to making with other asset classes in their overall wealth portfolios. The transfer of generational wealth, as well as newly created wealth, is bringing collectibles to younger, more demanding, more data savvy individuals with their own tastes. Insights gained by working with Overstone facilitates decisions in executing transactions, estate planning, tax optimisation, and collateral-secured financing solutions, thus enhancing financial agility. We unlock collectibles as asset classes, in their own right.

Step 1: Build a digitised inventory

Most collections remain fragmented across handwritten notes, informal records and old valuation PDFs. Overstone’s, large language models parse such unstructured data into structured data. Overstone’s platform contains US$ 200 billion worth of public and private structured sales data, consisting of 20,000 artists going back to the Renaissance period. In addition to Fine Art, we also offer solutions for Classic and High-performance automobile collections, as well as for Fine Wine and Watch collections. The first step toward financial integration is a centralised, dynamic inventory where every asset is archived and logged with ownership structure, documentation, location, and historical pricing signals. Without this, collectibles cannot enter the conversation alongside equities, property, or private capital.

Step 2: Move from episodic appraisals to dynamic valuation tools

Overstone is a team of ex-bankers, art specialists and data scientists. We do not believe that AI can value collectibles, as AI does not have an emotional response to these. Our specialists all come from Christie’s and Sotheby’s. We are USPAP and ISO27001 accredited. The marriage of data science with humans in the loop creates accuracy, provides due diligence, scalability and speed. Overstone’s algorithms generate liquidity scores and liquidity gradients, as leading indicators to future changes in value and highly sophisticated analytics. We also mark-to-market at scale on a quarterly basis. This helps collectors track appreciation, identify concentration, and plan transactions.

Step 3: Establish custody and governance protocols

Collectibles held across multiple residences, storage facilities or trusts, introduces the need for monitoring and managing risk, legal, tax and logistical challenges. Family offices should formalise governance: who has authority to transact, who oversees insurance alignment, who monitors condition and provenance health. Governance turns a collection into a managed asset class. Overstone has a vast network across collateral-secured lenders, estate and tax advisors with experience in collections, shipping, logistics, and storage providers, and we also provide heat maps with geographical weather risk alerts on a quarterly basis by partnering with insurance catastrophe providers.

Step 4: Integrate art into liquidity and credit planning

Collectibles can be a strategic financing tool - not through forced sales, but collateralisation. With credible valuation and liquidity data and clear title records, collections can be activated as part of lending or wealth transfer strategies, supporting capital flexibility across generations. Funds can be raised without the need for asset liquidation. Overstone works with a panel of 30 lenders ranging from banks, credit funds and family offices, to ensure the best fit and to eliminate conflict of interests.

Step 5: Align reporting with financial dashboards

Finally, collectibles need to sit centrally, and alongside all asset classes in a portfolio where financial decisions are made. Presenting collectibles alongside other assets in digital portfolio dashboards not only increases visibility but also reshapes strategic allocation discussions. At Overstone, we believe that the future of collectibles ownership lies in treating collections with the same discipline and data intelligence applied to financial portfolios. Family offices that make collectibles financially legible today will unlock optionality, liquidity and resilience tomorrow. Private Wealth Managers and Private Bankers will increase AUM and UHNWIs gain financial power. Lenders gain tools for establishing LTV and insurance companies gain a better understanding of risk when setting premiums. Overstone partners with Addepar, the gold-standard in wealth reporting. This partnership is the first of its kind and is unique. For the first time, UHNWIs and their family offices, can integrate collectibles into their overall wealth reporting. The Addepar integration provides a high-level overview of value monitoring, location, insurance data etc., while the Overstone SaaS platform provides a deeper dive at a collection and single asset level. Overstone now brings its Enterprise Solution to Family Offices and insights gained from the SaaS platform with its actionable data, enables a fresh look at collections at large.

For a free one-hour consultation for Family Offices and PWMs,

please contact: John Jessen: jjessen@overstoneassociates.com