How Third Lake's Family Offices Solved the Document Management Problem with iPaladin and Canoe

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The Third Lake Story: Evolution from Single to Multi-Family Office

When Robert Forsythe joined Third Lake Capital as COO in 2015 (later becoming CEO in 2020), the single family office was operating like many others: using a combination of SharePoint, Excel, and QuickBooks. This traditional setup, while functional, created significant challenges in scaling operations and managing data effectively for a multi-generational family.

"As you look to scale, and ultimately, we're a multi-generational family, there's just a ton of challenges in terms of trying to bring the data together in a way that can be meaningful for clients and also for the people in the office to ultimately make good decisions and have good data," explains Forsythe.

The breaking point came during a year-end close. "I hit a point at the end of December 31st as we're trying to wrap things up and said, 'Man, this is really cumbersome to try to do with these technology solutions which weren't really adopted for family offices or built that way.'"

This realization kicked off a multi-year journey to transform Third Lake's operations. While the family office technology landscape has evolved significantly since 2015, Third Lake's early recognition of the need for purpose-built solutions positioned them ahead of the curve in adopting next-generation technology.

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Why Technology Modernization Was Needed

The limitations of traditional document management systems became increasingly apparent as Third Lake grew. Tebbi Purvis, President and CFO of Third Lake Solutions, painted a vivid picture of the challenges: "I think of it as sort of like working in an assembly line with your team working in an assembly line in the dark, and you don't really know what someone else is doing."

This lack of visibility and coordination created multiple pain points:

• Calendar reminders were needed to track capital calls and critical deadlines
• Information was fragmented across different systems
• Team members had limited visibility into colleagues' work
• Document retrieval was time-consuming and inconsistent
• Process tracking was manual and prone to errors

"iPaladin offered not just a way to organize all of our documents and make it so that we can find them," Purvis explains, "but also to be aware of what all of our team members are doing. When something, a document comes up like a capital call, then you know exactly the steps that need to be taken with that document."

The need for modernization wasn't just about organizing documents—it was about transforming how the entire team collaborated and executed their responsibilities. The goal was to move from reactive management to proactive operations, where processes were clear, automated, and transparent.

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The iPaladin Solution

Having experienced the challenges firsthand as a trust and estate lawyer and family office COO, Jill Creager built iPaladin to address the systemic issues plaguing family office operations. "When you're reactive, you're not always—you're always playing catch up. You're putting out fires. You're fixing mistakes," Creager explains. "But when you're proactive, you're actually in control."

iPaladin's approach differs from traditional document management systems in several key ways:

1. Proactive vs. Reactive Management: "A lot of traditional systems really just are reactive by nature," notes Creager. "They assume that you do your work manually, and then you document it, or record it, or store it after your work." iPaladin, by contrast, captures documentation in real-time, making operations audit-ready without extra steps or delays.

2. Future-Proofed Operations: The platform was designed with multi-generational family offices in mind. As Creager points out, "Most families are doing that 100-year planning with their various trusts and governance plans... having an operating system for the office that maintains that data integrity, or operations defined operations for that level of time was just really important."

3. Comprehensive Integration: Robert Forsythe highlights the platform's intuitive design: "The system is super customizable, but at the same time it's set up in an intuitive way, so that ultimately you don't have to pay a bunch of third-party consultants to come in and tell you how you need to set it up. The system's set up the right way, and then you can customize it around your processes."

This approach resonated with Third Lake's vision for streamlined operations, setting the stage for an even more powerful solution when combined with Canoe's automation capabilities.

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The Power of Integration: Canoe + iPaladin

Robert and the Third Lake team adopted iPaladin for family office operations in 2019.

While iPaladin provided the operational foundation Third Lake needed, the sheer volume of documents requiring manual upload presented a new challenge. "We have sometimes a thousand or more documents in a month that we need to have uploaded," explains Tebbi Purvis. This volume made finding an automated solution crucial.

Enter Canoe Intelligence. 

The integration between Canoe and iPaladin created a seamless flow where Canoe automatically collects and categorizes documents, while iPaladin transforms them into actionable workflows. This partnership particularly shines in three key areas:

Automated Document Processing: "Canoe gathers the documents; iPaladin makes them work," Jill Creager explains. "The metadata that [Canoe was] actually providing for those documents allowed us to do some really powerful things. It curates them in the libraries inside of iPaladin, but it also then associates them with whether they're just recurring processes that just run, like reconciliations or reporting, but also they trigger capital call notices or distribution notices."

Comprehensive Coverage: Robert Forsythe notes that Canoe's extensive coverage was a key differentiator: "We evaluated a number of solutions in this space, and the coverage wasn't always necessarily very great for a lot of your competitors, but Canoe ultimately overlapped with us in such a meaningful way that it really was a complete solution for us."

The collaboration between both platforms was crucial for Third Lake. As Purvis emphasizes, "A key component was that we needed Canoe to be able to integrate with iPaladin. Otherwise, we just would not be getting enough benefit from that solution, because we knew we wanted to stay with iPaladin, we liked everything we'd set up."

The result is a technology stack that automates document collection while maintaining the sophisticated workflow and compliance capabilities that modern family offices require.

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Implementation Success and Results

The integration of iPaladin and Canoe has transformed Third Lake's operations from reactive to proactive, creating strategic advantages that extend far beyond simple document management.

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Competitive Edge in the Market

For Third Lake, the technology stack has become a key differentiator in the market. Robert Forsythe explains: "Most [clients] are doing like we talked about—they're using Excel, or potentially QuickBooks, and it's a slow process. Service providers out there generally have worked on a basis of doing things manually and doing things the way they've always been, and most of them are in the business of billing hours."

Key Strategic Benefits:

1. Enhanced Client Service: "We are able to provide a high level of service and pass that efficiency savings onto our clients that provides us with a competitive advantage," notes Tebbi Purvis.
2. Staff Empowerment: "For us, the use of technology here has allowed us to take our people who are doing some of those more manual processes and really free them up to help us continue to develop out services, but also spend more time with family members and communicate with them more," says Forsythe.
3. Future-Ready Operations:  As Creager emphasizes, "Most families are doing that 100-year planning with their various trusts and governance plans... having an operating system for the office that maintains that data integrity for that level of time was just really important for us."

The combination of iPaladin and Canoe has enabled Third Lake to build a sustainable, scalable operation that's prepared for future generations and regulatory changes.

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Family Office Next Steps: Looking Forward

The integration between iPaladin and Canoe represents more than just a technology solution—it's a transformation in how family offices can operate. As Jill Creager summarizes, "It wasn't just about efficiency. It was truly about staying ahead and being ready for whatever comes next into that family."

For family offices looking to modernize their operations, the key lessons from Third Lake's experience are clear:

• Choose technology that enables proactive management
• Prioritize solutions that can scale with your organization
• Focus on integrated systems that reduce manual intervention
• Invest in platforms that support multi-generational planning

The future of family office management lies in the ability to harness technology that not only solves today's challenges but anticipates tomorrow's needs.

Learn more about how iPaladin and Canoe can transform your family office operations. 

Schedule a demo today.

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