Forest Systems

Forest Systems is a financial reporting and accounting platform built for family offices, CPA firms and organisations managing complex wealth structures. It combines double-entry accounting, portfolio tracking, data aggregation and reporting in one system. Forest was established in 2021 by founder and CEO Ed Van Deman, who first launched its predecessor, Financial Navigator, in 1987 to serve high-net-worth advisers and family offices, and returned after that company was acquired. Forest has offices in Silicon Valley, Charlotte and Houston.

What the platform does

• General ledger: a full double-entry ledger with a customisable chart of accounts for bank, credit card and brokerage accounts, plus MICR check printing.
• Portfolio accounting: marketable securities, mutual funds, bonds, private partnerships, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital and real estate, including revaluation and depreciation.
• Trust, partnership and foundation accounting: charge/discharge statements, principal and income tracking, partner allocations with inside and outside basis, and private foundation charts of accounts.
• Intercompany and consolidation: payments between related entities and consolidated reporting while keeping entity-level detail.
• Forest AI: built into the platform to reconcile bank accounts from PDF statements, extract data from private equity statements, post imported transactions and draft summaries, running on the same AWS infrastructure as client data.

For family offices

Family offices typically run trusts, partnerships, holding companies, real estate entities and foundations that a single-company accounting package cannot handle. Forest is designed for these multi-entity structures and is used by single and multi-family offices, CPA firms serving ultra-high-net-worth clients, trust and estate managers and family foundations. It integrates with Addepar for investment data, Summitas for branded client portals, Stellar and BILL, and it achieved SOC 2 certification in December 2024. Forest Systems presented its family office platform at the 2026 Family Wealth Report Family Office Fintech Summit.

Considerations and fit

Forest focuses on the accounting and reporting foundation behind complex portfolios rather than investment performance analytics, so some offices pair it with a portfolio analytics tool such as Addepar. Its emphasis on human, one-to-one support suits lean family office finance teams. Pricing is not published.

Frequently asked questions

What is Forest Systems?

Forest Systems is a financial reporting and accounting platform for family offices, CPA firms and organisations managing complex wealth, combining double-entry accounting, portfolio tracking, data aggregation and reporting.

Can Forest Systems handle trusts and partnerships?

Yes. It supports trust and estate accounting with charge/discharge statements, partnership accounting with partner allocations and basis tracking, private foundation accounting and consolidation across entities.

Is Forest Systems SOC 2 certified?

Yes. Forest Systems announced its SOC 2 certification in December 2024.

• Multi-entity double-entry accounting
• Portfolio accounting for marketable and alternative investments
• Trust, estate, partnership and private foundation accounting
• Consolidation across entities
• Bank and brokerage reconciliation
• Audit-ready financial reporting

• Five modules: Forest Enter, Forest View, Forest Connect, Forest Documents and Forest AI
• Fully customizable chart of accounts and flexible labeling
• Partnership allocations with inside/outside basis tracking
• Charge/discharge statements and principal/income tracking for trusts
• Professional-grade tax basis adjustments
• Forest AI: reconciles accounts from PDF statements and extracts private equity statement data
• Data aggregation from banks and brokerage accounts
• MICR check printing
• Encrypted nightly cloud backups
• Personal 1-on-1 human support

Built for Single Family Office (SFO), Multi Family Office (MFO), Finance / Accounting Teams, Private Wealth Owners / Principals.

Yes

Personalized 1-on-1 human support from a client success team