Family Office Services: At What Point Do You Need a Family Office?

Many high-net-worth individuals consider opening a family office for a variety of reasons. Some may be looking for a total financial solution — someone to manage their wealth and handle all of their financial matters. Others may be looking for essential lifestyle assistance — someone to handle their mail, pay their bills, and manage their day-to-day accounting needs. Every family is unique, so setting up a family office can look different in every situation.

So, how do you know if you need a family office? Here’s a quick overview to help you answer that question and determine if forming such an organization is right for you.

Do I Need a Family Office? Here Are 3 Factors to Consider

The size of your wealth is the first factor to consider when contemplating whether or not to open a family office. If you are already considering this option, chances are that you already have significant wealth. However, large-scale liquidity events (like the sale of a family business) are usually a good reason to start a family office.

You may meet the criteria above, but let’s say your personal life is relatively simple. You own your business, your home, and you have one investment portfolio. In this case, a financial advisor might be able to manage your portfolio with ease. However, the more complex your assets get, the more it makes sense to create a family office to manage those assets. 

Travel or privacy concerns might also factor into your decision to create a dedicated family office. Perhaps you don’t want your bills going to your home to maintain privacy. Or maybe you travel extensively for work and want to ensure the lights stay on at your vacation house. If your lifestyle is complex, it might be time to consider a family office to help ease the burden.

3. Your priorities.

While a family office is created to make your life easier, it still requires some level of personal responsibility. It’s time to consider your priorities and determine if a family office can help you with those. For example, do you have children that you want to be involved in the management of the family’s wealth? Or even considering what kind of legacy you want to leave behind. You should carefully weigh out the benefits of forming an office against the time and energy it takes to manage it, as the goal of a well-run family office is to support the goals and priorities of the family as a whole.

Could Our Family Office Services Be the Right Fit for You?

We offer small, boutique family office services to a handful of our clients, presenting financial decisions to show what’s going on in their world. We pay bills for those who are cannot due to a variety of reasons (lack of time, travel, etc.), see that they get paid, and communicate with them along the way. We also handle all of their tax-related matters, truly making the complex accounting process simple for them.

If you are considering forming a family office and would like to talk further with us about the role we can play in that, please reach out to us.

We are here to make the complex simple.