Many wealthy families form or consider forming a “family office” to manage their wealth and provide services to family members. Whether forming a family office is feasible and whether it will be successful depends on a number of factors, including:

• the amount of the family’s net investable assets;
• the family’s shared vision and objectives;
• the family’s ability to establish and maintain effective governance and management policies and practices; and
• the family’s ability to communicate frankly and constructively in order to resolve differences of opinion.

Family offices are proliferating and becoming increasingly influential. In an article published earlier this year titled “New Force on Wall Street: The Family Office,” the Wall Street Journal reported that there may be more than 10,000 family offices globally, about half of which have been formed in the last 15 years. Research indicates that family offices hold assets of more than $4 trillion, which approaches the cumulative assets held by private equity funds and hedge funds. There are an estimated 3,000 family offices in the U.S. with more than $1.2 trillion in assets.

In our four-part series, we will focus on the family office and address the following topics:

Part 1:  What Is a Family Office?

Part 2: How Are Family Offices Structured?

Part 3: The Pros and Cons of Forming a Family Office

Part 4: Family Office Trends

We hope that you will find our Family Office Series to be informative.