One path, as far as you need it. It starts with The Setup, a short fixed-fee engagement to decide how your wealth is structured and who runs it. From there, ongoing virtual family office support if you want it, and rarely, only when complexity truly demands it, a single-family office of your own. Most people never need that last step, and I will tell you so.
A short, fixed-fee engagement (typically 8–12 weeks) that takes you from "the wire has landed" to a decided, written setup you own: your plan, your structure, your advisor team, and your next 12 months. Independent, no products, no commissions.
Most people finish The Setup and run it themselves; that is a success, not a lost sale. Some ask me to stay on as their virtual family officer. And rarely, only when the numbers and complexity genuinely warrant it, we start a conversation about a single-family office. You are never sold the next step; you choose it.
Three depths of the same work. You travel only as far as your situation actually calls for.
Get to know your situation, what you want, and me. A short fixed-fee engagement that ends with a plan you own. Where everyone starts.
Fill in the picture and grow with complexity. I run parts on a fractional, retained basis: coordinating advisors, holding the strategy, handling the recurring decisions.
Only if your wealth and complexity truly demand it, and after we have worked together, help building and staffing a dedicated office with a team you choose. Rare by design.
Complexity is the operative variable, not wealth. A family office becomes worth considering when several of these conditions converge. No single one justifies it on its own.
Meaningful wealth across two or more countries, each with its own tax regime, reporting, and rules. No single advisor sees the full picture, and the coordination burden becomes a risk in itself.
Wealth distributed across trusts, holding companies, partnerships, or foundations, each with its own governance, accounting, and compliance. Individually manageable; collectively they demand a coordinating intelligence.
Not just holding a portfolio but actively investing: direct deals, co-investments, real estate, a structured angel program, each generating its own due diligence, documentation, and tax consequences.
A donor-advised fund needs little administration. A private foundation with a board, grantmaking strategy, and public reporting is institutional in scale, and generates institutional administrative demands.
Trust distributions, education funding, financial literacy, governance, and the delicate management of family dynamics around money, coordination that can exceed what periodic advisor meetings accommodate.
Multiple residences, collections, aviation, personal security, and the overhead of a complex personal life. Not financial planning per se, but consuming of time and attention, with outsized consequences for errors.
The most common mistake is building too early or too late. Too early means expensive infrastructure before the complexity warrants it. A £2M annual cost on a £30M portfolio is a 6.7% drag no strategy can overcome. Too late means letting the coordination burden accumulate until something goes wrong: a missed filing, an overlooked trust distribution, the slow erosion of uncoordinated advice. The right question isn't "How much do I have?" but "How many things need coordinating and is anyone actually coordinating them?"
"Family office" describes a spectrum, not a single structure. The model you choose determines your cost, your level of control, and the talent you can access. Figures below are approximate industry benchmarks.
A senior coordinator acting as chief of staff across your existing advisors without hiring a full team.
Institutional-quality coordination delivered through shared systems and professionals across several families.
A dedicated entity with its own staff and infrastructure, serving only your family. The most comprehensive and most expensive model.
It isn't a private hedge fund. Investment management is one function and rarely the most important. The real value is integration across every dimension of your financial life.
I spent nine years running a £200M+ single-family office from the inside. I bring that vantage point without products to sell or commissions to earn.
The full framework — three models, governance, and cost analysis — is in Chapter 6 of the free Guide.
Establishing a family office is an economic decision and it deserves the same rigour as any significant capital allocation.
The industry break-even for a single-family office is most often reached at £80M–£200M in investable assets but the figure depends more on complexity than size. A family with £150M in one jurisdiction and a simple trust may not need one, while a family with £80M across four countries with active investing and a foundation may need one urgently. It is also worth knowing what you already pay: families around £100M using multiple advisors commonly spend £500k–£1.5M a year in aggregate advisory fees often without recognising the total. The right comparison isn't the office's cost in isolation, but the total cost of advice under each model versus the value of having one entity that holds the complete picture.
Figures are approximate industry benchmarks. Actual costs vary by jurisdiction, scope, staffing, and complexity, and are not financial advice.