A family office is an organisation that runs the wealth and associated administrative affairs of one or several wealthy families. The term is not protected and covers very different forms — from a single trusted individual with assistance to an organisation with its own investment, legal and compliance teams.
Single and multi family offices
The most common distinction concerns the number of families served. A single family office works for one family and is usually established and funded by that family. A multi family office serves several independent families and funds itself through fees. The difference is not only quantitative: a multi family office additionally carries the task of separating the mandates strictly — organisationally, informationally and technically. With several families, that separation is the basis of the business.
What a family office actually does
From outside, investment activity is perceived as the core. In practice it often takes less time than administration. Daily work includes maintaining ownership and corporate structures, documenting beneficial owners, coordinating with banks, trustees, tax advisers and lawyers, reporting to family members, monitoring deadlines and regulatory duties, and increasingly preparing the transfer of wealth to the next generation.
Why the structure is the real subject
A family with substantial wealth rarely consists of a single legal entity. Over the years companies, holding vehicles, foundations and trusts arise, often spread across jurisdictions and serving different purposes. Knowing that structure, documenting it and keeping it current is the basis of any reliable statement about total wealth. Without look-through across the ownership layers, a figure quickly emerges that looks plausible but is wrong.
The regulatory frame
Whether and to what extent a family office is supervised depends on its form and jurisdiction. Regardless, duties arise in practice from working with regulated counterparties: banks require details of beneficial owners, auditors require evidence, and cross-border structures attract reporting and transparency rules from several jurisdictions. Compliance effort is therefore substantial even where no direct supervision exists.
Key-person risk
A characteristic risk of family offices is dependence on individuals. Often only one long-serving trusted person knows the structure in full — why a particular intermediate company exists, what understandings underlie a vehicle, where which document sits. That knowledge is rarely documented. When the person becomes unavailable or the next generation joins, it becomes visible whether the structure was recorded or merely lived. Documentation is therefore less an administrative task than a question of continuity.
Tools and their limits
Many boutique family offices still work in spreadsheets, and that is not unprofessional in itself. Spreadsheets calculate reliably and adapt to any peculiarity. They break elsewhere: with several concurrent editors, with graduated access rights, and with evidencing work to an auditor. Where those three points press, moving to a structured system makes sense — and where they do not, it usually does not.