Family Offices are unique and have different features. Here are six models.

1. The Founder’s Family Office Where the visionary who created the fortune still calls the shots • FO created after founder's financial success • Founder drives operations & retains control • Focus on first-gen wealth & legal/financial structures • Major challenges: transitioning ownership to next-gen.

2. Administrative/Compliance Family Office Wealth brings complexity... here's where the family office starts to do the heavy lifting • Coordinates and records assets and wealth planning needs • Oversees tax returns, banking, insurance, and service-provider relationships • Services include lifestyle management, tax payments, estate planning, and document management • Concierge services such as property management, travel, jet acquisitions, private collections, gifting, insurance, staffing, and jet maintenance

3. The Philanthropic Family Office Where the family is serious about giving, governance, and growing the next generation of leaders • Focuses on charitable giving, impact investing, and engaging heirs for wealth transition • Prioritize education and planning in philanthropy, estate, finance, and family governance • Manages family foundations or philanthropic funds, offering management, oversight, and advisement services • Family members can use the philanthropic family office as a platform for education, involvement, and leadership development

4. Direct Investment and Investment Offices When the FO helps the family become a strategic, tax-savvy investment machine • Handles financial, accounting, and investment affairs of the family • Provide streamlined advisement, consolidated reporting, and strategic and tactical investment approaches • Some investment offices focus exclusively on direct investments, acting as boutique private equity or venture capital firms • Investment offices prioritize tax-efficient investing, estate planning, liquidity management, and short- and long-term wealth objectives

5. The Family Business-Focused Family Office Where the family-operated company still dominates - until it's time to cash out • Start within the business and may eventually separate wealth management from the business • Manage owners' wealth and provide diversification to the business, addressing wealth transfer, tax, and ownership control • Services include advising on stock repurchase, buy/sell agreements, debt and credit management, generating liquidity • May support business restructuring or sale • Provide financial planning, analysis, and legal, ownership, income tax, estate and gift tax planning, fiduciary planning, asset protection, and family governance

6. The Multigenerational-Focused Family Office: The ultimate legacy family office built to protect wealth and unity for generations • Services include lifestyle planning, investment and tax mgmt, estate and fiduciary mgmt, risk mgmt, financial education, and philanthropic services for a complex group of family owners from different branches • Some families outsource to a multi-family office for cost efficiency • This family office is proactive in wealth transfer planning and has a sophisticated governance system, including family policies, committees, and decision-making processes • Family continuity, cohesion, and buy-in are important attributes