Family Office Navigator

In the “Charting your Course” chapter, you will have a chance to engage in a high-level discussion with your family. You will map out your own family enterprise ecosystem, assess its overall health and gain clarity on the various complexities that might exist within your ecosystem. This will serve as the basis to explore possible family office services, which we will examine further in the “Focus” chapter.

GET READY FOR YOUR FAMI LY OFF ICE JOURNEY | 32 Total FamilyWealth

The richness and beauty of the coral reef comes from the diversity of organisms and species that make up the ecosystem. Similarly, families are worth much more than their financial assets, and the most enduring and successful families understand the importance of preserving and nurturing all the elements in their family enterprise ecosystem. Therefore, within this ecosystem, we refer to the primary scope and mandate of the family office as preserving and managing “total family wealth,” not just financial wealth. We often speak of the family’s treasure chest.

For the purpose of this book, we define total family wealth as follows:

“Total Family Wealth encompasses human, social, financial, reputational, intellectual, and other forms of capital, representing the overall wealth of a family enterprise ecosystem beyond its financial means.”