Family Office Navigator

DEMYSTIFYING THE FAMILY OFFICE

Get ready for your fami ly off ice journey | 38

In recent decades, the family office has gained momentum as a must-have vehicle for successful entrepreneurs and enterprising families. There is a lot of buzz – and, let’s face it, confusion – around the role of family offices. What are they really intended to do? Family offices come in all shapes and sizes: When you have seen one family office, you have seen one family office. When it comes to the question of whether or not a family office is the right structure for you and your family, or whether or not your existing family office is still aligned with your family’s overall purpose, it helps to start with some big questions. What is your and your family’s current situation? How did you get here? What are you trying to achieve? Will a family office help you get there? Do you know enough about what a family office can do to answer these questions?

For the purpose of this book, we define a family office as follows:

“A Family Office is a more or less formal and constantly evolving organization or private office dedicated to one or more wealthy families with the mandate of managing their human, social and financial capital, as well as other affairs in the family enterprise ecosystem, with the objective of continuing the family heritage for the generations to come.”