Family office services: what they are, what they cost, and what works for $5M–$50M families.

What is a family office?

A family office is a private firm that manages all the financial and legal affairs of a single wealthy family or a small group of wealthy families. The concept originated in the 19th century with industrial dynasties like the Rockefellers and Morgans who needed dedicated teams to manage sprawling wealth across multiple generations, business interests, and legal entities.

Today, a family office typically provides some combination of:

• Investment management (portfolio construction, manager selection, alternatives access)
• Tax planning and compliance across the family's entities
• Estate planning coordination with attorneys
• Philanthropic strategy (DAF, private foundation, CRT)
• Family governance (wealth education for heirs, family meetings, mission statements)
• Administrative services (bill pay, insurance, record-keeping, concierge)

The appeal is obvious: one trusted team with complete visibility across your financial life, coordinating every advisor and every entity. The problem is cost and access.

Single-family office vs. multi-family office

Single-family office (SFO)

A single-family office serves one family exclusively. The family hires a dedicated staff — CIO, estate counsel, tax director, compliance officer, and support staff — which means the full cost falls entirely on them.

At $200M, a $3M/year SFO represents a 1.5% overhead burden. At $30M, it's 10% or more. This is why SFOs serve only a narrow band of households.

Multi-family office (MFO)

A multi-family office spreads overhead across multiple wealthy client families — typically 10–100 families — each of whom gets access to the same suite of services but at a shared cost.

Well-known multi-family offices include Bessemer Trust (minimum ~$10M but effectively serves $50M+), Northern Trust Family Offices, Rockefeller Capital Management, and Whittier Trust. Boutique MFOs operate in most major cities.

Registered investment advisor (RIA) providing family office-style services

The fastest-growing segment of the family office market is the fee-only RIA that explicitly targets HNW households at $2M–$50M and delivers coordinated, multi-disciplinary services — without the headcount of a true family office.

Rather than hiring a full in-house team, these RIAs build a quarterback model: the advisor coordinates your CPA, estate attorney, insurance specialist, and business-exit advisor, maintains full visibility across your accounts and entities, and drives a coherent plan. Investment management uses low-cost direct indexing and index strategies rather than active managers. Estate and tax work is done by specialist firms that the RIA manages the relationship with.

What family office services actually include at each tier

For most families at $5M–$30M, the RIA model delivers 80–90% of what an MFO provides at 40–60% of the cost — with one meaningful trade-off: less in-house depth on the administrative and concierge side.

The specific planning needs of $5M–$50M households

This asset range has its own set of planning challenges that neither generic retail advisors nor ultra-HNW family offices address well:

Asset location across multiple entities

At $5M+, you typically have money across taxable accounts, traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, trusts, 529s, and possibly a DAF. Which assets go where matters enormously for after-tax returns. The family-office-style RIA maps the entire picture and optimizes placement. See our asset location optimizer for a quantified estimate of the tax drag of a suboptimal allocation.

Concentrated-stock management

Executive compensation, business exits, and inherited positions often leave $5M–$50M families with 40–70% of net worth in one stock. Exchange funds, charitable remainder trusts, and direct-indexing offsets all require careful coordination between investment, tax, and estate planning — exactly what a coordinated RIA provides. See our concentrated stock guide.

Direct indexing and tax-loss harvesting

At $1M+ in a taxable account, direct indexing (owning individual stocks rather than an ETF) enables systematic tax-loss harvesting that can generate 0.5–1.5% annual tax alpha. Family-office-style RIAs typically run this in-house or through third-party platforms. See our direct indexing calculator for an estimate at your portfolio size.

Multi-generational wealth transfer

Families at $5M–$50M sit in a planning sweet spot: below the $15M estate/gift exemption¹ for most households, but large enough that Roth conversions, GRATs, 529 superfunding, and charitable giving coordination matter. A family-office-style RIA manages the timing across strategies.

Private investments and alternatives

Accredited investors and qualified purchasers at $5M–$50M have access to private equity, private credit, and real estate through fund platforms like CAIS, iCapital, or Altvia. Fee-only RIAs evaluate these without the product-sales conflicts that plague wirehouse alternatives desks. See our guide on wirehouse vs fee-only RIA for more on how conflicts of interest shape advice.

When an MFO makes sense over a fee-only RIA

The MFO model makes sense when:

• Complexity is genuinely extreme: Multiple operating businesses, international holdings, complex trust structures, and family dynamics that require dedicated ongoing staff — not a coordinated team.
• In-house estate counsel matters: For families with $30M+ in complex trust arrangements, having legal counsel directly integrated (rather than coordinated) can reduce friction in estate-plan modifications.
• Administrative concierge is a real need: Bill pay, property management, travel coordination, and family administrative functions are things some families genuinely want embedded in the financial team.
• Family office brand is a relationship signal: In some situations, having a named family office conveys governance and seriousness to other family members, business partners, or legal counterparties.

For most families at $5M–$30M who want coordinated investment, tax, and estate planning without paying 1.5–2% total cost, the fee-only RIA model is the better fit.

How to evaluate a fee-only RIA for family office-style services

1. Ask about coordination: Do they talk to your CPA quarterly? Do they review your estate documents annually? Who initiates the conversation — you or them?
2. Check fee structure: Pure AUM fee, retainer, or hybrid? At $10M, a 0.5% AUM fee is $50K/year. A flat $50K retainer with AUM included may be comparable or cheaper at higher asset levels.
3. Review investment philosophy: Direct indexing, ETFs, or actively managed funds? Active management at scale rarely outperforms the tax drag it creates.
4. Understand minimums and client count: Some family-office-style RIAs cap at 30–50 families to ensure bandwidth. Ask how many clients the advisor personally oversees.
5. Verify fiduciary status: Fee-only RIAs are registered investment advisers (RIAs) with a statutory fiduciary duty. Confirm the firm is fee-only — not fee-based — meaning no commissions from product sales.

Our matching service connects $5M+ households with fee-only RIAs that explicitly provide family-office-style coordinated planning — investment, tax, and estate under one roof, without the overhead of a true family office.

Get matched with an HNW wealth specialist

Fee-only RIAs focused on $5M–$50M families. Coordinated planning. No product conflicts. Free match.

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Sources

1. IRS Estate and Gift Taxes — $15M estate/gift exemption per person for 2026 (OBBBA, Pub. L. 119-21, permanently raised exemption). Values verified as of April 2026.
2. SEC Family Office Guidance — Family office exemption from investment adviser registration (§ 202(a)(11)(G) of the Investment Advisers Act).
3. Wealthmanagement.com — Industry data on MFO minimums and fee structures, 2024–2025.
4. Northern Trust: What Is a Family Office — Overview of SFO vs MFO structure and operating costs.