Understanding Family Office Structural Models

A family office is a dedicated organisation established to manage the private wealth, governance, and long term legacy of one or multiple families. Beyond investment management, family offices often oversee succession planning, philanthropy, education, taxation, and the seamless transition of ownership across generations. Their core purpose is to centralise wealth oversight, enhance privacy, reduce complexity, and align family interests under a unified strategy. There are three primary types of family offices, each tailored to different needs and levels of sophistication. A Single Family Office (SFO) serves one family exclusively. As a standalone legal entity, an SFO is fully owned and controlled by the family, providing bespoke services ranging from asset management to lifestyle support. This structure offers the highest level of privacy and customisation, particularly for families with substantial wealth. A Multi Family Office (MFO) manages the affairs of multiple families. By pooling resources, MFOs deliver a broad range of services with cost efficiencies and institutional level expertise. They may evolve from an SFO that expands to serve other families, or they may be founded commercially. An Embedded Family Office (EFO) is an informal structure operating within a family owned business. With minimal separation between business and family wealth, EFOs typically evolve organically and offer simplicity, though with less governance clarity than formalised entities. Together, these models illustrate the spectrum of family office structures available to families as they seek to safeguard wealth, strengthen governance, and support enduring multigenerational success.