Small Family Offices

Family Office Services for Smaller Wealthy Clients

Family offices are reserved for high-net-worth individuals and with the fees family offices require clients typically have at least $100 million in assets. This structure is gaining popularity as more and more family offices open, and now the specialized advisory services these firms offer are becoming available to smaller investors, too.

Todd Millay is a partner at CCC Advisors which works with family offices and the executive director of the Global Family Alliance at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. When Millay joined Choate Investment Advisors last year, he decided that investors in a smaller asset range of just one million to tens of millions of dollars should receive the same sophisticated services that family office clients receive. He uses the investment strategies he learned from working with family offices and his access to attorneys and accountants to service his smaller but still major investors. His case shows a larger trend of high net worth individuals and groups of wealthy people turning to family offices to manage their wealth, even if they don't reach the $100 million mark.

While some firms will limit clients' access to just the trust administrator, Millay says Choate clients can contact an attorney to discuss estate planning, an investment adviser for asset allocation questions, or an accountant to review the tax implications of a particular strategy.

The strategy seems to be working: Current clients have increased assets with the firm over the past year, and net inflows from new clients this year are well ahead of last year's figures. Choate Investment Advisors currently has roughly $2 billion under management.

Millay thinks the model will continue to gain traction in the wealth management industry. "I think we're only in the first or second inning of this strategy," he says. "The dominant model is more the big, impersonal private bank. I think that model is going to steadily decline, and that people who manage money like we do will continue to do very well." Source

If you're wondering, here is the answer to what is a family office?
Here is a link to the Family Office Database

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