Chapter 10 of Running a Family Office Under $100M
You've read about structure, treasury, portfolio, income, protection, governance. Now you need to actually do something.
This is where founders often make their biggest mistakes. Not from ignorance—you now understand the pieces. From rushing.
The same drive that made you successful as an operator—bias toward action, impatience with delay, discomfort with unresolved situations—becomes a liability when building wealth infrastructure. There's pressure to get deployed. Pressure to feel like you're making progress. Pressure from advisors who want to start working. Pressure from your own restlessness.
Cash sitting in a high-yield savings account earning 4–5% while you figure things out costs almost nothing. In the UK right now, easy-access accounts are paying 4.25–4.50% AER, with the best notice accounts pushing slightly higher. Your first £120,000 per person per institution is protected by the FSCS—increased from £85,000 in December 2025. A bad $2M decision because you felt pressure to deploy costs potentially everything.
Pace beats speed.
The Post-Exit Window
If you're reading this around a liquidity event, you're in a particular window that's worth understanding.
The first six months after exit are strange. There's often a sense of unreality. The number in your account doesn't feel like yours. You've spent years with most of your net worth as illiquid equity on a spreadsheet. Now it's cash, and it's real, and you can do things with it.
This is exactly when you should do the least.
The psychological adjustment takes time. Your identity was wrapped up in being an operator. Now you're... what? An investor? A wealthy person? A retired founder at 38? The labels don't fit yet. Making major financial decisions while your sense of self is in flux is risky.
The research on founder psychology backs this up. A UCSF and UC Berkeley study found that 72% of entrepreneurs report mental health concerns—significantly higher than the general population. The transition out of a business amplifies this. The Exit Planning Institute's 2023 research is striking: roughly 70% of business owners who sold their company reported they 'deeply regretted' the decision within a year. Not because the deal was bad. Because they weren't prepared for who they'd be afterward.
I've watched founders in this window make commitments they later regretted. Not because the investments were objectively bad, but because they were made to fill a void. The angel investments that replaced the thrill of operating. The venture fund commitment that bought proximity to the startup world. The property development that scratched the itch to build something.
None of these are inherently wrong. They're wrong if you're doing them for psychological reasons rather than financial ones, and you can't tell the difference until the dust settles.
Give yourself six months of deliberate inaction. Cash earning 4% while you figure out who you are now is a bargain.
Sequence Matters
When you do start building, the order matters more than people realise.
Some things are urgent. Others feel urgent but aren't. Getting the sequence wrong means either wasted effort or missed opportunities.
First: Stabilisation. Before anything else, make sure the basics are handled. Cash is secure in appropriate accounts—not sitting in a current account with no protection, but not locked up either. In the UK, that means spreading across institutions if you're above FSCS limits (£120,000 per person per institution). Immediate tax obligations are understood and funded. Basic protection is in place—your insurance hasn't lapsed, your estate documents exist even if they're not perfect. No emergencies waiting to happen.
This might take a week. Maybe two. It's not glamorous but it's essential.
Second: Team foundation. You need a tax advisor before you need a portfolio strategy. The structural decisions—what entities, what jurisdiction, what approach to holding assets—affect everything downstream. Making investment decisions before you've sorted structure means potentially unwinding things later.
Find the right tax advisor. Have the initial conversations about structure. This can take a month or two to get right. Don't rush it because you're eager to start investing.
Estate solicitor comes in parallel or shortly after. The urgency isn't immediate—you probably won't die next month—but these conversations inform structural decisions. And the documents should exist before significant wealth is deployed.
Third: Infrastructure. Banking at the appropriate tier. Reporting systems that let you see what you own. The treasury setup that makes money flow smoothly. Investment platforms or relationships that give you access to what you'll want to buy.
This layer enables everything else. Trying to invest before your infrastructure exists creates friction and errors.
Fourth: Portfolio construction. Now you can start deploying. Core first—the liquid, diversified foundation that doesn't require much judgment. Then satellite, carefully, over time.
Fifth: Optimisation. The advanced stuff. Tax-efficient structuring refinements. Access to specialised investments. Income strategies. Sophisticated protection. This layer builds on everything else and shouldn't be rushed.
The whole sequence might take 12–18 months to reach a stable operating state. Full optimisation might be 2–3 years out. That's fine. A working 80% solution beats a perfect solution that doesn't exist.
Capital Deployment Pace
How quickly should you invest?
There's no universal answer, but some patterns work better than others.
For the Core portfolio—public equities, bonds, the boring stuff—dollar-cost averaging over 3–6 months makes sense for most founders. You reduce the risk of investing everything right before a downturn. You give yourself time to adjust if your thinking evolves.
The academic research actually favours lump-sum deployment. Vanguard's analysis of data from 1976–2022 found that lump-sum investing outperformed dollar-cost averaging 68% of the time over a one-year period. The reason is simple: markets trend upward over time, so being fully invested sooner usually wins.
But 'usually' isn't 'always,' and the research also shows something important: the longer your averaging period, the greater your opportunity cost. A three-month DCA strategy trails lump-sum by less than a six-month strategy, which trails less than a twelve-month strategy. If you're going to average in, keep the horizon short.
Some founders prefer to deploy faster because sitting in cash feels unproductive. That's fine if you understand you're accepting timing risk in exchange for psychological comfort. Just know what you're choosing.
For Satellite—private equity, venture, alternatives—pacing is forced on you anyway. You don't just write a cheque and own PE exposure tomorrow. You commit to funds, they call capital over years. Most PE funds deploy capital over 18–36 months during a 3–5 year investment period. Capital calls typically come with 10–14 days notice, and you might see 25% of your commitment called in year one, with the rest spread across years two through five.
The mistake I see is founders trying to fill their alternative allocation immediately. They commit to four PE funds, three venture funds, and a couple of direct deals in the first six months because they want to be 'done' with portfolio construction.
Then the capital calls pile up at inconvenient times. Or they realise one of those commitments was made too hastily. Or their thinking evolves and they're locked into positions that don't fit the updated strategy.
Better: commit to 1–2 alternative positions in year one. See how it feels. Add 1–2 more in year two. Build the satellite portfolio over 3–4 years rather than 6 months.
The Advisor Timing Problem
Advisors want to start working. That's their job. They get paid when they do things, not when they wait.
This creates pressure that isn't always aligned with your interest.
The wealth manager wants assets to manage. The sooner you fund the account, the sooner they earn fees. Their proposal probably suggests a fairly rapid deployment timeline.
The tax advisor wants to implement structures. There's always something to optimise, some entity to create. Every conversation tends toward action.
The estate solicitor wants to draft documents. The PE fund wants your commitment before the close.
None of these people are trying to harm you. They're just incentivised to move, and their urgency becomes your urgency if you're not careful.
Push back. 'I need more time to think about this' is a complete sentence. 'I'm not ready to commit yet' is a valid response. 'Let's revisit this next quarter' is acceptable.
The advisor who pressures you to move faster than you're comfortable is not serving your interests. The one who accepts your timeline, even when it means delayed revenue for them, is worth keeping.
What Tends to Take Longer Than Expected
Some things move quickly. Finding a tax advisor, if you have good referrals, can happen in a few weeks. Setting up a brokerage account takes days.
Other things take much longer than founders expect.
Finding the right wealth manager or VFO. If you're going this route, expect to meet with 5–8 firms before you find one that fits. Each meeting takes an hour or two. Follow-up conversations, reference checks, proposal reviews. Avaloq's 2024 research on wealth management found that 29% of ultra-high-net-worth client onboardings take three months or longer. Only 13% complete within a week. The wealthier and more complex the client, the longer it takes.
Estate planning. The initial conversation is quick. Actually drafting documents, especially if there's any complexity, takes longer. Multiple rounds of review. Coordination with tax advisor on structural elements. In the UK, obtaining a Grant of Representation alone takes around 12 weeks on average. For medium-complexity estates requiring tax clearance, expect 24–32 weeks. The full process from first meeting to signed, funded documents typically runs 3–6 months.
Getting comfortable with alternatives. Understanding PE well enough to commit capital takes time. Evaluating fund managers, understanding fee structures, learning what questions to ask. If you're new to this, give yourself a year of learning before committing significant capital.
Private banking setup. Opening accounts is quick. Building the relationship, understanding what's available, negotiating terms, getting credit facilities in place—that's a multi-month process.
Changing your own mindset. The shift from operator to owner doesn't happen on a schedule. Some founders adjust quickly. Others take years. Trying to force it creates stress and bad decisions.
Build your timeline with realistic expectations. Padding estimates is smarter than optimistic projections that slip.
Milestones Worth Tracking
Some markers that suggest you're making progress:
Month 1–2. Cash stabilised in appropriate accounts. Initial meeting with tax advisor completed. Starting to understand structural options. Basic insurance reviewed.
Month 3–4. Tax advisor relationship established. Structure decisions made or in progress. Estate solicitor engaged. Starting to evaluate wealth managers or investment platforms.
Month 6. Structure implemented or implementation underway. Estate documents drafted. Investment approach decided. Beginning to deploy core portfolio.
Month 12. Core portfolio substantially deployed. First alternative commitments made. Advisory team functioning. Reporting in place so you can see the full picture. Income strategy taking shape.
Month 18–24. Satellite portfolio building. Governance documented. Systems running smoothly. Less time spent on setup, more on maintenance and optimisation.
These aren't rigid targets. Your situation might move faster or slower. But if you're at month 12 and haven't engaged a tax advisor, something's wrong. If you're at month 6 and you've already committed to eight PE funds, you probably moved too fast.
The Perfection Trap
Some founders stall because they're waiting for the perfect solution.
The perfect tax structure that optimises every dollar. The perfect wealth manager who understands everything. The perfect portfolio that balances every consideration flawlessly.
Perfect doesn't exist. And waiting for it means nothing gets done while opportunities pass and cash sits idle.
The goal is good enough to start, with the ability to adjust as you learn. A reasonable structure can be refined later. A decent advisory relationship can be upgraded. A sensible portfolio can be optimised over time.
An 80% solution that's implemented beats a 100% solution that lives only in your imagination.
Start with decisions that are hard to reverse—structure, entity formation, jurisdiction. Get those right. For everything else, make reasonable choices and iterate.
When to Ask for Help
Implementation is where do-it-yourself breaks down for most founders.
Reading about wealth management is accessible. Actually doing it—coordinating advisors, understanding documents, making decisions under uncertainty—is harder. The gap between knowing what should happen and making it happen is real.
Some founders enjoy the process. They like learning the details, managing the relationships, building the systems. If that's you, go for it. You'll spend more time but you'll understand everything deeply.
Others find it exhausting. The complexity, the coordination, the constant decisions—it drains energy they'd rather spend elsewhere. If that's you, hire help earlier rather than later. A VFO or dedicated coordinator costs money but returns time and sanity.
There's no shame in either approach. Know which kind of founder you are and staff accordingly.
A Year From Now
If you do this reasonably well, here's what a year from now looks like:
You have a structure that makes sense for your situation. Not perfect, but functional and appropriate for your complexity.
You have a team of advisors who communicate with each other and with you. They're not all perfect—you might upgrade one or two over time—but the relationships work.
You have a portfolio that reflects your goals. Core is deployed and boring. Satellite is starting to take shape. You understand what you own and why.
You have systems for making decisions. IPS documented. Review cadence established. Process for evaluating new opportunities.
You have protection in place. Insurance appropriate to your wealth. Cybersecurity basics handled. Estate documents done.
You're spending maybe 5–10 hours a month on wealth management, not because you're neglecting it but because the infrastructure handles most things without your constant attention.
That's the goal. Not a perfect outcome—those don't exist. A functional system that serves your life rather than consuming it.
Getting there takes time. Respecting that timeline is the first step.
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