,Part of Running a Family Office Under $100M
This playbook is long. We covered structure, treasury, portfolio construction, income strategies, governance, protection. Reading it might leave you feeling like you need to build something elaborate.
You don't.
Some founders need sophisticated infrastructure. Multi-jurisdictional complexity, alternative investments, family governance, the whole apparatus. But many don't. And building complexity you don't need is its own kind of mistake.
This post is for founders who feel overwhelmed. Who've been reading about wealth management and feel further from action, not closer. Who suspect they should be doing more but aren't sure where to start and can't face the full project.
Here's the secret: the minimum viable setup is much simpler than you think. And it's probably enough.
When Everything Feels Like Too Much
Founders with £10M, £15M, or even £20M can sit frozen. They know they should be doing something about their wealth. They've read articles, talked to advisors, maybe started conversations they didn't finish. But the complexity feels insurmountable.
Should they set up a holding company? Which jurisdiction? What about trusts—do they need those? Someone mentioned a Family Investment Company, but they're not sure what it is. Their friend has a wealth manager, but maybe they should manage it themselves. Or use a robo-advisor. Or buy property. Or...
The options multiply. Each conversation introduces new considerations. Every advisor has a different view. Nothing feels simple enough to just do.
So they do nothing. The cash sits in a savings account. Maybe some of it makes it into an ISA or a basic brokerage. They tell themselves they'll figure it out next quarter. Next quarter becomes next year.
This paralysis is understandable. Wealth management can seem impossibly complex from the outside. The industry has an incentive to make it seem that way—complexity justifies fees.
But most of what you read about is optimisation. The last 10-20% of value. It matters eventually. It doesn't matter right now if the alternative is doing nothing.
What matters right now is getting the basics in place. A foundation you can build on. Something functional, even if imperfect.
Perfect is the enemy of deployed.
What You Actually Need
At £5-15M with a relatively straightforward situation—single jurisdiction, no unusual complexity, basic family structure—here's what you genuinely need:
One tax advisor who understands your situation. One investment approach you can stick with. Basic protection in place. Estate documents that exist.
That's it. Everything else is either optimisation or complexity that can wait until you actually need it.
Let's be specific about what this looks like.
One Good Tax Advisor
If you do one thing, do this. Find a good tax advisor.
Not your startup's accountant unless they've specifically developed expertise in high-net-worth personal tax. Not a generalist who does a bit of everything. Someone who works with people like you—founders with meaningful liquidity, likely some ongoing complexity, needs beyond basic compliance.
Why this matters more than anything else: structural decisions compound. The holding company question, how you own assets, how income flows—these choices affect everything downstream. Making them well versus making them poorly is often worth six or seven figures over time.
A good tax advisor will help you determine whether you need a holding company and, if so, which type. They'll think about how your investments should be held. They'll coordinate with your other advisors (when you have them) so you don't miss anything. They'll bring you ideas proactively, not just respond to questions.
How to find one: ask other founders who've been through exits. Specifically ask who did their personal tax planning, not their company's accounting. The big firms—PwC, Deloitte, EY, KPMG—have private client practices that can be good, though you might get lost if you're smaller. Boutique firms specialising in entrepreneurs are often better for this wealth range.
What to look for: someone who asks questions about your situation before telling you what to do. Who explains things in terms you understand. Who seems genuinely interested in your specifics rather than pushing a standard package. Who the other founders speak well of.
The initial engagement might cost £5,000-£15,000 for a proper review and recommendations. Ongoing relationship may be £5,000-£10,000 annually, depending on complexity. This is the money most likely to be multiplied.
Get this relationship right. Everything else is easier once you have it.
One Investment Approach
The second thing that matters: actually investing the money.
The wealth management industry would have you believe this requires sophisticated analysis, multiple asset classes, careful manager selection, tactical allocation. For the last 10-20% of returns, maybe. For getting from zero to functional, absolutely not.
Here's an investment approach some may take:
Put most of it—70-80%—in a global equity index fund. Total world stock market. Vanguard, iShares, whoever. Expense ratio under 0.2%—Morningstar's 2024 Fund Fee Study shows the asset-weighted average expense ratio for passive funds is just 0.11%. You now own a slice of every major company in the world.
Put the rest—20-30%—into a bond fund, or keep it in cash or near-cash. Treasury bills, money market, high-yield savings. This is your stability allocation. When stocks drop, this doesn't. It lets you rebalance by buying cheap equities rather than panic-selling.
That's it. Two positions. Maybe three if you split bonds and cash.
Is this optimal? No. A more sophisticated portfolio with alternatives, factor tilts, and active management in certain segments might give better returns. Might.
Is this good enough? Yes. The MSCI World Index has delivered roughly 8.7% annualised returns since 1986, and around 10.6% annualised over the last decade. Goldman Sachs forecasts approximately 7.1% annualised for the next ten years. You're capturing global equity returns at minimal cost. You have stability when markets fall. You can understand what you own and why. You can stick with it through volatility because it's not confusing.
The founder who puts £10M into a simple two-fund portfolio and leaves it alone for a decade will almost certainly do better than the founder who spends two years researching the perfect approach while cash sits earning half of what it could.
Done beats perfect.
If you want to get slightly more sophisticated later—add some alternatives, tilt toward factors, whatever—you can. The core is in place. Build on it when you're ready. For now, just get invested.
Where to hold this: any major brokerage. Interactive Brokers if you want low costs and don't need hand-holding. A UK platform like Hargreaves Lansdown or AJ Bell if you want more local support. Max out your ISA allowance first—£20,000 per person per year, tax-free growth, frozen at this level until 2030. A married couple can shelter £40,000 annually. The platform matters less than actually doing it.
Alternatively, you can work with a financial adviser who can select a suitable low-cost model portfolio and provide additional services such as cashflow planning.
Basic Protection
Protection is the area where minimum viable is most clearly defined. There's a small set of things that matter enormously and a large set of things that are optimisation.
The things that matter:
Cybersecurity basics. Use hardware security keys on your email and financial accounts. Separate email for financial accounts. Verbal confirmation protocol for large transfers. SIM lock with your carrier. The UK's National Fraud Database recorded a 1,055% increase in SIM-swap fraud in 2024—from 289 cases to nearly 3,000. Once criminals hijack your phone number, they can intercept two-factor authentication codes and drain accounts. This takes maybe two hours to set up and protects against the threats most likely to actually hurt you.
Insurance review. Talk to an independent broker for an hour. Make sure your umbrella liability is adequate—probably at least £5M at this wealth level. Wealthy individuals are attractive targets for liability claims due to their perceived "deep pockets." A £1.5M settlement from a serious accident can quickly exhaust standard policy limits. For £1M of personal umbrella coverage, premiums typically run £150-£300 annually, one of the cheapest forms of protection relative to the risk covered. Make sure property coverage is current. Check if life insurance is still appropriate. Identify any obvious gaps. Then you're done until next year.
Estate documents exist. Will, power of attorney, healthcare directive. They don't have to be perfect. They have to exist. If you have nothing, get something basic in place. A solicitor can do simple documents in a few weeks—a straightforward will typically costs £150-£300, with more complex wills ranging from £300-£500 or more. Lasting Power of Attorney costs £82 per type to register with the Office of the Public Guardian. Update them later when your situation is clearer or more complex. For now, something beats nothing.
That's the minimum. Asset protection structures, sophisticated trust planning, comprehensive risk analysis—these can wait. If you have the three things above, you're protected against the most likely and most damaging scenarios. Everything else is refinement.
Estate Documents Actually Matter
Let me say a bit more about the estate documents because I've seen what happens without them.
A founder died unexpectedly at 41. No will. He'd been meaning to sort it out. His partner of eight years—not married—had no legal claim to anything. Under UK intestacy rules, unmarried partners have no automatic right to inherit, regardless of how long they've lived together. His estranged parents inherited everything by default. The legal fight took three years and destroyed relationships. Assets were frozen the entire time.
This isn't a fringe scenario. According to recent surveys, only about 41% of UK adults have made a will—meaning the majority would have their estates distributed according to intestacy law, which may not reflect their wishes at all. For those in their thirties, roughly 75% have no will. Among cohabiting couples, the risks are acute: the surviving partner inherits nothing unless specifically named in a will.
Another founder had a stroke at 52. No power of attorney. His wife couldn't access accounts, couldn't make decisions about the business interests, and couldn't do anything. The court process to get authority took months. Meanwhile, time-sensitive matters went unaddressed.
The statistics here are sobering. Around 78% of UK adults haven't registered a Lasting Power of Attorney, including 77% of those over 55. And 80% of British adults mistakenly believe their spouse or family could automatically make decisions for them if they lost capacity. They can't. Without an LPA, your family must apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship—a process that can take 4-18 months and costs significantly more.
The documents are:
Will—who gets what when you die. Without it, the law decides, and the law's answer might not be yours. Under current intestacy rules, if you're married with children, your spouse receives the first £322,000 plus personal possessions, then half of anything remaining. If you're not married, your partner gets nothing.
Power of attorney—who can act for you if you're alive but incapacitated. Financial power of attorney for money matters. Healthcare power of attorney for medical decisions.
Healthcare directive—what kind of care you want if you can't communicate.
You can get basic versions done in a few weeks. They can be updated later as your situation evolves. The perfect estate plan can wait. The basic documents cannot.
Basic Governance
Governance sounds heavy. At the minimum viable level, it's not.
You need two things: a simple investment policy and a reminder to review occasionally.
The investment policy can be one page. Maybe half a page. It says: here's my target allocation, here's what I'm trying to achieve, here's what I'll do if markets drop significantly, here's what I won't do (chase hot sectors, panic sell, whatever your personal temptations are).
Write it when you're calm. Follow it when you're not.
The review can be quarterly. Put a calendar reminder. Once every three months, spend an hour looking at where you are. Has allocation drifted significantly? Any obvious issues? Anything need attention? If not, you're done until next quarter.
That's governance at the minimum level. No investment committee. No elaborate decision rights framework. Just a written-down approach and periodic check-ins to make sure you're following it.
What This Actually Costs
The minimum viable setup is cheap.
Tax advisor: £5,000-£15,000 for initial work, £5,000-£10,000 annually ongoing. Call it £15,000 in year one, £7,500 thereafter.
Investment platform: negligible—maybe a 0.2%-0.4% in custody fees, plus fund expense ratios of 0.1-0.3%. The average passive fund now charges just 0.11%.
Insurance: varies by situation, but the incremental cost of adequate umbrella coverage over inadequate coverage is usually a few thousand annually.
Estate documents: £500-£1,500 for a straightforward will plus both types of LPA (£82 registration fee each), minimal ongoing unless you need updates.
Cybersecurity: £50-100 for hardware security keys. Free otherwise.
Total year one: maybe £18,000-£22,000 all in. Year two onward: maybe £10,000-£15,000.
On £10M in assets, that's 0.18-0.22% in year one, 0.10-0.15% ongoing. Versus the 1-2% many founders pay for elaborate setups that might not serve them better.
The minimum isn't just simpler. It's dramatically cheaper.
What You're Deferring
Let's be clear about what the minimum viable setup doesn't include. Not because these things are bad—but because they can wait.
Holding company structure. Might make sense eventually. At £5-10M with simple circumstances, the benefit might not exceed the administrative cost. Your tax advisor can tell you whether you're at the threshold where it matters.
Alternative investments. PE, VC, hedge funds, private real estate. These require expertise to evaluate, have illiquidity you need to plan around, and add complexity. They can add value at the right scale and with the right approach. They're not necessary to get started.
Sophisticated estate planning. Trusts, family investment companies, multi-generational structures. Relevant at higher wealth levels or with specific circumstances. Not urgent at the minimum viable stage.
Virtual family office or wealth manager. Might be worth it eventually, especially if your time is better spent elsewhere. But you can run the minimum setup yourself with an hour or two per month. See how it feels before adding a layer.
Multiple advisors. One good tax advisor is enough to start. Estate solicitor, when you're ready for proper documents. Investment advisor, if you decide you want one. Build the team over time, not all at once.
Income strategies. The Income Floor concept from the playbook is valuable if you need regular cash flow from your portfolio. If you're still earning income elsewhere or don't need to draw down, this can wait.
These aren't things you're ignoring. They are things you're consciously deferring until you've proven the minimum works and you're ready to add complexity.
When to Revisit
How do you know you've outgrown the minimum?
Your situation gets more complex. You move jurisdictions. You start a new business. Family circumstances change—marriage, children, divorce. You inherit additional assets. Each of these might trigger a need for a more sophisticated structure.
Your wealth grows significantly. The structure appropriate at £8M might not fit at £25M. As assets grow, the value of optimisation grows too. What wasn't worth the complexity before becomes worth it.
You have specific needs that or the minimum doesn't address. You want to invest in alternatives but don't know how to evaluate them. You want income from your portfolio but the simple approach doesn't generate it. You want to involve your children in wealth management. Specific goals often require specific solutions.
The minimum feels insufficient. If you're spending significant time managing what should be simple, if things are falling through cracks, if you're uncomfortable with your level of understanding—these are signals you might be ready for more.
But here's the thing: you might not outgrow it for years. Some founders run a simple setup at £15M, £20M, or even higher, and it works fine. The minimum isn't a temporary state you have to graduate from. It's a legitimate long-term approach for founders who don't want wealth management to become another job.
Permission to Be Simple
The wealth management industry profits from complexity. Advisors sell services. Funds sell access. Everyone has a reason to suggest you need more.
Maybe you do. Maybe you don't.
What I know is that many founders would be better served by simplicity than by sophistication. Better to have money invested in index funds than sitting in cash while you research the perfect approach. Better to have basic protection in place than elaborate plans you never implement. Better to have one advisor who knows you well than five who each see a fragment.
Complexity is a tool. Use it when it serves you. Resist it when it doesn't.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, if the full playbook feels like too much, if you just want something functional: do the minimum. One tax advisor, one simple investment approach, basic protection and documents.
That's enough to start. That's enough for a long time.
Everything else can wait until you're ready—or until you discover you don't need it at all.
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