Part of Running a Family Office Under $100M
This is the entire playbook condensed. Not a replacement for the full chapters — those have the detail, the context, the nuance. This is the reference version. The thing you bookmark and come back to.
When you're wondering if something's off. When you're preparing for an annual review. When someone asks you what you're trying to do and you need to articulate it simply.
Print it. Save it. Use it.
The Core Idea
A family office is just a wealth operating system — a coordinated approach to managing your financial life. It's not about prestige or staffing up. It's about making sure the pieces work together rather than operate in silos.
You created wealth through concentration. You protect it through diversification. That transition — from builder to owner — is where most wealth destruction happens. The system exists to manage that transition and everything after.
The question isn't whether you need a "family office." It's whether someone is thinking about how everything connects. At lower wealth levels, that person is probably you. At higher levels, it might be a coordinator or dedicated hire. Either way, the function has to exist.
The Five Functions
Every wealth operating system — regardless of scale — performs five functions:
Investment. Asset allocation, manager selection, performance monitoring. Not just "what to buy" but "who ensures it all works together."
Tax. Structure, timing, compliance, coordination. This is where serious money is made or lost — often invisibly. A 10% return taxed at 45% beats an 8% return taxed at 20%. Structure determines what you get.
Estate. What happens when you're gone or incapacitated. Documents, trusts, succession, and next-generation preparation. Most founders defer this indefinitely. The cost of deferral can exceed any investment loss.
Risk. Insurance, asset protection, cybersecurity, contingency planning. Preventing a $5M loss is equivalent to generating a $5M gain. Usually easier.
Admin. Reporting, entity maintenance, document management, and coordination. The unglamorous function that makes everything else work. If you can't see your complete picture, you can't manage it.
These functions interact. A change in one affects the others. Most wealth advice treats them separately. That's why it fails.
The Three Models
Coordinated Network — $5-15M, lower complexity. You assemble specialists (tax, legal, investment, insurance) and coordinate them yourself. You're the quarterback. All-in cost: 0.5-0.8%. Your time: 5-10 hours monthly.
Virtual Family Office — $15-50M, moderate complexity. A provider coordinates your advisors, handles reporting, brings proactive planning. You focus on decisions, not administration. All-in cost: 0.6-1.25%. Your time: 2-5 hours monthly.
Lean Single Family Office — $50-100M, higher complexity. One senior hire takes full responsibility, managing external specialists. Dedicated attention without full institutional build. All-in cost: 0.75-1.5%. Your time: 2-4 hours monthly.
Most founders at $5-50M operate in Model A or B. Match the model to your actual complexity, not your ego or what peers are doing.
The Principles That Matter
Structure matches complexity. Don't build for $50M when you have $12M. Don't run a $25M setup with $5M infrastructure. Both mistakes are expensive.
Pace beats speed. Cash earning 4% while you figure things out costs almost nothing. A bad $2M decision because you rushed costs, potentially everything. The first 90 days after exit are for stabilising, not optimising.
Fees compound. 1.5% excess fees over 20 years on $10M costs over $10M. Most founders don't know their all-in costs. Calculate yours.
Tax planning matters as much as returns. Maybe more. A 2% improvement in after-tax returns through structure beats a 2% improvement in gross returns through investment selection. Easier to achieve, more certain.
Liquidity is oxygen. Each illiquid commitment seems manageable until they add up. Keep 30-40% truly liquid. Include unfunded commitments in your calculation.
Protection is invisible until it isn't. Cybersecurity basics take two hours and protect millions. Insurance review takes one hour annually. Estate documents take a few weeks. The cost of not doing these can be everything.
Someone must see the whole picture. If your advisors don't talk to each other and nobody's coordinating, you have silos, not a system. Either you coordinate, or you hire someone to.
Ten Diagnostic Questions
If you can't answer these, you have work to do.
- What is your total net worth across all accounts and entities? Can you state it within 5%?
- What is your all-in cost — every fee, every layer — as a percentage of assets?
- What percentage of your wealth is illiquid or committed to illiquid investments?
- When did your tax advisor, estate attorney, and investment advisor last talk to each other?
- If you were incapacitated tomorrow, could your spouse find and access everything within a week?
- Do you have hardware security keys on your primary email and financial accounts?
- Is your umbrella liability coverage adequate for your current net worth?
- When were your estate documents last updated? Do they reflect your current situation?
- Do you have an Investment Policy Statement? Did you follow it during the last market downturn?
- Can you draw your entity structure on one page and explain why each piece exists?
Warning Signs
Red flags that something needs attention:
You don't have the whole picture. Assets scattered across accounts you've lost track of. Entities you're not sure still serve a purpose. Investments you couldn't list without looking them up.
Advisors who never push back. If nobody's ever told you no or challenged your thinking, you're either always right (unlikely) or they're not doing their job.
Months between advisor contact. If you only hear from them at billing time or when they want to sell something, the relationship isn't working.
Vague answers on fees. If you ask what you're paying and get deflection or confusion, something's being hidden.
Everything requires you. If no decision happens unless you initiate it, if nothing moves when you're busy, you're a bottleneck and a single point of failure.
Accumulating complexity. New entities, new accounts, new advisors — but nothing ever gets consolidated or eliminated. Complexity grows but never shrinks.
Insurance from years ago. Coverage that hasn't been reviewed since your net worth was a fraction of its current. Gaps nobody's checked for.
Estate documents that reference old situations. Ex-spouses as beneficiaries. Old addresses. Entities that no longer exist. Children who weren't born when the documents were written.
Cash is sitting indefinitely. "Figuring things out" for over a year. Paralysis disguised as prudence.
Panic during volatility. If market drops make you want to sell everything, your portfolio isn't right for your risk tolerance — or you don't have governance to keep you steady.
The Annual Review
Once a year, check these. Takes half a day with preparation.
Structure
- Do current entities still serve clear purposes?
- Any that should be consolidated or eliminated?
- Has anything changed (residency, family, wealth level) that affects structural needs?
Team
- Is each advisor relationship still working?
- Anyone you've outgrown or who's drifted?
- Gaps in coverage that need filling?
Costs
- What's the total all-in cost as a percentage of assets?
- Any fees that seem out of line with the value received?
- Opportunities to reduce without sacrificing quality?
Portfolio
- Current allocation versus targets — any significant drift?
- Concentration risks that have developed?
- Total illiquid exposure, including unfunded commitments?
- Performance relative to appropriate benchmarks?
Protection
- Is insurance coverage adequate? Any gaps?
- Cybersecurity basics still in place?
- Are estate documents current?
- Asset inventory updated?
Governance
- Does IPS still reflect your situation and goals?
- Following the decision process you set up?
- Any decisions made this year that you regret? What would have prevented them?
The Quick Version
If you remember nothing else:
Get a good tax advisor before making structural decisions.
Keep it simple until complexity is genuinely necessary.
Pace yourself — rushing costs more than waiting.
Protect the downside — cybersecurity, insurance, documents.
Know your numbers — total picture, all-in costs, liquidity.
Make someone responsible for the whole system, even if that someone is you.
Review annually — drift happens, catch it early.
Using This Framework
This isn't a checklist to complete once and forget. It's a reference to return to.
When you're feeling uncertain about your setup, come back to the diagnostic questions.
When something feels off but you can't name it, scan the warning signs.
When you're preparing for an annual review, use the checklist.
When someone asks what you're trying to accomplish, the core idea and five functions give you language.
The playbook has depth. This page has the essence. Both are useful. Use whichever you need.
Where to Go Deeper
Just had an exit? Start with The First 90 Days.
Exit on the horizon? Read Pre-Exit Wealth Planning.
Have existing infrastructure? Use Auditing Your Setup.
Feeling overwhelmed? The Minimum Viable Setup let's you keep it simple.
Want the full picture? The complete playbook covers everything in detail.
I write when there’s something worth sharing — playbooks, signals, and patterns I’m seeing among founders building, exiting, and managing real capital. If that’s useful, you can subscribe here.
