Multi-family office

A multi-family office (MFO) is an independent organization that supports multiple families to manage their entire wealth.

Some multi-family offices are also known to offer personal services such as managing household staff and making travel arrangements.

[1] A multi-family office (MFO) is a commercial enterprise established to meet the investment, estate planning and, in some cases, the lifestyle and tax service needs of affluent families.

These changes, combined with the consolidation of the financial services industry, significantly diminished the role of the bank trust departments that traditionally served the wealthy families.

MFOs usually follow a "service delivery model" holding themselves out as an objective provider of advice that places the interests of their clients first.

Large account sizes combined with low client-to-employee ratios allows a great deal of focus and attention on each client family.

Planning encompasses the family's goals which typically includes passing wealth down to lower generations in a tax efficient manner.

Most investment research (academic and financial service industry) is geared toward the institutional investor and foundations (with very different tax concerns than individuals and families).