What Is a Family Office? Types, Costs and Who Needs One

A family office is the team behind a wealthy family's money. It pays the bills, tracks every investment, files the taxes, keeps the trusts in order and makes sure nothing slips. The term used to mean a private firm reserved for billionaires. Today it covers everything from a 30-person office to a couple of trusted professionals working with the right software.

Here's what a family office does, the three main types, what each one costs and how to tell which one, if any, your family needs.

Family Office Quick Overview

A family office is a private organization that manages the finances and affairs of a wealthy family. It typically handles investments, taxes, estate planning, cash flow, insurance, and family governance. It also serves as the central coordinator with outside lawyers, accountants and advisors who are involved as well.

There are three main types of family offices. A single-family office serves one family with its own staff and usually makes sense when you are worth north of $100 million. A multi-family office shares one team across many families and usually takes clients who are worth $25 million+. A virtual family office, sometimes called a personal family office, gives families below those levels the same coordination by combining the professionals they already use, one coordinator and a central place for their financial information.

Understanding the Different Types of Family Offices

The biggest difference is who owns the system. In a single-family office, your own staff runs everything. With a multi-family office or a wealth manager, the firm owns the process and you rely on its reports. In a virtual family office, you own the process and the information, and the professionals plug into it. If you switch advisors, the system stays with you.

>> More: see our guide on single-family vs. multi-family office.

What Does a Family Office Do?

Every family office, whatever its size, handles the same six jobs. A large single-family office has a person or a whole department for each one. In a virtual family office, each job still needs an owner, but that owner can be you, a professional you already pay or a piece of software.

Families without a formal family office usually have the middle four covered. What's usually missing is the first job and the last one. Nobody has the full picture, and nobody is making sure the CPA knows what the advisor is doing or that the attorney knows about the new LLC. That's where the expensive mistakes happen: a sale that triggers an avoidable tax bill, a trust that was never funded or a capital call nobody planned for.

Who Needs a Family Office?

There's no official wealth threshold, and complexity matters more than size. As a rough guide, a single-family office usually makes sense once a family has $100 million or more in investable assets. A multi-family office tends to fit families with $25 million to $100 million, and a virtual family office works well below that. You'll probably benefit from some kind of family office if several of these sound familiar:

• Your accounts are spread across three or more banks and brokerages
• You own a rental property, a vacation home or real estate through an LLC
• You have equity in a private company, stock options or investments in private funds
• Some of your assets sit in a trust or a business entity
• You work with a CPA, an advisor and an attorney who rarely talk to each other
• You can't say what your net worth was at the end of last month without a few hours of work
• A spouse or adult child would struggle to find everything if something happened to you

For many families, the need starts somewhere in the high-net-worth range, well before the $25 million mark where multi-family offices start taking clients.

How Much Does a Family Office Cost?

It depends on which type you choose. J.P. Morgan's 2026 Global Family Office Report found that single-family offices managing $250 million or less spend about $875,000 a year to operate, and those managing more than $1 billion spend about $6.6 million. Multi-family offices usually charge 0.5% to 1.5% of the assets they manage, which works out to about $250,000 a year at 1% on $25 million.

A virtual family office costs far less, because most of the cost is money you're already spending. Your CPA, attorney and any advisor are already on the payroll. It mainly adds two things:

• A coordinator. This can be you, at no cost beyond your time. It can also be a bookkeeper or virtual assistant for bill pay and paperwork, or an outsourced personal CFO. Boutique firms that coordinate a family's whole financial life often charge $5,000 to $10,000 a month. Our guide to what a personal CFO costs breaks down each option.
• A central hub. This is the software that holds the full picture. It ranges from a spreadsheet you update by hand to a dedicated platform. Silvia starts free, and its Pro plan is $200 a year.

For families who don't need a full team, that delivers most of what a family office does for a small fraction of the price.

>> More: Personal CFO vs. Wealth Manager

How to Build a Family Office

If you're not at single-family-office scale, you can set up a virtual family office yourself. You don't have to do it all at once. Most families get it running over a few weekends, then refine it over the following year.

1. Put everything on one balance sheet

Start with a complete list of what you own and what you owe. Include every bank, brokerage and retirement account, plus real estate, private companies, fund investments, crypto, vehicles and valuables. Then add every mortgage, loan, credit line and personal guarantee. If you need help, check out our guide to building a consolidated family balance sheet.

2. Map who owns what

Note whether each asset is held by you, your spouse, a trust, an LLC or a retirement account. Ownership drives taxes, estate planning and liability protection, and it's where most families find their first surprises.

3. Name an owner for every job

Go back through the six jobs above and write down who's responsible for each. If the answer is "nobody," that's your gap. If the answer is "me," decide whether you actually want that job or would rather pay someone.

4. Set a calendar

Family offices run on a schedule, and yours should too. A simple version looks like this:

• Monthly: Review spending, cash and anything unusual.
• Quarterly: Update net worth, check investment performance and make estimated tax payments.
• Annually: Meet with your CPA before year-end, review insurance and beneficiaries, and revisit your estate plan.
• Around big events: Bring everyone in before you sell a business, buy property, receive an inheritance or make a large gift.

5. Get your professionals on the same page

Share the same numbers with your CPA, advisor and attorney, and hold at least one meeting a year with all of them together. One hour of coordination can prevent the kind of mistake that costs tens of thousands of dollars.

6. Write down where everything is

Keep an up-to-date record of every account, document, password manager and professional contact. If you were unavailable tomorrow, your spouse or executor should be able to pick it up without a scavenger hunt.

How Silvia Complements Family Offices

Every family office, large or small, runs on one thing: an accurate, current picture of the family's money. In a big office, a team of analysts produces it. In a virtual family office, or alongside the staff of a larger one, that's the job Silvia was built to do.

• It covers the tracking job. Silvia connects your bank, brokerage and retirement accounts, then lets you add real estate, private companies, fund commitments, crypto, vehicles and the debts against them. Your full balance sheet lives in one place and stays current.
• It takes on much of the coordination job. You can ask questions about your whole picture in plain English, like how much cash you'd have after next quarter's capital call or what selling a rental would do to this year's taxes. Silvia Radar watches for the changes you care about and flags them before they become problems.
• It supports the tax job. Silvia answers tax questions from a library of primary tax law and cites its sources, so you walk into your CPA meeting with better questions.
• It helps with the handoff. Silvia Legacy makes sure the people you trust can find what they need if something happens to you.

Silvia doesn't replace your CPA, attorney, or advisor. It gives you one accurate set of numbers to bring to all of them. Connections are read-only, so Silvia can see your accounts but can never move money.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Building it around one advisor. If your whole system lives inside a single firm's reports, you lose it when you leave. Keep the master records yourself.
• Counting things twice. A rental owned through an LLC shouldn't show up once under the LLC and again on your personal list.
• Treating estimates like facts. A home value, a private company appraisal or a fund manager's quarterly mark is an estimate. Label it with a date and update it on a schedule.
• Forgetting what you owe. Unfunded fund commitments, personal guarantees and estimated taxes don't show up in a bank feed, but they're real.
• Keeping it all in one person's head. If only you know how everything works, your family office ends when you're unavailable.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a family office do?

A family office manages a wealthy family's financial life. That usually includes investments, tax planning and filing, estate planning, bill pay, insurance, reporting and family governance, plus coordinating the outside lawyers, accountants and advisors who work for the family.

How much money do you need for a family office?

It depends on the type. A single-family office usually makes sense once a family has $100 million or more in investable assets, and many advisors prefer $250 million or more. Multi-family offices generally take clients with $25 million or more, and some will work with families who have $10 million. A virtual family office has no minimum.

How much does a family office cost?

A single-family office costs about $875,000 a year for smaller offices and around $6.6 million for those managing more than $1 billion, according to J.P. Morgan's 2026 survey. Multi-family offices usually charge 0.5% to 1.5% of the assets they manage. A virtual family office mostly uses professionals you already pay, plus a coordinator and software.

What is the difference between a family office and a wealth manager?

A wealth manager focuses mainly on your investments. A family office covers your whole financial life, including tax, estate, administration and coordination across all your advisors. Our guide to a family office vs. a wealth manager goes into more detail.

What is a virtual or personal family office?

The two terms are used interchangeably. Both describe a family office built from outside specialists, a coordinator and technology instead of in-house staff. It's the most practical option for families who need family-office-level coordination but don't have $25 million or more.

Do family offices have to register with the SEC?

A single-family office that serves only family members can usually rely on the SEC's family office rule and skip registering as an investment adviser. Multi-family offices serve outside clients, so most are registered investment advisers.

Is a personal CFO the same as a family office?

Not quite. A personal CFO is a role, usually the person or tool handling coordination. A family office is the whole setup, including your CPA, attorney, advisor, routines and records. Many families make a personal CFO the hub of a virtual family office.

The Bottom Line

A family office is the team, and the system, that runs a wealthy family's financial life. Single-family offices suit families with roughly $100 million or more, multi-family offices suit those with about $25 million or more, and a virtual family office gives everyone else the same coordination at a fraction of the cost.

Whichever type fits your family, every family office runs on one complete and current picture of your money. Silvia gives you that picture, and you can start for free.