What is a Family Office?

Key Takeaways

Understanding What is a Family Office

A family office is a private advisory firm designed to manage the wealth for ultra-high-net-worth individuals and their families. Unlike traditional wealth management, which you may have encountered before, these offices provide a full-service experience. We go beyond financial advice and fully integrate lifestyle, tax services, estate planning, and more into one cohesive set of family office services.

At its core, your family office handles your financial needs from the most complex to the mundane. We offer a range of bespoke services, from managing your estate to succession planning. These tailored services are built around each family and could include managing your investments, philanthropic efforts, and smart transfers of wealth to support your personal, business, and/or financial goals.



Your family office is also a key figure in your family members' lives. Because of our expertise in managing ultra-high net worth, we can answer family questions and educate the next generation on ensuring wealth is retained and managed responsibly—for your grandchildren and beyond.

Types of Family Offices

To answer what is a family office in more detail, we need to break it down into three categories, each with their own pros and cons to consider.

Multi-Family Office

The multi-family office serves multiple families and offers dedicated services. In this arrangement, you're working with someone who can reduce their costs—and, in turn, yours—by scaling their operation and dividing various overhead, payroll, technology, and other expenses among two or more families. You have less control here, and the services may be slightly less personalized since the cost savings come partly from their ability to standardize certain processes across families.

Outsourced Family Office

Now, an outsourced family office assembles a team of external advisors—each with a high level of expertise in their field. These professionals coordinate, build, and execute effective financial strategies around your family. While each of these professionals is outsourced, they have an in-depth understanding of your family's needs, goals, and challenges.

This is the most cost-effective way to run a family office. At Flynn & Company, we operate less like an internal organization and more like a structured network built around your family with the purpose of guiding your family to long-term financial success.

What does Family Office Services Include?

Regardless of the family office type, you can expect comprehensive family office services in several areas, including but not limited to:

• Investment Management - Including portfolio management, private equity, real estate, and venture capital managed by experienced CPAs dedicated to your family's long-term financial success.
• Take planning - Tax optimization.
• Financial Planning - Outsourced accounting, gifting, estate planning, and charitable giving strategies customized to your family's interests and wishes.
• Lifestyle Management - Concierge services, security, travel arrangements, and more.
• Family Education - Teaching wealth management to the younger generation.
• Lawyers - Ensuring legal compliance.

Benefits of Using a Family Office

At the end of the day, the top benefit of using a family office is integrated wealth management. Rather than vetting and hiring multiple professionals to manage various aspects of your wealth and lifestyle, you have one team that works together for you. To put it in the simplest terms, the left hand knows what the right is doing, so every aspect of family office wealth management works together seamlessly—reducing the conflicts of interest that can arise when lack of strategic alignment exists. We set your family up for long-term success for generations to come.



But beyond the most practical reasons, family offices can also put your mind at ease that your wealth is being effectively managed by experienced professionals, so you and your family can continue to enjoy the lifestyle to which you are accustomed.

Factors to Consider When Establishing a Family Office

• Wealth Level - Is your family's wealth significant enough to justify a family office?
• Complexity - Does your family require certain family office services beyond the more basic family office offerings?
• Control and Personalization - How much control does your family want over wealth management? Are you willing to trade some of that control for a more cost-efficient solution where the experienced team of CPAs at Flynn & Company helps your family retain and manage wealth while enjoying your desired lifestyle?

Flynn and Company: Helping You Make the Right Financial Choices

What is a family office? It's a dedicated wealth management firm that provides a full spectrum of financial, tax, and lifestyle services tailored to ultra-high-net-worth families to ensure the continued growth and preservation of family wealth.

At Flynn and Company, we specialize in guiding families through the complexities of wealth management. Whether considering a family office or exploring other financial options, our expert team of CPAs is here to help you make informed decisions. To learn more about how our expert team can enhance your family's long-term financial success, reach out.