Single-Family Office: Structure, Costs and Setup

Creative Planning provides family office-style advisory services to ultra-high-net-worth families. This article is intended to provide educational information to help you explore the range of family office structures and options available. Creative Planning doesn’t operate as, or represent that it is, a family office; instead, we offer many of the services typically found within a family office — including investment management, tax planning, estate planning and family governance — on a flexible, à la carte basis that can be customized to your family’s needs and preferences.

Key Takeaways

A single-family office serves one ultra-high-net-worth family at a time, delivering white-glove wealth management services with a full staff dedicated to tax strategies, financial education, investment management and estate planning.
Single-family offices can provide meaningful benefits, including personalization, privacy, control and access to expertise, but they’re typically most appropriate for families with at least $100 million in net worth.
Setting up a single-family office follows a series of steps, beginning with identifying family goals and ending with implementing a structure and family governance framework that meets your family’s wealth objectives.

As your family’s wealth grows, it’s normal for your financial life to become more complicated. Investments, business interests, tax strategies, estate planning, philanthropic goals and even paying bills can start to feel like a second job. For ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) families, building a more formal structure for managing this complexity often becomes essential — and that’s where understanding single-family office options can help.

A single-family office offers a comprehensive, centralized way to manage this complexity. Instead of working with separate providers for investing, taxes, legal matters and administration, families can consolidate these functions with a dedicated team focused solely on their needs.

What Is a Single-Family Office (SFO)?

A single-family office is a private legal entity that manages the finances, investments and personal affairs of a single UHNW family. It’s designed to serve as a central hub for sophisticated wealth management and financial administration, coordinated for maximum control, confidentiality and customization.

Single-family office staff typically includes a wealth manager or financial advisor, an estate planning attorney, an accountant, a tax professional and other specialists as needed. Depending on the family’s complexity, the office may also include professionals focused on philanthropy, risk management and lifestyle or concierge services.

The functional areas managed by a single-family office often include:

Wealth preservation
Legacy protection and wealth transfer planning
Tax optimization and reporting
Family financial education
Investment management and strategy
Insurance and risk management
Succession and estate planning
Charitable giving and philanthropy
Household budgeting and bill pay

There are two main family office types: single-family and multifamily offices. The key difference is scope — a multifamily office serves multiple families that choose to share resources and infrastructure, trading some customization for cost efficiency. For families that want coordinated planning without building a dedicated in-house team, multifamily office services may offer a more cost-efficient alternative to creating their own single-family office.

Who Uses Single-Family Offices?

Traditionally, single-family offices have been used by UHNW families and individuals with highly complex financial and investment needs. These often include entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs, entertainers, athletes and philanthropists whose wealth spans multiple entities, jurisdictions and generations.

Cascade Investments (Bill Gates), Bezos Expeditions (Jeff Bezos) and Bayshore Global Management (Sergey Brin) are some of the largest single-family offices in the United States. Using a dedicated family office structure allows individuals to spend more time focusing on their family, business and career interests and less time managing their financial lives.

Due to their high cost, single-family offices are typically used only by families with very high levels of wealth. Industry studies suggest that a family needs at least $100 million in assets for a dedicated single-family office to be viable, with many families closer to $250 million or more before the model becomes truly cost-effective. For families below this range, a multifamily office structure or outsourced family office-style advisory relationship is usually more cost-efficient.

If you’re still learning about the broader family office landscape, Understanding Family Office Services for UHNW Families offers additional context about how different models work.

Benefits of single-family offices

UHNW and ultra-wealthy families can reap a number of benefits by using a single-family office, including the following:

Enhanced privacy – Because all matters are handled by an internal, dedicated team, sensitive personal and financial information stays within a tightly controlled environment.
Full customization – Families choose which family office services they need, when they need them and how they’re delivered, tailoring the offering to their unique goals and values.
White-glove service – Staff attention is never divided across other clients, which means your family’s priorities are always front and center.
Direct access to expertise – Families have direct access to their wealth advisor, estate planning attorney, accountant, tax professional and other professionals whenever they need to speak with them.
More control – Families can handpick employees who are best suited to meet their wealth management needs while controlling all aspects of family office operations and governance.

For many families, these benefits are particularly valuable when managing complex investments, private business interests or cross-border structures, where coordination and confidentiality are paramount.

Single-family office offerings

Single-family offices provide a wide range of comprehensive services to support UHNW families and help protect their family wealth. While each is unique, common offerings include the following.

Investment strategy coordination

Investment advisors work with families to develop and implement investment strategies that align with their goals, risk tolerance and time horizon. Coordination across accounts, entities and structures helps ensure consistent portfolio management, often incorporating public markets, private equity, private credit and other alternative investments.

Wealth preservation and legacy protection

Single-family offices use sophisticated strategies to help protect and preserve family wealth across future generations. These strategies may include portfolio diversification, asset protection structures (such as trusts and partnerships) and insurance planning, along with succession planning to support any family business interests.

Tax planning and optimization

Effective tax optimization requires year-round planning, not just a once-a-year meeting. Coordinating income recognition, tax-loss harvesting and charitable giving can all play a role in minimizing tax liabilities for UHNW families. Family office teams often work closely with tax advisors to navigate complex rules across multiple jurisdictions.

Estate planning and wealth transfer

Single-family offices often utilize sophisticated trust structures and wealth transfer techniques to help minimize gift and estate taxes in order to preserve family wealth for future generations. Coordinated estate planning can also address governance, control and family dynamics, especially when business interests are involved.

Philanthropy and charitable giving

Philanthropy services help families support their favorite causes while aiming to maximize their giving impact and legacy. A family office can help structure charitable vehicles, align giving with family values and integrate philanthropy into the broader wealth plan.

Family governance and education

A thoughtful family governance framework can sustain family harmony, align family values and help prepare younger generations to become good stewards of family assets. This may involve creating a family charter or constitution, forming a family council and organizing regular family meetings to foster communication and shared decision-making.

Single-Family Office Structure, Costs and Team

The legal structure of a single-family office will determine how responsibilities are delegated, risk is managed, taxes are optimized and control is enforced. Choosing the right family office structure is critical for regulatory compliance and efficient operations, as well as for aligning the office with the family’s long-term goals.

Legal structures

LPs are also popular for investment activities. With this structure, general partners assume liability while limited partners receive liability protection up to their investment amount. Corporations may be used when certain tax or governance features are preferred.

With a trust, a trustee manages family assets for beneficiaries according to the terms of the trust agreement. This arrangement can offer tax advantages while shielding assets from creditors and supporting long-term wealth transfer goals.

The choice of legal structure also carries meaningful tax implications. LLCs and LPs generally offer pass-through taxation, avoiding corporate-level tax on investment income. Corporations may introduce double taxation but can be advantageous in specific scenarios, such as when retaining earnings or accessing certain benefit plans. Consulting a tax advisor during the structuring phase is essential, as the right choice depends heavily on the family’s income sources, estate planning goals and jurisdictional considerations.

Costs

The cost of running a single-family office — including management fees, staff compensation and operational overhead — typically starts at around $1 million per year for a relatively lean operation. For larger, more complex offices, annual costs can range higher — often between 0.30% and 1.20% of the family’s total wealth, or roughly 30 to 120 basis points of assets under management.

These costs include operational, administrative, staff, facility and technology expenses, such as:

Salaries and benefits
Office space and infrastructure
Legal and compliance fees
Accounting and audit services
Technology, reporting and cybersecurity

For many families, evaluating these costs against the benefits of control, privacy and integrated planning is a key part of the decision to establish a single-family office versus using a multifamily office or advisory model.

Team roles

Single-family offices are usually headed by a managing partner or CEO who devises and executes strategic plans that support the family’s objectives. Other executive leadership roles may include the CFO, who oversees financial strategies and investments, and the COO, who manages day-to-day family office operations.

Support and advisory roles usually include:

Chief of staff
Executive assistant
Wealth manager or chief investment officer
Tax advisor
Trust officer
Investment advisor
Philanthropy manager
Operations manager

Some affluent families also explore a virtual family office or outsourced model, which can offer many of the same services with lower fixed costs and a more flexible team structure. In these models, families rely more heavily on external advisors and technology platforms rather than building a large in-house staff.

Regardless of model, consolidated reporting across accounts, entities and tax structures is one of the core operational outputs a family office delivers, giving family members a clear, unified view of their financial picture at any time.

Setting Up a Single-Family Office: A Guide

Building a single-family office from scratch requires careful planning across legal, operational and governance dimensions. While every family’s situation is unique, there are a few common steps involved in setting up a single-family office. These steps typically include defining the vision and purpose, determining key stakeholders, setting goals, establishing governance structures, choosing a legal structure, creating an operational framework, testing systems and processes and, ultimately, launching the family office.

It’s critical to work with experienced advisors when setting up a single-family office to help ensure clear governance and compliance with all laws, rules and regulations. Creative Planning’s overview, Your Guide to Family Office Planning, can be a helpful starting point when evaluating family office services and structures.

1. Assess goals and governance

The first step to setting up a single-family office is to set goals for what you want the family office to accomplish. For example, do you want to prioritize preserving family wealth and protecting your legacy, or do you want to lean more into investment growth and wealth transfer? Clarifying your objectives helps identify the primary focus of your single-family office.

A strong single-family office governance structure can provide rules and collaborative processes that sustain family harmony, steward family wealth, foster unity and support open communication. Your governance approach may include creating a family charter or constitution, establishing a family council and organizing family assemblies to give every family member a voice. Creative Planning’s dedicated family governance services can help design these frameworks for wealth management clients.

2. Build a team and establish the framework

Your goals will dictate which staff positions you’ll need to fill for your single-family office. You’ll also need to determine what kinds of facilities, technology solutions and outsourced contractors you’ll require to operate successfully.

Drafting a formal business plan can help you build out the framework for your single-family office. Your plan should define your mission, outline operational processes and workflows, project costs, detail job descriptions for key staff members, and address risk management, tax reporting and compliance.

3. Implement and launch

Before implementing and launching your single-family office, stress-test your infrastructure and systems to make sure everything works properly. This is especially critical for your IT systems, which should include strong protections against cyberthreats and support accurate reporting and consolidated asset views.

Once testing is complete, it’s time to launch your single-family office, perhaps using a phased approach. Review your people and processes regularly, and make changes as your family’s circumstances and needs evolve over time. In some cases, you may find that combining a single-family office with thoughtfully outsourced advisory services or risk management support is the most efficient way to meet your objectives.

Challenges for Single-Family Offices

Today’s single-family offices must navigate various challenges, ranging from regulatory compliance to cybersecurity. These challenges include:

Succession planning – Ensuring a smooth leadership transition from one generation to the next can be complicated, especially when one or more businesses is involved. It’s important to begin the succession planning process early so that the next generation is well prepared for their responsibilities.
Governance and family dynamics – Strong family governance promotes transparency in reporting and management, helps reduce conflicts among family members and helps preserve family wealth for future generations.
Education and engagement – It’s critical to get the next generation of your family actively engaged in the wealth management process so that they’re prepared for future responsibilities.
Regulatory compliance – Families must remain knowledgeable about rules and regulations governing family offices. Depending on the structure, they may be subject to a range of requirements, and failure to address them can threaten family assets.
Data security and technology – Cyberthreats continue to evolve, and family offices must invest in appropriate technology and cybersecurity measures to help protect sensitive personal and financial information.

For additional perspective on efficiency and risk, Creative Planning’s insights on enhancing family office efficiency with outsourcing and broader risk management can be helpful.

Frequently Asked Questions About Single-Family Offices

How much wealth do you need to start a single-family office?

Due to the high cost of operation, single-family offices are typically used by only the most wealthy UHNW families. In practice, this is generally defined as families with at least $100 million in net worth, although $250 million or more can make running a single-family office more cost-effective.

What does it cost to run a single-family office?

The cost of running a single-family office generally starts at around $1 million per year. For a larger single-family office with broad capabilities, the annual cost may reach $10 million or more. This cost commonly ranges between roughly 30 and 120 basis points of assets under management, depending on the scale and range of services.

Common expenses include staff compensation, physical infrastructure, legal and compliance fees, and technology and cybersecurity investments.

How is a single-family office structured?

Single-family offices can be structured as C corporations, S corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), limited partnerships (LPs) or trusts. LLCs tend to be the most common legal structure, due to their flexibility and liability protection. With LPs, general partners assume liability, while limited partners receive liability protection up to their investment amount. With a trust, a trustee manages family assets for beneficiaries according to the terms of the trust agreement, which can help support long-term wealth transfer and creditor protection goals.

What Is a Single-Family Office? Structure, Costs and Setup Guide