What Is a Family Office?

A family office is a private structure that manages a family's wealth the way a company is managed: with strategy, governance, reporting, and a team that answers to the family, not to a bank.

It is not a product or an account. It is the way a family decides to organize its investments, its tax and legal planning, succession and often its philanthropy, under one roof and with a single vision.

The difference from a traditional financial advisor is fundamental. An advisor usually looks at one part of the money. A family office looks at the entire estate, every generation, and every jurisdiction where the family holds assets.

Single family office, multi-family office and other models

There are three main models, and the difference lies in how many families the structure serves and who pays for it.

• Single family office (SFO): works for one family only. Full control and an in-house team, with the highest fixed cost.
• Multi-family office (MFO): several families share the structure. Access to a professional team without carrying the full cost alone.
• Virtual family office: a family coordinates outside specialists. Flexible and lighter, but it depends on someone coordinating well.

Many Latin American families start with a hybrid model: a family member or a trusted person coordinates, and the specialists (lawyers, accountants, managers) are hired from outside.

When does a family need a family office?

The short answer: when the complexity of the estate exceeds the family's ability to coordinate it well. The amount matters, but complexity matters more.

As a reference, the industry usually places the threshold for a single family office between US$100 million and US$250 million in investable assets, because running one costs between US$1 million and US$3 million a year. Below that level a multi-family office usually makes more sense, with typical fees of 0.5% to 1.5% of assets per year.

Signs the family already needs one:

• Assets in several countries, with different lawyers and accountants who don't talk to each other.
• A company sale or liquidity event that turned a business into money that needs to be invested.
• A second or third generation joining decisions without clear rules.
• Nobody in the family has a complete view of everything it owns.

Signs it is still too early: the estate is concentrated in a single operating company, or the family is not aligned on values and vision. In that case a family office adds cost before it adds value.

The risks few people mention

A family office does not eliminate risk. It organizes it. And if it is set up badly, it creates new risks that didn't exist before.

• Governance without rules. Without a clear family protocol, investment decisions become emotional decisions, and conflicts between siblings or generations end up in the portfolio.
• Disguised concentration. Many families create the structure but keep most of their wealth in the original company, in their home country and in their local currency. The structure changed; the risk didn't.
• Unprepared succession. The founder is usually the one who understands everything. If nobody else is prepared, the structure is orphaned the day he is gone.
• Costs that eat the returns. Staff, office, software, lawyers and outside managers add up quickly. An expensive family office with a mediocre portfolio destroys value quietly.
• Poorly mapped legal and tax exposure. Holding assets in several countries without understanding how each one is taxed can cost more than any bad investment.

First you understand what can go wrong. Then you talk about returns.

The Latin American case: why part of the wealth goes to the United States

For a family in Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia or Peru, a family office usually has a job a U.S. family doesn't have: protecting wealth from the risk of its own country.

• Country and currency risk. Devaluations, changes of government and capital controls can affect in months what took decades to build.
• Dollar assets. Holding part of the estate in real assets denominated in dollars diversifies local currency risk.
• Legal certainty. Contracts that are honored and predictable courts.
• Generational continuity. Children who study or live abroad and will inherit assets in more than one country.

The risk most families overlook is U.S. estate tax. A person who is neither a U.S. citizen nor a U.S. resident has an exemption of only US$60,000 on assets located in the U.S., including real estate, and the excess can be taxed at rates of up to 40%. That is why how the asset is held matters as much as the asset itself.

On top of that come the withholding on the sale of real estate (FIRPTA) and taxation in the home country. Every family needs to map this with its lawyers and accountants before moving capital. We cover it in more detail in our guide for investors outside the U.S.

How we do it at A9 Family Office

I am not writing this from theory. I am Chief Investment Officer of A9 Family Office, my own family's family office, and I have managed capital since 2012.

I created A9 because I needed an organized structure to place my family's money. Having wealth is not enough. Like everything in life, it needs organization: an objective, a mission, a vision and values. For me, A9 is the most important venture of my life.

What we learned building it:

• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. If a structure takes three meetings to understand, it is probably hiding a risk nobody sees.
• The entry price is everything. Returns are earned the day you buy, not the day you sell. A good asset bought too expensive is still a bad investment.
• The energy goes into the decision, not its aftermath. That is why every opportunity goes through the same method, the Diamond: Product, Market, Finance and People, evaluated together before a single dollar moves. Once a decision is made with discipline, you don't live in fear of what comes next.
• There are no bad markets, only bad strategies. Every cycle has opportunities. What changes is the structure you enter with.

That same discipline is what we apply at Infinity⁹ with the more than 75 families who trust us across more than 10 countries.

Frequently asked questions

How much money do you need to have a family office?

There is no legal minimum. As a reference, a single family office is usually justified starting at US$100 million to US$250 million; below that, a multi-family office or a coordinated model is usually more efficient.

What is the difference between a family office and a private bank?

A private bank manages the part of the money it holds in custody. A family office works for the family and coordinates the entire estate, across every country and every advisor.

Is a family office only for investments?

No. It also covers legal and tax planning, succession, family governance, consolidated reporting and sometimes philanthropy.

Can a Latin American family have its family office in Miami?

Yes, and many do. Miami offers time-zone and cultural proximity to Latin America, access to the U.S. market, and an ecosystem of lawyers and managers who work in Spanish.

What tax risk comes with investing in the U.S. as a nonresident?

The main one is estate tax: the exemption for nonresidents is only US$60,000 on U.S. assets. The structure used to hold each asset should be defined with advisors before investing.

This content is educational and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice, or an offer of securities. Each family should consult its own advisors.