How to Run a Family Office Under $100M

A tactical guide for capital founders ready to professionalize wealth, protect their legacy, and future-proof their capital stack.

If you’re a founder sitting on $20M, $50M, or even $100M+, you’ve already won a few rounds of the wealth game.

But at this level, new risks emerge:
→ Capital concentration
→ Coordination failure
→ Tax inefficiencies
→ Cyber threats
→ Investment clutter
→ No clear “CIO” thinking across your personal capital stack

This is where most wealth quietly erodes.

What you need isn’t another adviser.
You need a system.

A family office is that system.

And no, you don’t need $500M to start.
With the right structure, tech, and mindset, you can run a high-performance family office with a net worth of $20m—$100m.

Here’s how.

What Is a Family Office?

Think of it as your command centre for capital, life, and legacy.

It’s not just about managing money—it’s about orchestrating:

• Investments

• Tax strategy

• Legal structuring

• Family governance

• Philanthropy

• Risk and compliance

• Cybersecurity

• Life logistics

At its best, a family office brings clarity, control, and scalability to everything wealth touches.

Family Office Models: Pick Your Game Mode

1. Single-Family Office (SFO)

Your own in-house team.
High control, high cost.

• Best for: $150M+ portfolios

• Annual cost: 1–2% of AUM ($1M–$2M/year on $100M)

• Tradeoff: Full privacy and customisation, but expensive to maintain

2. Multi-Family Office (MFO)

Shared services with other families.
Efficient, credible, but less bespoke.

• Best for: $30M–$200M

• Annual cost: 0.3–0.7% of AUM

• Tradeoff: Strong infrastructure at lower cost—but less control

3. Virtual Family Office (VFO)

Lean, digital-first setup.
Minimal headcount. Maximum flexibility.

• Best for: $20M–$150M

• Annual cost: Often <1% of AUM

• Tradeoff: Requires strong coordination, but gives you agility and optionality

Analogy:
SFO = your own private plane
MFO = luxury shared jet club
VFO = Uber Black with priority access

Key Archetypes: What Kind of Capital Founder Are You?

🧠 Visionary Entrepreneur

High conviction. High risk. Operates like a venture fund.

🏛 Traditional Business Owner

Conservative, legacy-driven. Prefers banks and stable income.

🏢 Embedded Office

Run inside the core business. Efficient but limited independence.

🧰 Professionalised Office

With CIO, team, and structure. Suited for 9-figure portfolios.

Your structure should reflect your time horizon, risk appetite, and mental bandwidth.

Costs: Know Your Burn Rate

The cost of running a family office varies significantly depending on your chosen model.

A traditional Single-Family Office (SFO) typically requires $150M+ in assets and has the highest fixed costs—around 1–2% annually—in exchange for full control and a bespoke setup.

Multi-family offices (MFOs) serve multiple clients and offer a balance of customisation and efficiency. They are usually best suited for families with $30M—$100M in assets and charge 0.3–0.7% annually.

For founders with $20M–$150M, a Virtual Family Office (VFO) offers the most cost-effective solution. These modular, digital-first setups often run below 1% of assets under management while maintaining flexibility and scale.

Rule of Thumb:
Start lean. Scale as complexity increases.
Efficiency is a moat. Bloat is death.

Where to Base Your Office: Jurisdictional Leverage

Location = strategy. It affects tax, privacy, control, and cost.

Top jurisdictions to consider:

• 🇺🇸 U.S. (Delaware, Wyoming, Florida) – Strong trust law, FATCA burden

• 🇸🇬 Singapore – Section 13U tax incentives, global gateway, no CGT

• 🇦🇪 UAE/Dubai – 0% tax, fast setup, ideal for global mobility

• 🇨🇭 Switzerland – Financial credibility, high operating cost

• 🇰🇾 Cayman/BVI – Privacy, tax neutrality, reputation risk

• 🇬🇧 UK / Channel Islands – Flexible structures, rising compliance burden

Pro move: Combine jurisdictions. Example: trust in BVI, operating company in UAE, investment Holdco in Singapore.

Core Functions: What a Family Office Does

1. Investment Strategy

• Portfolio allocation

• Manager selection

• Private investments

• Risk controls

• Performance tracking

2. Tax & Legal Structuring

• Multi-jurisdictional compliance

• Asset protection

• Succession planning

• Charitable structures

3. Operations & Admin

• Accounting & bill pay

• Reporting dashboards

• Document control

• Travel, concierge, lifestyle ops

4. Governance & Legacy

• Family constitution

• Education for heirs

• Intra-family agreements

• Family councils

5. Cybersecurity & Privacy

• Data vaults

• Secure comms

• Device security

• Asset protection for digital holdings

Start with your top 3 priorities. Build modularly.
Don’t try to do it all from day one.

Key Tools & Platforms to Run Lean

Reporting & Investment Tracking

• Addepar

• Black Diamond

• Canoe Intelligence

Secure Storage & Comms

• Tresorit

• Signal

• Privoro

Governance & Docs

• Notion (internal SOP + playbook)

• DocuSign + Ironclad

Cybersecurity

• BlackCloak

• Kudelski Security

• NordPass

Outsourced Wealth & Legal

• AlTi Tiedemann

• WE Family Offices

• Withersworldwide

Treat your FO stack like your old startup tech stack:
Build for clarity, speed, and resilience.

Best Practices for Running a Family Office Under $100M

1. Set a Clear Mission
   Preserve capital? Invest with impact? Fund freedom? Define it early.

2. Start Lean, Scale Wisely
   Avoid full-time hires unless necessary. Use fractional CIOs, VAs, and boutique specialists.

3. Design for Digital-First Ops
   Cloud-native. Encrypted. Paperless. Automate what you can.

4. Build Light Governance Early
   Even if it’s just you, define processes. You'll thank yourself when your capital, family, and complexity grow.

5. Optimise for Control, Not Complexity
   You don’t need Goldman Sachs in-house. You need a simple system that gives you leverage over your capital stack.

6. Review Regularly
   Assess cost, performance, and structure every 12–24 months. Your FO should evolve with your life.

Final Thought

You don’t need $500M to think and operate like an institution.
You need a clear objective, a lean structure, and the discipline to think long-term.

The best family offices aren’t the biggest.
They’re the most aligned.

Start small. Stay digital. Build modular.
Because capital without coordination is just chaos.

Survive first. Thrive later.
Then pass it on.

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📩 Want to build a lean family office and control your capital stack like a pro? Read the full playbook at CapitalFounders.io — practical frameworks for high-agency wealth builders.