Why the service list matters before the fee conversation
Two proposals can carry the same "family office" label but cover entirely different scopes of work. One might include investment management and quarterly calls. Another might include investment management, direct tax return preparation, estate plan maintenance, bill pay, consolidated family reporting, and coordination across six specialists. A fee comparison only makes sense once you know what each proposal actually covers.
Start by writing down every recurring responsibility you want a team to take on. Then compare each proposal against that list — not against each other's marketing materials.
Investment management
All three models — a coordinated investment advisor, a multi-family office, and a single-family office — typically include investment management as the core service. What varies is depth and control.
- Coordinated investment advisor: Manages a portfolio of securities, funds, or ETFs. May provide financial planning alongside investment management. Coordinates with your CPA or estate attorney but typically does not employ them.
- Multi-family office (MFO): Manages investments across multiple asset classes, often including alternatives — private equity, hedge funds, direct real estate — that require scale to access. Portfolio construction may be more customized at this level.
- Single-family office (SFO): Employs a CIO or outsources to a sub-advisor. Provides full control over the investment policy statement, asset allocation, and manager selection. Typically requires assets well above $100M to justify a dedicated investment team.1
Financial planning and coordination
Planning is one area where the label diverges most from actual service delivery. Ask each provider what planning work falls inside the engagement fee and what is billed separately.
- Goal and cash flow planning: Retirement projections, spending analysis, education funding or family gifting scenarios. Generally included at all levels; depth varies by provider.
- Event-based planning: Business sale, inheritance, equity compensation payout, or real estate transaction. Often included at the MFO level; at the coordinated-advisor level, may be a project fee.
- Coordination with outside professionals: Does the firm liaise with your CPA, estate attorney, and insurance broker, or do you manage those conversations yourself? At the coordinated-advisor level, coordination is often informal. MFOs more frequently manage these relationships directly.
Tax strategy vs. tax preparation
This distinction matters. Most investment advisors offer tax-aware investment management — harvesting losses, managing capital gain timing, locating assets across account types. That is not the same as preparing your tax returns.
Tax preparation — filing 1040s, partnership K-1s, trust returns, or state returns — is a licensed function. Some MFOs have CPAs on staff and include it in the base engagement. Others refer you to an outside accounting firm and coordinate the relationship. SFOs often employ a tax professional directly. Confirm what is included in writing before comparing fees.2
Estate planning coordination
Estate planning — designing trusts, drafting documents, executing transfers — requires a licensed estate attorney. Most family office providers do not draft legal documents themselves. What they offer instead is coordination: identifying what your estate plan should address, connecting you with counsel, and keeping the plan current as your assets and family change.
For families with complex or multigenerational structures, this coordination function is valuable on its own. Ask each provider how frequently they review your estate plan, who they typically work with for legal drafting, and whether that relationship is included in the engagement fee.
Family reporting and administration
Consolidated reporting — a single view of your investments, trust accounts, outside assets, and liabilities — is a common family office deliverable. The format and frequency vary widely.
- A coordinated investment advisor typically provides performance reporting for accounts they manage, often through a custodian portal.
- An MFO may aggregate accounts held elsewhere and produce a consolidated balance sheet across entities, with quarterly or annual family reporting.
- A dedicated SFO may maintain full general ledger accounting for the family's holdings, including private investments and real estate not held in custody.
If consolidated reporting across all your accounts matters, ask each provider what they can aggregate and what the reporting output actually looks like before you commit.
Bill pay and cash management
Some MFOs and most SFOs offer bill pay — reviewing and processing family expenses, managing distributions from trusts or entities, and coordinating wire transfers. This is an operational service that not every investment advisory arrangement includes. Confirm whether it is inside or outside the base engagement fee.
Services that vary by arrangement
The following services appear in some family office engagements and not others. Confirm explicitly whether each is included, excluded, or available for a project fee:
- Insurance review and placement coordination
- Charitable giving coordination (donor-advised fund, private foundation, grant-making support)
- Trustee or co-trustee services
- Next-generation financial education
- Concierge banking and private credit access
- Family governance and shared decision-making support
- Real estate oversight or co-investment
Providers who include these services typically charge more. Providers who exclude them may be the right fit if your situation is simpler. The right answer depends on what you actually need — not on what the broadest possible engagement offers.
A service-scope checklist for your next conversation
Bring this list to each proposal review. Ask each provider to mark each item as: included in the base engagement, available as a project fee, or not offered.
- Investment management — securities and cash
- Investment management — alternatives (private equity, hedge funds, direct real estate)
- Financial planning — ongoing goals and cash flow
- Financial planning — event-based (business sale, liquidity event, inheritance)
- Tax-aware investment management
- Tax return preparation — personal returns
- Tax return preparation — entity, trust, or partnership returns
- Estate planning coordination
- Legal document drafting (requires outside counsel regardless of model)
- Consolidated reporting — managed accounts only
- Consolidated reporting — all accounts, including outside holdings
- Bill pay and cash management
- Insurance review and placement
- Charitable giving support
- Family governance support
A written response to this list — not verbal — across multiple providers gives you a genuine basis for comparison. Use the fee comparison tool once you have confirmed the scope for each proposal.
Sources & further reading
Source pages reviewed September 2026. Service descriptions are general; individual arrangements vary by provider and engagement terms.