Takeaways from Family Offices 101: What They Are and How They Manage Wealth
Dear Diary,
On November 4, 2025, I attended a professional development session led by the Jennifer Filla, President of Aspire Research Group, and CEO of Prospect Research Institute. The session was presented and hosted by the Apra Florida chapter. With an arsenal of experience in prospect research and fundraising strategies, Jennifer’s session focused on the dynamics of a family office, how they affect philanthropy, and why you should care as research professionals and fundraisers.
Filla began the session by defining what a family office is, its shifting purpose and structure. A family office can be structured as a wealth management and investment vehicle, LLC or advisory firm. It can be used to preserve and grow wealth or assist in the transfer of wealth across generations. There are two structures of family offices – a single-family office and a multi-family office.
A single-family office manages one family’s money. Single-family offices with $100 million+ in public equities (stocks) must disclose the amount, which can be used to estimate assets under management. Whereas a multi-family office manages the money of multiple families. Multi-family offices managing $110 million+ in assets must be a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) and file disclosures with the SEC that we can use to estimate compensation or a family net worth.
Establishing a family office often indicates $30 million+ or $100 million+ in investable assets. A family office allows the family to feel a sense of management and responsibility for their assets and integrate the larger family unit (specifically the younger generation).
30 minutes or so into the session, Filla challenged attendees with a slide titled: Why Should You Care?
I enjoyed this slide and the review of the following statistics supported by Deloitte (2024) –
There are 15,000 to 20,000 family offices worldwide and 8,030 single-family offices and growing. There is a total of $3.1 trillion assets under management. There is also the transfer of wealth to the next generation that is blurring lines between investing and philanthropy. Note: the higher the net worth, the less visible the assets are because this is private money. The clients of multi-family offices are not public knowledge.
Filla acknowledged something that many of us in the fundraising industry know but should highlight more often – philanthropy is growing and there are mixed methods of giving which include Impact Investing, Private Foundations, Donor Advised Funds, and Direct Giving. Most often you see donors using a mixture of these vehicles to give. We can also see that the younger generation tends to want more hands-on opportunities tied to their gift. For example, opportunities that allow them to lead a program.
As prospect researchers, Filla highlighted clues and tips when researching single-and-multi-family office:
(1) When the LLC is doing more than just owning the family vacation home
(2) When the office employs people
(3) When the office is associated with various types of investments
(4) When you can identify a focal point for wealth activity post company sale
When there is also evidence of legacy behavior and/or wealth transfer:
(1) Family is involved in investment activities
(2) Family is serving on the foundation board
(3) Formal or informal family branding
Noteworthy: A wealth event can lead to the creation of a family office – legacy behavior and wealth transfer, for example, adding children to the board.
Filla’s session, slightly under an hour in length with time for questions and answers, closed things off by calculating asset allocation and referenced Goldman Sachs’ Adapting to the Terrain Family Office Investment Insights; She also gave a high-level overview of information that can be found on a multi-family’s SEC ADV Form. I would recommend looking out for future sessions taught by Jennifer Filla as she shares more on philanthropic activities by ultra-high net worth individuals and family offices.
Two things came to mind as I took pages of notes: (1) Prospecting single-family and multi-family offices locally and/or regionally would be a great project because strategically, fundraisers could reach out to appropriate contacts at an office to feature their organization as a philanthropic option for clients and host an informational fireside chat. There are a lot of options for presentations when in the room of these offices or virtually. (2) Are we noting that prospects/donors have a single-family office in our databases? Are we noting their methods of giving in our databases? For example, X family gives through their family foundation (intergenerational vehicle), and their donor advised fund (solely for the couple). Sometimes these entities are not linked to the main family’s record so it might be time to do some clean up.
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Thank you Diary Reader for continuing to follow my professional development journey. I hope to attend more sessions and conferences. Please let me know in the comments what you recently attended or something you read, and one to three things you learned.
Until next time,
December 15th!
