Wealth built in one generation.
Sustained across many.
The family office is the most sophisticated wealth management structure available to private families. We advise on its design, governance, and long-term evolution — from the decision to establish one through every generation that follows.
What a family office
actually is
A family office is a private organization — staffed, governed, and operated exclusively in service of one family’s financial, legal, philanthropic, and administrative affairs. It is not a product, not a platform, and not a firm you hire. It is a structure you build.
The decision to establish a family office is one of the most consequential a family of wealth will make. Done well, it centralizes oversight, reduces cost, eliminates conflicts, and creates a governance infrastructure that survives the founder. Done poorly, it replicates the inefficiencies of the advisors it was meant to replace.
ARH Consults advises families on both sides of this decision — and on every structural question that follows from it.
A private entity staffed and governed entirely by — and for — one family. Maximum control, maximum privacy, and maximum cost. Appropriate for families with $100M or more in investable assets who require bespoke administration.
A professionally managed platform serving a small number of families with shared operational costs. Offers family office capabilities at a fraction of the standalone cost, while preserving confidentiality between families.
A curated network of specialized advisors — investment, legal, tax, estate — coordinated under a single oversight function. Flexible and cost-efficient for families building toward a full office or managing specific complexity.
Signals that a family
office is warranted
There is no single threshold that determines when a family office becomes appropriate. The decision is driven by a combination of scale, complexity, and the cost of not having one — in fees paid, conflicts tolerated, and opportunities missed.
At this level, the inefficiencies of a fragmented advisory model — multiple managers, overlapping mandates, no consolidated reporting — begin to materially cost the family in performance and control.
When a family manages separate relationships with an investment manager, estate attorney, tax advisor, insurance broker, and private banker — each working independently — a unifying oversight function becomes essential.
When the next generation is approaching ownership responsibility, the informal structures that served the founder become inadequate. Governance must be institutionalized before the transition, not after.
Public equities, private equity, real estate, operating businesses, and alternative investments each require specialized oversight. A family office provides the coordination layer that no single external manager can.
When the family recognizes that no advisor they currently pay is truly unconflicted — that every recommendation is filtered through the advisor’s own revenue interests — the case for an independent structure becomes undeniable.
The inability to see the full balance sheet — net worth, allocations, tax position, liability exposure — in one place is itself a governance failure. A family office corrects it structurally.
What our family office
practice delivers
Our family office advisory spans the full lifecycle — from the initial feasibility decision through ongoing governance support for established offices navigating generational transition, staffing, and strategic evolution.
How a well-governed family office is structured
Each tier carries distinct authority, accountability, and scope. Clarity between them is the difference between governance and theater.
Family Council
Advisory Committees
Operations
The challenge is not
building wealth.
It is keeping it.
Research consistently shows that family wealth dissipates across generations — not through market performance, but through governance failure, family conflict, and the absence of structures that transmit values alongside capital.
Our family office practice is explicitly multigenerational in its orientation. We design structures and governance frameworks that are built to outlast their founders — and we work with the next generation directly, not merely on their behalf.
Begin a Family Office ConversationThe founder builds the estate, often with wealth concentrated in a business or asset class. The family office is established to consolidate, protect, and begin the transition to diversified, governed capital.
The second generation inherits not just wealth but responsibility. Governance structures must be formalized, roles clearly defined, and the family’s shared values encoded before differing interests emerge.
By the third generation, family wealth is either institutional — governed by professional structures, shared mission, and clear processes — or it has begun to fragment. The family office is the mechanism that determines which.
“Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.”
Your family deserves a
structure built to last.
Whether you are considering a family office for the first time or reassessing one that has drifted from its purpose, we begin with a private conversation.