The FWA, which puts out an annual MFO survey, now plans a survey of MFOs. The Family Wealth Alliance (FWA), a Wheaton, Ill.-based consultancy to ultra-high-net-worth families, plans to inaugurate an annual survey of U.S. single-family offices this year.

The new report comes in response to demand from ultra-high-net-worth families and non-commercial family-office executives, many of whom use the FWA's annual Multifamily Office Study as a benchmark for their practices, according to the FWA's CEO Thomas Livergood.

What's being done

In addition to delving into single-family offices -- that is, organizations dedicated to managing the wealth of a single family -- it will survey "closed" family offices, which may serve unrelated families but aren't open to taking on new families.

The new Single Family Office Study will provide the basis of comparison with the FWA's Multifamily Office Study across 60 data points, including executive compensation and product and service offerings -- including the extent to which such offerings are actually utilized.

"Our research will help clarify choices for successful families," says Livergood. "When faced with the decision to start or stay with [a single-family office] or go to [a multifamily office], I'd want to know what's being done" in both channels, says Livergood.

In addition to helping existing single-family offices and the families that control them, Livergood sees the Single Family Office Study as a valuable resource to multifamily offices interested in benchmarking their own models and approaches to non-commercial peers, and -- for more or less obvious reasons -- to vendors to the high-wealth space like asset managers, technology providers and headhunters.

The first Single Family Office Study will be unveiled along with the fifth Multifamily Office Study at the FWA's MFO Forum at the James Hotel in Chicago on 1-2 October and at its SFO Forum on 2-3 October in the same venue.

Single-family office executives interested in participating in the FWA's Single Family Office Study, can find out how here. Multifamily offices looking to take part in the Multifamily Office Study can use this link. -FWR

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