Topic hub
Family offices
A family office is a private organisation that manages the investments, and often the wider financial affairs, of one wealthy family or of several. It is a kind of allocator, not a legal form. This hub covers the types of family office, their US regulatory treatment, the structures families invest through, and how family offices invest in private markets.
Types come first: the single-family office and the multi-family office. A regulation section follows with the US family office rule and the registered investment adviser; the rule's scope and conditions are set out in its own entry. A final section covers how families hold and make investments: holding companies, direct investment, co-investment and the investment committee.
Not in this hub: pensions, endowments, foundations and other institutional allocators, which are in Institutional investors. Private banks and wealth managers appear only as advisers to families. How Altss classifies family offices is set out in its classification standard, linked below.
Reference index
Definition:
Family Office — A family office is a private organisation that manages the investments and often the wider financial affairs of one wealthy family (a single-family office) or of several (a multi-family office); it is a kind of allocator, not a legal form.
Types
2 concepts- Single-Family Office (SFO)
A single-family office (SFO) is a private organisation owned and controlled by one family that manages that family's investments and related financial affairs and has no outside clients.
- Multi-Family Office (MFO)
A multi-family office (MFO) is a firm that provides investment management and family-office services to several unrelated families, either allocating their capital with discretion or advising families who decide for themselves.
Regulation
2 concepts- SEC Family Office Rule (Rule 202(a)(11)(G)-1)
The Family Office Rule is Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 202(a)(11)(G)-1, excluding from the investment adviser definition a family office that serves only family clients, is family-owned and family-controlled, and does not publicly hold itself out as an adviser.
- Registered Investment Adviser (RIA)
A registered investment adviser (RIA) is a firm registered as an investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or a US state; the status covers private fund managers as well as wealth-management firms.
Structures and investing
4 concepts- Holding Company
- Direct Investment
- Co-Investment
A co-investment is a minority equity investment made directly in a specific portfolio company alongside a private fund sponsor's main fund, typically offered to the fund's LPs or other partners on reduced or no management fee and carried interest.
- Investment Committee
Methodologies and frameworks
Standard · Version 1.2.0
Altss Family Office Classification Standard
How Altss classifies family offices: the SEC family office rule as a US regulatory exclusion rather than a general definition, accredited-investor family office categories, Altss-defined labels for single-, multi-, embedded and virtual family offices, adjacent types excluded, and the evidence each label requires.