Handling the “Family Office Question” from Clients: How Advisors Can Respond with Confidence

One of the most stress-inducing questions that many financial advisors receive from wealthier clients is, “Do I need a family office?” Any suggestion that a valuable client is even considering switching can create anxiety, even for the most seasoned professionals. Responding with a simple “yes” can make it seem like you don’t value them, or worse, that you’re ready to walk away. But saying “no” in the wrong way may not inspire much confidence either.

What if there were a way to do what’s best for your family clients while remaining an essential part of the team that helps them achieve everything they’re looking for?

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The truth is that most families don’t need a family office, although some may like the cachet of saying they have one. The real questions for advisors are

and:

When clients see that you’re genuinely focused on their interests and act on that, they usually see even more value in the relationship.

At this point, curiosity is key. Asking questions like, “Can you help me understand what it is you’d like to accomplish for your family?” opens the door. Often, clients aren’t seeking a massive internal structure. Instead, they may feel overwhelmed by complexity, frustrated by disjointed advice, or uncertain about how to engage the next generation. They want their advisors to work together more effectively and want better ways to involve family members.

That desire for “something more” is valid and is an opportunity. The solution they imagine may not be the solution they actually need. 

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Alternatives to a Traditional Family Office

A single-family office (SFO) is designed to serve one family, often spanning multiple branches and generations. In practice, the wealth threshold usually starts in the mid–nine figures (around $500 million), given the cost of employing a dedicated team of professionals.

Some families will have been approached by multi-family offices (MFOs), which aim to provide SFO-like services at a lower level of wealth. But the term “family office” has become loosely used, and offerings vary widely. Many families end up competing for attention or discovering that the promised support doesn’t quite match reality.

What most families are really looking for, when they raise the family office question, is not a large staff but relatively greater sophistication and coordination in how their wealth is managed, tailored to their specific situation and delivered when needed. They require a range of expertise: investment management, tax planning, estate planning, philanthropy, family governance, education, and more.

For many, the best answer is not to build an internal family office but to create a network of trusted, external specialists who can be brought in as required. This approach provides flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.

Advisors who build trusted partnerships can deliver many of the same benefits while avoiding the pitfalls. By collaborating with complementary firms, they can cover much of that range, and, increasingly, even MFOs are seeking out such partnerships to expand what they can offer.

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Your Role as Strategic Architect – Partnering for Scale, Sophistication, and Trust

At the core of every advisory relationship is trust, and if a client is asking you about a family office, it’s likely because they already trust you deeply. That’s a good sign. But it’s important to acknowledge that no single advisor can meet every need. Rather than trying to be everything, you can position yourself as the strategic architect of their wealth plan. You can be the advisor who ensures all the moving parts fit together.

Clients’ desire for more sophistication is not a threat. It’s a chance for you to step into an even more pivotal role.

Building these partnerships allows you to deliver what families want without presuming to be everything they need. At Blackwood, we regularly collaborate with other professionals, especially in areas outside traditional financial expertise, such as family governance and intergenerational engagement. Because we don’t sell financial products, our work is entirely conflict-free, and our role is to enhance, not replace, the work of existing advisors.

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When you’ve already earned a family’s trust, expanding your role to help them access the right expertise is a powerful way to become indispensable. Families appreciate when their advisors recognize limits but also take the initiative to connect them with solutions. By guiding them to the right partners, you demonstrate leadership, foresight, and care.

The next time a client asks, “Do I need a family office?” remember they’re not asking to leave you. They’re asking you to help them think bigger about how to manage their wealth. The only real question is, are you ready to meet them there?