Family Offices in America — Why the Bloom is off the Rose

Abstract

This article focuses on the roles assigned to a family office and discusses reasons why enthusiasm for the concept seems to be waning. The family office is an old idea that came back into fashion in the 1980s. Today, many U.S. families are questioning the value of a single-family office. Cooperative ventures among families have been disappointing, and multifamily offices are on the increase. Beyer questions why these changes have occurred and looks into what may have happened in the last fifteen years to explain them. She reviews how different families structured their family offices and suggest that technology, flow of information, and investor education seem to be the three most important trends likely to shape the family office future.