"Family offices are not corporate clients. They are not private clients either."
A family office is a firm-within-a-firm. PWS Offshore coordinates trust, corporate and mobility specialists within one controlled engagement and a consistent governance framework.
How we work with family offices.
A family office is a firm-within-a-firm — corporate, private-client, mobility, real estate, philanthropy and reporting all running under one governance frame. PWS Offshore coordinates trust, corporate and mobility specialists within one controlled engagement.
We do not run a family's capital. We build and govern the office, coordinating vetted CIOs, custodians and administrators against the family's documented requirements.
Every engagement is written up in a family-office charter that anchors decision rights, next-generation induction and dispute resolution. The legal and operational stack is built to serve the charter, not the other way around.
What we've seen go wrong.
- Building the operational stack before the governance charter, then rebuilding both when the family disagrees
- Appointing a CIO and administrators without documenting conflicts, responsibilities and oversight
- Consolidating all custody with one private bank, losing negotiating power and creating single-point-of-failure risk
- Treating the next generation as beneficiaries rather than principals, and losing the family office in the second generation
The shape of the work.
Every engagement is fixed-fee, specialist advisory, and quoted in writing before any work begins.
- 01Family charter drafting with principals (4–6 weeks)
- 02Full legal and holding structure: trust, foundation, holdco, SPV, jurisdiction selection
- 03Operational build: custodian, banking, accounting, reporting, CIO and administrator introductions
- 04Governance handover: board packs, policies, annual calendar
Questions we hear from family offices.
- Single-family or multi-family office?
- Below roughly $250m of assets, a well-run multi-family office is usually more cost-efficient. Above that, single-family becomes competitive and gives full control. We help families make the call before building either.
- How are external CIOs and custodians appointed?
- Candidates are assessed against the family's mandate, governance requirements and total cost, with commercial arrangements documented before appointment.
- Can you work alongside our existing lawyer or accountant?
- Yes. Most of our family-office engagements run alongside a family's long-standing lawyer and accountant. PWS Offshore owns the governance and structuring; the family's existing advisors keep their operational roles.
Explore further for family offices
Family Office Set-up
Single- and multi-family office design, governance charters and operational playbooks.
Trusts & Foundations
Discretionary, fixed-interest, purpose and reserved-power trusts. Panama and Nevis foundations.
Private Banking Introductions
Warm introductions to tier-one private banks in Singapore, HK, Monaco, Switzerland, London.
Every engagement begins with a twenty-minute advisory call. Fixed fees, in writing, before any work begins.