How do you set up a family office in 2026?

You set it up as a project, with a scope, a timeline and named deliverables, and you can have a working office in six to nine months. Treat it as an open-ended chat with your private bank and you can spend two years and still have nothing. This checklist is the sequence we run.

A family office, in plain words, is a private team that looks after a family's wealth: investing it, keeping the records, handling the legal and tax side, and planning for the next generation. Think of it as a small company whose only client is your family.

What does the family office world look like in 2026?

It has grown up. Regulators in Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Zurich and London have set out clearer expectations. Service providers (administrators, technology vendors, independent investment reporters) have become more professional. Families are better informed too.

The second and third generation of big family wealth expect proper, institutional-grade governance. A private-bank relationship dressed up as an office won't impress them.

How does the whole project fit together?

There are seven phases, and they overlap on purpose. Week numbers below are approximate.

The seven phases of a family office set-up
  1. 1
    Weeks 1–4
    Purpose and scope
    decide what the office is for, in one page signed by the principals
  2. 2
    Weeks 3–8
    Jurisdiction and structure
    pick a home country and design the legal set-up
  3. 3
    Weeks 6–12
    Governance
    write the rules for how decisions get made
  4. 4
    Weeks 8–16
    Custody, banking, reporting
    choose where assets are held and how they're tracked
  5. 5
    Weeks 10–24
    People
    hire the core team, in a set order
  6. 6
    Weeks 12–20
    Service providers
    appoint tax, audit, insurance, IT and trustees
  7. 7
    Weeks 20–36
    Go live
    move assets, hold the first formal investment meeting, issue the first quarterly report

Phase 1: What is the office actually for? (weeks 1–4)

Decide this before anything else, because it drives staff, budget, jurisdiction and regulatory status. Write it on one page and have the principals (the family members in charge) sign it.

There are three broad options:

  • Pure investment office: manages the family's liquid portfolio, meaning investments that are easy to sell.
  • Investment plus operating oversight: also keeps an eye on the family's operating business interests.
  • Full family services: investments, tax, legal, philanthropy, next-generation education and lifestyle.

Phase 2: Where does it live, and how is it built? (weeks 3–8)

Pick a home country that matches where the family actually lives and invests. The mainstream options are Singapore (13O/13U), Dubai (DIFC), Abu Dhabi (ADGM), Hong Kong, Zurich, Geneva and London.

The structure usually has three parts:

  • A for the family's investable assets.
  • The family office entity itself, which may or may not be regulated, depending on the country and what it does.
  • Trust or foundation wrappers for passing wealth down, where appropriate.

Design it with a 20-year horizon, so it still works when generations and homes change.

Where are the grey areas?

This article is a practical checklist, and nothing in it rests on rules that cut both ways or on positions authorities are likely to challenge. So there's no grey-area block here. The caveats that do apply are about judgement, not loopholes. Whether you need regulation depends on your country and on whether you serve third parties. Whether a private bank's service is enough depends on your wealth (see the FAQs below).

Phase 3: How will decisions get made? (weeks 6–12)

Draft and adopt these five documents:

  • A family charter: your values, mission and who has the final say.
  • Terms of reference for the board and the Investment Committee (IC, the group that approves investment decisions).
  • An Investment Policy Statement: how you split money between asset types, how much must stay easy to access, and your risk limits.
  • A conflict-of-interest policy and register.
  • A succession protocol: what happens when leadership changes.

Governance is what turns a rich family into an institutional family office. Skipping this phase is the most common cause of family office failure at the ten-year mark. Yes, it means writing documents nobody is excited about. Write them anyway.

Phase 4: Where are the assets held, and how do you see them? (weeks 8–16)

Choose these four things:

  • One or two primary custodians (the institutions that hold your assets), with institutional pricing and segregated accounts.
  • Backup banking relationships in at least two additional jurisdictions.
  • An independent consolidated reporting provider (Addepar, Masttro, or equivalent). This gives you one combined view of everything you own.
  • Cash management arrangements for short-term liquidity.

Custody and reporting choices lock in your costs for years, so they're worth the time.

Phase 5: Who do you hire, and in what order? (weeks 10–24)

Hire in this order:

  1. Head of the office / CEO. Often the trigger hire, and sets the tone.
  2. Head of investments / CIO (chief investment officer). Internal or externalised, depending on the size of the mandate.
  3. Controller / head of finance. Covers reporting, compliance and cash management.
  4. General counsel. Needed for offices above €500m or with complex operating interests.
  5. Investment analysts, operations staff and personal assistants. Added as scale requires.

Recruit from institutional finance (banks, asset managers, prior family offices) rather than from the family's operating businesses. It produces better outcomes.

Phase 6: Which outside providers do you need? (weeks 12–20)

Engage:

  • Tax counsel in every relevant jurisdiction.
  • An audit and accounting firm, for the office itself and for consolidated family reporting.
  • An insurance broker for D&O (directors' and officers' cover), liability and specialist family cover.
  • IT and cybersecurity, often outsourced at first and brought in-house later.
  • Independent trustees where trust structures are used.

Phase 7: When does it go live? (weeks 20–36)

Move the assets across, migrate the reporting, hold the first formal IC meeting and issue the first quarterly report to the family. From that point the office is operational and settles into a cycle of continuous improvement.

What do the numbers look like?

Headline figures
Realistic set-up time, well-scoped office
6–9 months
Set-up time if governance and hiring are deferred
12–18 months
Typical running cost at €100–500m of AUM
30–80 basis points
Typical running cost at €1bn+ of AUM
15–40 basis points

AUM means assets under management, the total wealth the office looks after. A basis point is one-hundredth of one percent.

How do we approach this at Sovereign Signal?

We run family office set-up as a project with a named lead, a written timeline and weekly progress reviews. For each function (custodian, reporting, tax, legal, insurance) we introduce the specialist providers the family will need, and the family chooses from a shortlist.

We do not take referral commissions. Our fees are flat, quoted in advance, and disclosed in the family charter as an operating expense of the office.

Worked example

A second-generation family in Europe with €280m of investable wealth had been "thinking about a family office" for four years. We scoped it in a two-day workshop, agreed a Singapore 13O structure with a Zurich custodian, hired a CEO from a competitor office within eight weeks, and had first-quarter reporting to the family board within six months.

The decision that moved the project forward was switching from "should we?" to "when, and by whom?".

FAQs

How long does a set-up realistically take?

Six to nine months for a well-scoped office. Twelve to eighteen months if governance and hiring are deferred.

What does it cost to run?

Typical operating cost is 30–80 basis points of AUM at €100–500m, falling to 15–40 bps at €1bn+.

Do I need to be regulated?

In Singapore, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, family office designation is available and often useful. Full licensing is required only if serving third parties.

Can I use my private bank's family-office service instead?

For families under €150m, yes. It is often the right answer. Above that, a dedicated office usually pays for itself in fee savings and better decisions.