What is Family Office?

A family office is a privately-held entity providing investment management, tax planning, estate planning, philanthropy administration, and concierge services to one (single-family office, SFO) or several (multi-family office, MFO) wealthy families.

NZ family office landscape: estimated 80-150 single-family offices and 5-10 multi-family offices serving NZ-resident families with NZ$50M+ in investable assets. The segment is largely undisclosed; most family offices avoid public profiles. Multi-family offices in NZ include Alvarium, Stewart Group, and Forsyth Barr's private-client division.

Investment posture: family offices typically allocate 20-40% to alternatives (private equity, venture capital, private credit, real assets) compared to 5-15% for institutional pension funds. Allocation horizons extend to 20-50 years across generations, enabling commitment to illiquid asset classes that other investor types avoid.

Regulatory status: a family office investing solely the family's own capital is typically not "in the business" of providing financial services to others and falls outside the FMCA disclosure regime entirely. However, if the family office accepts external client capital it must register on the FSP Register and comply with AML/CFT obligations under the AML/CFT Act 2009.

Wholesale qualification: family offices universally qualify as wholesale investors under the "large person" pathway (Clause 3(2)(b) FMCA Schedule 1, NZ$5M net assets threshold) — typically by several orders of magnitude. Many also qualify under "investment business" (Clause 3(2)(a)) by virtue of their investment-management activities.