The book offers crucial advice in helping entrepreneurs and their families find or found a family office that fits their goals. The authors survey the key considerations in this process, including: What are the different models for family offices, and what are their respective benefits? What costs can be expected from a family office, and how much wealth must be under management to justify them? What are the role and responsibilities of the Family Officer and his staff? Which are best practices for family governance, succession planning, and philanthropy at a family office? These insights are then supplemented by a wide-ranging set of interviews with family members, family officers and consultants from around the world. Both family office professionals and families themselves will benefit from this thorough but highly approachable examination. The author team of Boris Canessa, Jens Escher, Alexander Koeberle-Schmid, Peter Preller and Christoph Weber are each experts in a specific field related to the family office. They apply their professional and personal knowledge as family office specialists to provide details on organization of the family office, governance structures, asset allocation, succession and family governance planning and more.

Boris Canessa was instrumental in founding a single family office for his extended family and now serves as chairman of its advisory board. He is also an executive board member at the German Association of Independent Family Offices.Prof. Jens Escher LL.M. is a lawyer and tax advisor for Taylor Wessing in Düsseldorf, Germany, focused on consulting for corporations, high net worth private clients and their family offices in the areas of succession/asset structuring/foundations. He is also an honorary professor at the University of Leipzig and a lecturer at the University of Munster.Dr. Alexander Koeberle-Schmid is an expert in family business and family office governance, succession planning, boards of directors, and family constitution. He has been advising families in Europe, Asia and the Middle East for many years. He is frequently asked to speak at events and has also published the book "Governance in Family Enterprises". He is a lecturer for leading the family business at EBS Business School in Germany. Peter Preller, LL.M. has served since October 2011 as the senior client consultant at HQ Trust GmbH in Bad Homburg, the multi family office for the Harald Quandt family, offering comprehensive consulting for complex client assets. He is also an instructor in the Master's degree program in "Corporate Succession, Inheritance and Assets" at the University of Munster. Christoph Weber is managing partner and co-founder of the WSH Family Office, Düsseldorf. He has published numerous articles in journals on family offices and serves as the chairman of the board of the German Association of Independent Family Offices.