This book reveals the big demand for family office knowledge

A book about how the mechanics of setting up a family office was so popular in Germany that it has been translated into English, and marketed in the US and the UK.

Entitled The Family Office: A Practical Guide to Strategically and Operationally Managing Family Wealth, the book is written by a team of family office experts.

First released in German in 2017, The Family Office: A Practical Guide has been published by Palgrave Macmillan, with the English edition including new sections and additional interviews from family offices around the world. “The book was so successful in Germany that we decided to go international and launch an English version,” says Koeberle-Schmid.

He adds: “It includes interviews with family officers and practical insights for families from across the globe.”

Koeberle-Schmid, a family enterprise consultant and academic, teamed up to write the book with Boris Canessa, who helped set up the private investment office for the family who owns Henkel AG, one of Germany’s biggest family businesses; Peter Preller, who works with a multi-family office called HQ Trust; Christoph Weber, managing partner and co-founder of a MFO called WSH Family Office; and Jens Escher, a lawyer and tax advisor for Taylor Wessing.

“The book is a practice-oriented handbook for family offices and families thinking about setting up a family office,” says Koeberle-Schmid.

Interestingly, the authors reckon the wealth threshold for those considering setting up a family office is €72 million. At this level, says Koeberle-Schmid, a family can afford to set up an entry-level private investment office with a very small structure. He says this type of investment group would have a couple of staff and cost around €430,000 a year to run. Effectively, a cost ratio of around 0.6% of the family’s total wealth.