The FamCap Family Offices

Canada’s family office ecosystem in a nutshell

Canada’s family office ecosystem is dominated by its three biggest cities Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, with the country’s financial centre, Toronto, taking the number one spot.  

More than a third of the country’s single-family offices are based in Ontario’s biggest city. And a few others are sprinkled around in other cities around the province, particularly Waterloo – well-known as a prominent tech hub in Canada.  

Family Capital has produced a definite list of Canada’s Top Family Offices and the families/individuals behind them. 

Despite being Canada’s third-biggest city, Vancouver outpaces Montreal as the second-largest centre of activity for single-family offices in Canada. The Pacific coast city is home to plenty of newly minted billionaires and multi-millionaires who’ve set up family offices in Vancouver in the last few years. Older wealth tends to be more concentrated in Montreal and Toronto. 

Despite its prominence in the oil world, Alberta is home to just a few family offices. 

Wealthy Canadia family business dynasties are prominent in the list, and often these families – like the Thomsons, McCains, Westons, and Desmarais family – have multiple investment groups linked to different generations and wings of the family. 

But there is also plenty of new wealth owners who’ve set up principal investment groups in the last few years. Toronto, the country’s main tech centre, has given rise to a number of serious fortunes in recent years and some of these individuals have set up investment offices. Tech fortunes also lie behind a number of family offices in Vancouver. 

Although tech entrepreneur Joseph Tsai, who, according to Forbes, is Canada’s second-wealthiest individual, uses Hong Kong as his location for his family office. 

 

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