The top Family-backed Multi-Family Offices

Here are the top independent family-backed multi-family offices. Family Capital has listed them in terms of assets under management, where these numbers are available. 

Bessemer Trust

Family: Phipps

Based: New York City

Assets under management: Approx: $100 billion

Founded in 1907 by Henry Phipps Jr, who made his money with Carnegie Steel Company and real estate, Bessemer Trust is the biggest family-backed multi-family office in the world in terms of assets under management. It still has family involvement –  the great-grandson of Henyr Phipps, Stuart Janney III, is chairman of the board at Bessemer. Other family members sit on the board of directors. 

Stonehage Fleming

Family: Fleming 

Based: London

Assets under management: Approx: £45 billion ($58.5 billion)

The Fleming part of the Stonehage Fleming brand is the prominent family side. During its time, the Fleming banking dynasty was one of the greatest in the UK. The family sold their financial group Robert Fleming to Chase Manhattan in 2000 for $7 billion. Parts of the Fleming family then set up a family office, which was to become Fleming Family & Partners, a highly successful MFO of the noughies. Subsequently, FF&P merged with Stonehage, a UK-based multi-family office with South African connections, to become the UK’s biggest family-backed MFO in terms of assets under management.

Glenmede

Family: Pew

Based: Philadelphia

Assets under management: Approx: $37 billion

Set up in the 1950s to manage the Pew family charitable trusts, Glenmede became a multi-family office in the 1970s. Many Pews, who made the money through oil and shipbuilding, still sit on the board of Glenmede, one of the bluest blood of all US MFOs. 

Quilvest

Family:  Bemberg

Based: Luxembourg

Assets under management: Approx: $36 billion (includes real estate and private equity assets managed by the entire group). 

Originally an investment office for the Bemberg family, Quilvest became a bank, but its Swiss subsidiary, Quilvest Wealth Management, was set up as a family office back in 1932, morphing into a multi-family office much later. Adrien de Boisanger, who is chairman of the entire group, is also a member of the Bemberg family. 

Tiedemann Advisors

Family: Tiedemann

Based: New York City

Assets under management: Approx: $20 billion

Perhaps not quite as blue blood as the other US multi-family offices on this list, Tiedemann Advisors is nevertheless very much a family affair and it has been very successful at attracting the assets of some of America’s richest families. Set up by prominent Wall Street financier Carl Tiedemann in 1999 as a trust company, Tiedemann morphed into an MFO some years later. Carl’s son, Michael Tiedeman, is currently CEO. 

Rockefeller Capital Management

Family: Rockefeller

Based: New York City

Assets under management: Approx: $18 billion

Rockefeller Capital Management emerged in 2018 from a re-brand of Rockefeller & Company. Headed by Gregory J. Fleming, one of Family Capital’s 100 Influencers, RCM still has direct Rockefeller family involvement with David Rockefeller, Jr. a member of the board of directors. It carries perhaps the name of America’s most famous family dynasty. 

Wendel 

Family: Wendel

Based: Paris, France

Assets under management: Approx: €9 billion ($10.6 million)

The Wendel family fortune goes back to the early 18th century when the family started a steel business, which subsequently became the biggest in France. The multi-family office came much later – in the last 40 years. Still with substantial family involvement, with Nicolas ver Hulst, the chairman of the supervisory board, and other family members sprinkled in the business, Wendel has relations with many of Europe’s family business dynasties. 

HQ Trust 

Family: Quandt 

Based: Bad Homberg 

Assets under management: €8.5 billion ($10 billion)

Set up as a holding group in 1981 to manage the vast fortune of Harald Quandt’s descendants, the holding group became a multi-family office in 1988 and was rebranded HQ Trust in 2006.  Gabriele Quandt, Harald’s daughter, sits on the board of the MFO. 

Whittier Trust 

Family: Whittier

Based: South Pasadena, California

Assets under management: Approx: $9 billion

The Whittier Trust is the Californian equivalent of the East Coast blue-blood MFOs. The family made their money in oil and real estate – at one point they owned much of Beverly Hills. Whittier Trust was a single-family office until the 1990s before it transformed into an MFO.

Tolleson Wealth Management 

Family: Tolleson

Based: Dallas, Texas

Assets under management:  Approx: $7 billion

Set up in 1996 by John Tolleson as a single-family office for his family, Tolleson became a multi-family office four years later. John remains executive chairman, but his son, J. Carter Tolleson, recently took over as  as CEO. 

Pitcairn

Family: Pitcairn

Based: Philadelphia

Assets under management: Approx. $6 billion

One of America’s best-known multi-family offices started life nearly 100 years ago as an investment group for the Pitcairn family. John Pitcairn Jr, the patriarch of the family fortune, made his money in glass manufacturing – Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, which is now PPG Industries.  Three members of the family, including the group’s chief investment officer, H.F. “Rick” Pitcairn, II, work at  the MFO. 

Laird Norton Wealth Management

Families: Laird and Norton

Based: Seattle, Washington

Assets under management: Approx: $5 billion

Owned by the Laird Norton Company, an independent seven-generation family business set up by  William Harris Laird and his cousins Matthew G. Norton and James Laird Norton in the 19th century, Laird Norton Wealth Management is one of the West Coast’s America’s biggest multi-family offices. AI

Mutual Trust

Families: Myer and Baillieu

Based:  Melbourne, Australia

Assets under management: Approx: $A4 billion ($2.8 billion)

Mutual Trust is Australia’s oldest family office, with its roots going back to the 1920s. Set up to manage the money of the Melbourne-based Baillieu family, who made their fortune in finance and real estate, Mutual Trust merged with another Australian family office, Myer Family Company, in 2017. The two entities had become multi-family offices before the merger – and the two families were related through marriage many years before. 

Meeschaert Group

Family: Meeschaert 

Based: Paris, France

Assets under management: N/A

Founded by Emile Meeschaert in 1935, Meeschaert is one of France’s most prominent family-backed multi-family offices. It’s now run by Cedric Meeschaert, the grandson of the founder. Meeschaert prides itself on its early commitment to sustainable and ethical investing, which continues today. 

Reimann Investors

Family: Reimann

Based: Munich

Assets under management: N/A

Set up in 2006 to manage some members of the Reimann family, who use to own Benckiser, which merged with UK company Reckitt in 1999 to become the Reckitt Benckiser Group, a huge consumer products business, Reimann Investors started taking outside money in 2017. Other members of the Reimann family own the big investment group, JAB Holding.