It has been claimed that the essence of the family office has its roots in the 6th and 7th centuries where a major-domo (literally meaning the chief or head of the house) was hired to look after the affairs and make arrangements for a royal family and later on families of the upper nobility. The more modern incarnation of the family office began in the late 19th century. The family of J. P. Morgan, who later became a successful financier, set up the House of Morgan in 1838 in order to manage their assets. John D. Rockafeller set up a similar organisation, the Rockefeller family office, in 1882 to look after his assets and maintain the familys wealth. These organisations caught on and many of the wealthiest families began to set up their own offices the family in the name of the organisation refers to the families that started them.

Family offices set up by one particularly wealthy family are known as a Single Family Office (SFO) and many still exist today. They hire top financial experts to manage and advise them on their assets and investments. However, a number of SFOs have expanded to cover the assets of several different families. Unsurprisingly these offices are known as Multi-Family-Offices (MFOs). Most of the MFOs were originally SFOs who expanded but there are some MFOs that were never originally involved with a single wealthy family but were started by financial experts for any wealthy family that was eligible to use their services.

Family Offices come in a variety of types. Class A Family Offices are private companies that directly manage a familys assets and advise on investments. The companies also receive direction from a member of the family who acts as something like a trustee. Class B Family Offices are operated by a law firm or accountancy firm. These types of FOs offer fewer services and are less directly involved than the Class A FOs, they do not directly manage the assets but can offer advice for a fee. Class C FOs are operated by the family themselves with a small staff their functions are much more limited in scope. There are branches of family offices that are dedicated to particular types of clientele. Business management firms specialise in wealthy clients from the entertainment industry while sports management firms deal with sporting clientele.

Family Offices tend to pride themselves on privacy and secrecy to an extent and the particular ways that look after their clients are often undisclosed. However, the general services that Family Offices provide are investment management, bookkeeping and accounting amongst others. Families use FOs to make sure that they are investing wisely but also because in many cases their estates and assets are so wide-ranging that they need something more than just advice from lawyers and accountant.

FOs have stayed fairly popular with the wealthy, even in an inhospitable economic climate, mainly because it is ever more important to make sure that your money and wealth is looked after carefully and wisely. Family Offices have also stepped up the services that they offer in order to attract clients. The majority of FOs offer tax preparation which many financial advisers tend to stay away from as they do not want to be liable. Some companies become even more heavily involved with their clients personal lives some offer to book and organise travel, some bail their clients out of jail while others organise their clients entertainment through tickets and bookings.

Though the number of Family Offices in the UK is far off the numbers in America and worldwide it is likely that they will continue to grow in size and popularity as the wealthy want to find ways to protect and grow their assets, especially in poor economic climates.