The Family Office

This book provides an insider’s view for anyone looking to understand family offices as well as how to best serve and advise them. Veteran practitioners William I. Woodson and Edward V. Marshall offer a thorough guide to family offices: why wealthy families create them, what they do, and how to manage them effectively.

William I. Woodson is a lecturer on wealth management at Columbia University School of Professional Studies and serves on the advisory board for the Stanford University Global Family Office Initiative. He is the former head of a family office and ran the family office practices for Citi Private Bank and Credit Suisse.

Edward V. Marshall is a family office expert, author, consultant, and speaker. He is the global head of the family office practice at Dentons, the world’s largest law firm. Marshall has held leading family office roles at Credit Suisse, Citibank, and Boston Private, and he is a guest lecturer on the family office at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Chad Sweet, CEO and cofounder, Chertoff Capital:
Woodson and Marshall provide a comprehensive overview of the various functions family offices can perform and how to set them up effectively. As someone who advises and invests on behalf of family offices, this work fills a critical void. Family office advisers, other business practitioners, and aspiring students alike will find great value in this book. An essential read.

Rick Ross, global chair, Hotels and Leisure Group, and cochair, Family Office and High Net Worth Sector, Dentons:
This book provides a rare and expert glimpse into the inner workings of a family office. Unlike most books on this topic, it focuses on how and why family offices are put together and run effectively. Combined with a detailed case study format, this book is one of a kind, a must-read for all family offices.

Dennis Jaffe, author of Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises:
Family offices are living entities that evolve and develop to encompass each new challenge. Woodson and Marshall present the family office not as an abstraction but as a vehicle to respond to those special challenges that face a family when they accumulate wealth. This book is easily accessible for students, advisers, and family members who want to understand family offices in all their diversity.

Ingo Walter, Seymour Milstein Chair in Finance, Corporate Governance, and Ethics Emeritus, New York University:
The definitive guide to a fast-growing, highly diverse, and poorly understood domain of finance—a must-read for those seeking a holistic view of the investment side of the capital markets and an in-depth exploration of key strategic and organizational issues facing family offices.

Paul Carbone, president and managing partner, Pritzker Private Capital:
This book will quickly become an essential read for anyone looking to understand more fully the little recognized but increasingly important world of family offices. William I. Woodson and Edward V. Marshall thoroughly explore the major aspects of a family office from the perspective of the various constituents. At the same time, they reveal the countless subtleties and intricacies of these complex organizations operating at the intersection of family, business, and investing. Combining a case study approach with well-researched background information helps enlighten the reader about both the theoretical and practical aspects of the modern family office.