Family Offices: Back on the Regulatory Radar

Compared to other types of investment firms in the global financial system, single-family offices are lightly regulated. Their primary purpose is to preserve wealth across generations, which has historically translated into fairly conservative investment profiles rather than speculative investment styles. Any risk they take on only affects family members – or so the thinking goes – which has allowed them to operate primarily under the radar from a regulatory perspective. Family offices typically shun publicity and generally avoid raising regulatory red flags.