☛ What is a Fractional Family Office? And do you need one?
The world of wealth is changing - fast.
With over 520,000 ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) globally and over 659 billionaires in the United States alone, we’re witnessing an explosion in private wealth unlike anything in history. From tech IPOs to alternative asset surges, wealth isn’t just being preserved anymore—it’s being built at hyperspeed.
And as wealth accelerates, so does complexity.
Enter the family office: the gold standard for organizing, protecting, and advancing generational wealth.
What Is a Family Office?
At its core, a family office is a private company set up by an ultra high net worth family to manage everything from investments to taxes to philanthropic goals. Think of it as a fully staffed, in-house financial headquarters—built exclusively to serve the needs of one family.
A traditional family office might oversee:
Coordinating with your chosen advisors to help ensure alignment and accountability
Tax planning, accounting, and compliance
Philanthropy, foundations, and charitable vehicles
Bill pay, budgeting, and cash flow oversight
Risk management (insurance, asset protection, etc.)
Lifestyle support: travel, property, concierge services
Family governance, education, and succession planning
But here’s the catch: this model is typically reserved for families with $100M+ in net worth—enough to justify the cost of full-time employees, office space, legal counsel, and tech infrastructure.
For everyone else? The full family office model just isn’t practical.
That’s where the fractional family office comes in.
What Is a Fractional Family Office?
A fractional family office offers the same white-glove coordination and personalized coordination and organization of your financial-related professionals but without the full-time staff or $1M+ annual overhead.
Instead of building a standalone company, you partner with a firm or individual who provides:
Ongoing strategic coordination
Advisor and vendor management
Meeting attendance and follow-up
Document review and signature tracking
Multi-professional alignment (legal, tax, wealth, etc.)
Real-time organization of your financial life and lifestyle
A fractional model gives UHNW individuals (and even those in the $5M–$50M range) access to elite-level structure, clarity, and support—without building a team from scratch.
In short, you get the results of a family office—without having to become one.
Who Uses a Fractional Family Office?
We’ve seen a surge in demand from:
Founders who’ve sold their companies but don’t want a full back-office
Divorcees or widows navigating wealth for the first time on their own
Second-generation wealth inheritors who want to modernize
Professionals who are time-starved but complexity-rich
Families whose net worth has outgrown their financial infrastructure
They’re asking questions like:
Do I need a new financial advisor—or just better coordination and clarity around what they’re doing?
How do I know if I’m being overcharged or underserved?
How do I coordinate my CPA, estate attorney, and wealth manager?
Where is all my money going? Who’s tracking it?
Can someone else handle the signatures, the follow-ups, the details?
Build Your Own Fractional Family Office—with Amy Parvaneh and her team
You don’t need to hire a CEO, CFO, CIO, and COO.
You need one person - Amy Parvaneh - and her trusted team.
See Amy Parvaneh’s bio here
As founder of Select Advisors Institute, Amy serves as the chief integrator, translator, and protector for UHNW individuals and families who want to stay in control - without being in the weeds.
With her background at firms like Goldman Sachs, PIMCO, and Citi, and having advised hundreds of wealth management firms across the country, Amy understands the inner workings of your advisors' world—and how to make it work for you.
Amy and her team coordinate the intersection of complex human dynamics and complex financial systems.
They support UHNW families through strategic coordination, professional accountability, and administrative clarity - ensuring their advisors, documents, and responsibilities work together cohesively.
What We Actually Do at Select Advisors Institute for UHNW families
For starters, here’s what we DON’T do: We don’t manage your money. We do not offer investment advice or legal guidance
Instead, we work behind the scenes to ensure your outside professionals - attorneys, CPAs, wealth managers, and others - are aligned, efficient, and working in your best interest.
Our role is to help you stay organized, informed, and in control—without adding complexity or assuming the roles of your existing advisors.
Here are examples of the types of work we do for clients:
Examples of Our Work:
Connect clients with attorneys and tax advisors who could answer nuanced questions about establishing dual residency and its implications for taxation, estate planning, and lifestyle logistics
Help families design and distribute custom RFPs (Requests for Proposals) when selecting new professionals - including wealth advisors, family office providers, and CPA firms—ensuring clarity in scope, deliverables, and fee structures
Organize and facilitate meetings between multiple outside firms to ensure everyone was operating from the same playbook
Support hiring decisions by analyzing proposals, comparing organizational charts, and gathering references -always deferring to client judgment and legal review
Create internal family process documents and dashboards to help track key deadlines, responsibilities, and follow-up items across multiple providers
Assist with logistics for philanthropic initiatives, family travel coordination, and sensitive administrative matters
Help high-net-worth clients prepare for major transitions (e.g., relocation, sale of a business, or a family liquidity event) by managing timelines and ensuring that all professionals had the information they needed—without replacing or duplicating their roles
Coordinating and facilitating family governance meetings - including agenda development, documentation, and follow-up—so families can discuss financial roles, shared assets, and generational transitions in a structured and productive setting
What You Gain with a Fractional Family Office
Clarity: Know what’s happening, when, and why
Control: Stay in charge without doing everything yourself
Protection: Avoid financial drift, redundancy, or manipulation
Privacy: Discreet, strategic support with no sales pitch
Freedom: Focus on your life—while someone else manages the logistics of your wealth
Ready to Explore What a Fractional Family Office Could Look Like?
If you’re managing more wealth than ever—and feeling more exposed, confused, or exhausted than ever—this isn’t about more complexity.
It’s about more coordination.
