The Two Contradictory Laws Every Family Office Faces

In this short video, TFOA founder Marc Sharpe unpacks the two contradictory laws every family office lives with: radical idiosyncrasy and the myth that wealth always vanishes within three generations.

It’s a companion to TFOA’s whitepaper on the family office industry.

Transcript

Every family office runs into two laws. They contradict each other. And they’re both true.

First law: once you’ve seen one family office, you’ve seen one family office. Every family is different. Every set of values, every asset mix, every governance structure. There’s no template.

Second law: most family wealth disappears within three generations. Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves. The pattern is documented across cultures, across centuries. So you have radical idiosyncrasy on one side and a universal failure mode on the other. That tension is the entire family office industry.

What does it mean for you? Don’t take generic advice. Don’t trust playbooks built for someone else’s family. But also don’t believe you’re so unique that the failure mode can’t touch you. It can. And without good advice and planning it often does.