Why families between $5 million and $30 million get overlooked
Families under $2 million are well served by low-cost, automated advice. Families above $150 million are well served by multi-family offices. In between sits a group large enough to need governance, philanthropy, and a coordinated advisory bench — and small enough that almost nobody offers it to them.
Under $2M
Well served
Model portfolios and robo-advice
Retirement projections
Low-cost, largely automated
$5M – $30M
The donut hole
Offered a portfolio, not a plan
Governance and philanthropy rarely raised
Never told what they should be asking for
$150M+
Well served
Family governance and education
Philanthropic strategy
A coordinated bench of specialists
“Families should not have to start with $150 million to get help with governance, philanthropy, and the next generation. Those decisions become important long before a family qualifies for a traditional family office—and they should ultimately leave the family more capable, more connected, and better prepared for the world ahead.”
Jason J. Howell, CFP®, CPWA®, CSRIC®
How we work
Family governance, resilient investing, and proactive philanthropy
Three disciplines the largest families treat as standard. We run all three, and a macro view of a changing world order sits underneath every one of them.
01
Family Governance
Family governance is the structure a family uses to make decisions about shared wealth — a mission statement, a family constitution, and regular family meetings. Jason Howell Company runs a documented multi-step process that produces those artifacts, so values transfer to the next generation alongside the assets.
What that includes
Interviews with family members to document the family narrative in their own words.
A family mission statement drawn from the values that generated the wealth in the first place.
A written family constitution and a standing meeting rhythm, formal or informal, to keep it live.
Resilient investing builds portfolios for long-term value across changing economic and climate conditions. Traditional analysis is combined with infrastructure, hard assets, and inflation-hedging strategies, alongside the environmental, social, and governance screens the firm has applied since 2020 — the discipline more commonly labeled sustainable investing.
What that includes
Infrastructure, hard-asset, and inflation-hedging exposure, weighted for a period when supply chains are reorganizing around national borders.
Socially responsible and sustainable portfolio construction.
Public-market access to categories that were once private-only, including carbon credits through an exchange-traded product.
Proactive philanthropy means planning charitable giving during your lifetime rather than leaving it to your estate. Jason Howell Company works with donor-advised funds, community foundations, and private foundations, and holds the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® designation in-house through its Chief Operating Officer.
What that includes
Donor-advised fund strategy, including which assets to contribute and when.
Working relationships with community foundations across the Washington region.
Giving structured around what a family actually cares about — community, alma mater, a specific cause — rather than a generic allocation.
How a changing world order shapes the way we invest
We name it, and then we build for it — an athletic stance rather than a fixed one, weighted toward infrastructure and hard assets, and reviewed against the world as it is rather than the one the models were trained on.
“Whether it's the implied threats to NATO allies or erection of new trade barriers, the world is changing. Markets may be mispricing the risk.”
Letter to Stakeholders, July 2026
“Institutional investors can react quicker than ever (unnecessarily) to headlines. Don't take the bait. We won't either.”
Jason on ten years of building the firm, the families it was built for, and what a decade of client work taught him.
Your advisory team
The specialists we bring to your table
We do not claim to be the expert in everything. We are the firm that convenes them. Jason Howell Company coordinates with independent legal, tax, trust, insurance, banking, and family-dynamics professionals, all around one plan. No commissions or referral compensation are accepted from any specialist we introduce.
When a family needs the largest institutions, we bring them in
Some situations call for capabilities no independent firm holds on its own — international holdings, complex custody, a tax question that spans jurisdictions. We maintain working relationships with global banking, asset management, and professional services organizations, and we bring them to the table as part of your team rather than handing you off.
Most firms plan for the person who signs the agreement. The families we work with are holding three sets of decisions at once — and they interact.
01
The generation that built it
You, after the liquidity event
You sold the company, or you are about to. The number on the wire is larger than the number you planned your life around, and the advice you are being offered has not changed to match.
02
The generation inheriting it
Your adult children
You want to help them without dissolving their ambition. That is a governance question before it is a tax question, and it is the one most plans skip.
03
The generation before you
Your parents, in their eighties and nineties
They have assets and an adviser relationship from forty years ago. The portfolio no longer fits their age, and they will never raise it themselves. We can.
Services
Every service we provide, stated plainly
Written for the accountant or estate attorney deciding whether to send you our way, as much as for you.
FAMILY wealth management treats a household's wealth as a multi-generational system rather than a single portfolio. Alongside investment management and financial planning, it addresses how a family makes decisions together, how values transfer to the next generation, and how giving is structured. Jason Howell Company organizes this around resilient investing, family governance, and proactive philanthropy.
What is family governance, and why does it matter?
Family governance is the structure a family uses to make shared decisions about wealth. It typically produces three artifacts: a documented family narrative, a mission statement drawn from the family's values, and a written family constitution. It matters because assets transfer automatically at death while judgment and values do not — governance is the mechanism that carries them.
Is Jason Howell Company a fiduciary?
Yes. Jason Howell Company is a registered investment adviser and acts as a fiduciary, meaning it is obligated to act in clients' best interests. The firm accepts no commissions or kickbacks from any of the specialists it introduces to clients — the independent legal, tax, trust, insurance, banking, and family-dynamics professionals it coordinates with.
What size families does Jason Howell Company work with?
The firm works with families thinking across three generations — typically a first-generation wealth creator, their adult children, and aging parents. Many arrive around a liquidity event such as a business sale. Most sit somewhere between $5 million and $30 million in investable assets: past the point where a model portfolio and a retirement projection are enough, and below the point where the largest private banks organize governance, education, and philanthropy around a family. The firm describes that range as the donut hole in the wealth industry. It is a description of who this work is built for, not a minimum required to become a client.
What is resilient investing?
Resilient investing is how Jason Howell Company describes building portfolios for long-term value across changing economic and climate conditions. Traditional analysis is combined with infrastructure, hard assets, and inflation-hedging strategies, alongside the environmental, social, and governance screens the firm has applied since 2020 — the discipline more commonly labeled sustainable investing.
How is a donor-advised fund different from a private foundation?
A donor-advised fund is an account at a sponsoring charity: contributions are deductible immediately, grants are recommended over time, and administration is handled by the sponsor. A private foundation is a separate legal entity with its own board, filings, and payout requirement. Donor-advised funds cost less to run; foundations offer more control. Many families use both.
Where is Jason Howell Company located?
Jason Howell Company is based in Fairfax, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and serves families throughout Northern Virginia and the surrounding region. Introductory conversations are held by phone or video, and the firm publishes its Form ADV Part 2 for review.
Does Jason Howell Company publish client reviews or testimonials?
No. Virginia recently adopted marketing standards equivalent to the SEC's, and the firm has chosen not to publish client testimonials or reviews under the new rules at this time. The firm's disclosure documents, credentials, and published writing are offered instead as the basis for evaluating it.
Start here
An introductory call, and an honest answer about whether we fit
No pitch deck. A conversation about your family, what you are trying to protect, and whether this firm is the right one to help — including when the answer is no.
