A multi-family office provides family-office services — investment management, tax and estate coordination, governance, philanthropy, and reporting — to several families at once, sharing the cost of specialist staff across them. Minimums are typically far lower than a single-family office requires.
The economics are the point. The specialist capability a single family would need very substantial assets to employ directly becomes accessible when its cost is spread across a number of families.
Service breadth varies widely between firms using the label. Asking for the specific list of services delivered, and by whom, distinguishes them faster than the description does.
This definition is provided for educational purposes. It is general information, not investment, tax, or legal advice, and it does not account for any individual circumstances.