A new family office modeled on a “European-style trust company,” according to its founder, is set to launch in Atlanta on 1 August, Family Wealth Report has learned.

The Private Client Family Office, a spin-off of the Atlanta-based Private Client Law Group, will not manage clients’ money, but instead will focus on providing independent fiduciary advice, administrative functions and governance, according to Christopher Graham, managing shareholder and founder of the law firm, who also founded the family office.

“We want to offer a blend of soft and data-driven services,” said Graham, who will be a consultant to the law firm.

Avoiding asset management will be a major differentiator for the firm, said Kimberly Coleman, an attorney for the Private Client Law Group who will be the chief executive officer of the family office.

“For the typical multi-family office that manages clients’ investments, the next client in the door is more important than the ones they already have,” she asserted.

For clients seeking asset management, The Private Client Family Office will set up interviews with banks, Wall Street firms and boutiques, she said.

“Once clients meet two or more representatives from each category, they will pick who is the best match for them,” Coleman said.

The Private Client Family Office will offer clients a menu of services and bill on a project basis, Coleman said. Pre-existing clients of the law firm who become family office clients will pay a quarterly maintenance fee, she added.

The law firm has about 300 clients, 20 per cent with a net worth over $100 million and nearly half with a net worth between $20 million and $50 million, Graham said. Nearly 90 per cent of the clients own and operate their own business, he added.

“We have mostly first-generation wealth,” Graham said.

Those clients and their peers will be the family office’s initial target market, but Coleman said the firm has received strong interest in its new offering from investment advisors in Atlanta, as well as in West Palm Beach, Florida and New York, where the law firm (and soon the family office) also has offices.

“There’s a lot of business within our reach right now,” she said. “We think there’s a void in the market for a true family office for families who don’t have the resources or the inclination to establish their own single family office but still want personal attention.”

Both firms are built on tenants espoused in “The Wisdom of Crowds” by James Surowiecki, Graham said.

“You can never get the best answer from one advisor or institution acting in a vacuum,” he said. “It takes different people to see a problem from different perspectives and solve it collectively.”