Continuing our look at the changing footprints of family offices around the world, we talk to a Denmark-based family business and family office expert who works with UHNW clients.

In our recent coverage of “family offices in motion” – see our articles here and here – one point that jumps out is that there is far more involved in moving to a new location than simply considering the tax implications. Irrespective of all the noise about "non-doms" fleeing from the UK, or the threat of a Californian wealth tax, it is an important point.

Family offices and the UHNW people that these entities are designed for need to be in thriving “ecosystems” – financial centres with network benefits where they can swap ideas and gain a level of mutual support. Those benefits don't always correlate with the lowest-tax jurisdictions.

WealthBriefing recently explored such ideas with Martin Roll (main photo), a global family business and family office expert who runs his eponymous business, Martin Roll Company, which serves family firms and family offices. A Danish national who resides in Copenhagen but travels to 40 countries yearly, Roll works with business families and family offices across the world on strategy, leadership, transformation, stewardship, succession, governance, professionalization, ownership, and other critical topics for long-term, inter-generational success.

Roll has expertise and experience with most types of business family dynamics, multi-generational and next generation challenges, and long-term planning and strategy situations. He is also senior advisor with McKinsey & Co and a Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD, the France-headquartered business school, and is the editor and host of the INSEAD Family Business Podcast. Roll counsels on the family dynamics and psychology of business families, and deals less with the financial, legal and tax implications, although they overlap.

Protecting what is passed on is a key factor in deciding where family offices are based and how they function. “You don’t want to be the one that squanders grandma’s business,” Roll told WB. 

“Family offices are really about stewardship, and securing the legacy, heritage and longevity for a family firm,” he said. “Most of them aspire to be successful for a very long time – often over generations. Family offices are unique structures to enable long-term business for families. In my view, they are less about the financial aspects and wealth, but rather about stewardship and keeping the business family together over time.”

What about all the commentary on UHNW individuals and family offices opening new offices, moving to new, more favourable jurisdictions and taking their wealth with them?

Such issues should be seen in a long-term context, Roll said.

“Family offices move around to de-risk and to seek opportunities. They think in terms of 100 years…you need to de-risk, hedge and think about this. You also need to be able to regularly renew what the business family is all about and therefore think in terms of ecosystems and learn from other family offices. Every generation in a business family typically makes a big move to push the needle forwards,” he said. 

As a rule, family offices have an “anchor” or legacy location, and they sometimes have several small offshoots in different places, such as Dubai and Singapore.

Some of the movement is influenced by the availability of service providers, sources of expertise and the legislative environment. 

Roll and others who work with UHNW families, aiding and guiding them in these areas, such as Philip Marcovici and Gregg Robins (see interviews we have done with them here and here respectively), work at a time when rising wealth and complexity is creating demand for family offices. According to a 2024 report from Deloitte, there are an estimated 8,030 single-family offices in the world today – a 31 per cent increase from 6,130 in 2019. This number is projected to grow to 9,030 family offices by 2025 and 10,720 by 2030, marking a potential 75 per cent rise in just over 10 years. Collectively, they hold $5.5 trillion, and by 2030, they will hold $9.5 trillion. 

Competition 
There has certainly been a concerted push by jurisdictions such as Dubai – with its new family offices hub – and Singapore to reach out to family offices – albeit with tightening rules to weed out bad actors. Hong Kong has actively targeted the space. The small Mediterranean island of Malta (a European Union member state) has crafted legislation designed to attract family offices. There are structures in place in IFCs such as Jersey, for example, and for multi-family offices in Monaco. (To illustrate: Law 1.439 in Monaco, enacted in December 2016, regulates MFOs; they have to be authorised by the principality’s regulator, altough it excludes single-family offices, so SFOs don’t need a specific licence.)

Competition and innovation mean that the family office chessboard is never static. 

“We should see all these moving [tectonic] plates as a form of innovation,” Roll said. 

Ultimately, what drives all the changes is, hopefully, the desire by family offices’ members to remain competitive and keep the family and business united, he continued. 

“Essentially, the success of family businesses depends on whether the business families have the burning flame of entrepreneurship. The original founder always has it, and that desire to build and scale across generations is important to nurture in any subsequent generation. It requires a deep understanding of why the family exists and the legacy that makes it unique while at the same time keep renewing it. That typically creates naturally tensions that must be managed. That is the burning flame needed.” 

Varying approaches among generations feed into the movement, he said. 

“Generational differences mean younger members of a dynasty will often have a different mindset and approach. They want to identify and decide on what they want to do, and mitigate the pressure from family expectations, the feeling of guilt and other matters. They typically settle for one or more of the three roles: 'owner’, 'steward’ and/or 'operator’. Roles will evolve over time. For example, they work outside the family business and return later, or work in the family business for years trying to rise to the top,” Roll said. 

We’re all in this together
Moving away from what might encourage family offices to move around, Roll also reflected on other matters that arise.

“The most important challenge for business families is to make sure that all family members have meaningful roles and feel included in the ecosystem. That does not always mean being part of running the company or sitting on [the] board, but they should be recognised and feel they are part of the family,” he said, 

“Younger people are super-entrepreneurial and sometimes you need them to go out, fly and try something. Maybe even fail – and learn from it,” he said. 

“I ask them if their entrepreneurial desires and energy to build could be done under the umbrella of a family office? In many cases, younger family members can start an adjacent business rather than completely separate from a family. This renewal can be powerful, and the history books of generational business families are full of examples,” Roll added.