Family Offices and Real Estate: Strategies for Multigenerational Wealth 

Summary: Family offices are reshaping the real estate investment and wealth planning landscape. In Aprio’s latest Real Estate Practice webinar, panelists discussed governance, succession, and strategies for balancing debt and equity, among other topics. Learn how to better structure your real estate portfolio, preserve your legacy, and adapt to today’s trends. 

Over the past decade, family offices have started to play an increasingly influential role in shaping wealth transfer strategies for real estate investors and developers. In Aprio’s recent webinar, Jim Lockhart, Partner in Aprio’s Real Estate Practice, moderated a panel on this topic and gleaned insights from a range of notable leaders in the space, including Jason Michaels (Aprio), Monika Jain (Holland & Knight), Nate Reichard (Rikert Capital), and Rafael Serrano (private credit fund founder).

Together, the panelists shared advice and guidance to help families structure, govern, and grow their wealth through real estate across generations. Did you miss the live webinar? Keep reading to check out our full recap.

Defining the modern family office

One of the biggest misconceptions investors have about family offices is that they are only for the supremely wealthy individual (for instance, families with billion-dollar net worths). The reality is much different — in fact, your decision to establish a family office will most likely depend more on wealth complexity and less on net worth.

In most cases, families with as much as $30 million in assets may benefit from a virtual or outsourced family office, while larger families with more significant net worths may form single- or multi-family office structures. According to presenter Jason Michaels, good candidates for family offices are often focused on centralizing family wealth management, reducing administrative burdens, and aligning multiple professional advisors under one unified strategy.

How family offices streamline governance and succession planning

During the webinar, our panelists all agreed that family offices can serve as more than central financial hubs for real estate investors and developers. They can also be valuable governance structures that help families preserve their values and promote unity across generations.

One of the most important steps you can take to foster a strong wealth governance structure is to define your family’s mission. You can leverage tools like family constitutions, bylaws, and councils to help define the mission and educate the next generation on sound financial stewardship.

For families involved in real estate ownership, development, or investment, succession planning is one of the most challenging aspects of governance — particularly due to the operational complexity of real estate properties and businesses. Our panelists urged families to proactively address leadership transitions early and often to avoid disruption and mitigate conflicts or misunderstandings when they transfer their wealth between generations.

Unpacking real estate investment strategies

If you and your family invest in or develop real estate, then you have a wide range of strategies to choose from when planning for wealth growth. Most families opt to invest directly, partner with professional asset managers, or participate in funds. During the webinar, our panelists gave a quick, informative rundown of each option:

• Direct investing offers investors control and potentially outsized returns — but in turn, it often requires the investor to have significant domain experience and perform rigorous due diligence.
• Fund investing provides investors with diversification, sophisticated professional management options, and scalability. On the flip side, investors have limited control over investment decisions.
• Private credit strategies, like those led by presenter Rafael Serrano, offer investors bond-like risk profiles with equity-level returns, which has made them more attractive and popular in today’s environment.
• Equity strategies, as presenter Nate Reichard highlighted, help investors capture upside opportunities, particularly in distressed or transitional assets. However, keep in mind these strategies often come with greater risk.

It’s important to meet with a qualified wealth advisor and CPA to choose the strategy that best fits your long-term wealth goals.

Trends and key takeaways for real estate investors and developers

Toward the end of the webinar, our panelists noted several key trends shaping today’s wealth landscape and the family office model, including:

The rise of virtual and outsourced family office models

Virtual and outsourced family offices can provide you with optimal flexibility and access to institutional-grade resources, even at the lower end of the wealth threshold. Virtual family offices (also known as VFOs) are ideal for families with a net worth between $30–$100 million.

With a VFO, you can often receive tax, accounting, estate planning, and more from one provider at a more cost-effective price point. What’s more, VFOs can provide you with more customization, flexibility, and adaptability in their service offerings, as well as access to broad technical experience, specialized knowledge, technology integrations, scalability, and risk management solutions.

A growing focus on cybersecurity and risk management

As your net worth and real estate portfolio grow, your exposure to theft can grow in response, as well as your need for greater confidentiality and discretion. More wealth advisors and family office providers have ramped up their security and digital safeguards to provide investors with more comprehensive, reliable protection.

Increased emphasis on legacy planning and philanthropy

For many families with ample real estate investment portfolios, financial stewardship has become a top priority. The panelists all noted that many of their clients have redefined their family wealth goals and investment strategies to incorporate more mission-driven approaches to capital allocation.

Final thoughts

Real estate remains a cornerstone of generational wealth management, and more investors have embraced the family office model with open arms. Aprio’s Real Estate and Private Client Services teams help families structure their real estate investments, implement strong governance models and prepare successors and stakeholders for intergenerational wealth transfer.