For generations, the world’s most affluent families enjoyed something most people could never access: a single, unified team of wealth advisors, tax professionals, investment managers, and estate strategists. This was the family office — and for most of its history, you needed a nine-figure net worth to get in the door.
The origins of the family office
The concept of the family office traces its roots to the mid-19th century, when America’s earliest industrial dynasties began building dedicated organizations to manage their growing fortunes. These private offices existed for one purpose: to oversee family wealth with discipline, privacy, and continuity.¹
By the Gilded Age, the model had caught on among America’s wealthiest dynasties. John D. Rockefeller established the first true American single-family office in 1882, creating a dedicated organization to manage investments, taxes, philanthropy, and estate planning across multiple generations.² The Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Mellons followed similar paths. Every financial decision — from portfolio rebalancing to charitable giving to succession planning — was handled in-house by specialists working in concert. The defining feature was coordination, so decisions in one area didn’t undermine goals in another.
The family office approach hasn’t changed — but who can access it has
For most of the 20th century, this model remained the exclusive province of dynastic wealth. The cost of building and staffing an office with investment professionals, tax specialists, and legal counsel put the model out of reach for all but the wealthiest families. Unless your family controlled a major corporation or foundation, access to a family office was largely out of reach.
Mercer Advisors: A family office for your family
Founded in 1985, Mercer Advisors was built on the belief that every family deserves sophisticated, integrated wealth management. Our family office approach brings together financial planning, tax planning and preparation, investment management, estate planning, insurance solutions, and trustee services to help ensure every part of a client’s financial life is aligned and working together.
Rather than managing investments, taxes, estate planning, and more in isolation, one team helps ensure each decision supports the others. Here’s how that integrated approach can come together for your family:
- Financial planning
Your financial plan is the connective tissue that brings every part of your financial life together — your investments, savings, estate plan, tax strategy, insurance coverage, and more. But too often, financial planners and their clients think of a financial plan as a static document — a set of instructions that the client is expected to follow up on and keep track of. At Mercer Advisors, we don’t just hand your plan off to you and move on. Rather, we help put the plan into action so you experience the benefits. - Tax planning and preparation
Minimizing taxes play an important role in protecting your lifestyle, longevity, and legacy. That’s why we make proactive tax strategy an integral part of our financial planning process. With CPAs and other tax professionals on staff coast to coast, we can plan and prepare your state and federal returns and help you optimize tax-favored accounts and charitable giving to help keep more of what you’ve earned — for you and your heirs.* - Investment management
A team of investment professionals manages your portfolio with an eye on diversification, risk, and your long-term objectives. The family office approach brings institutional-grade discipline to your investment strategy, helping to align your holdings with your broader financial plan and tax situation. - Estate planning
Many wealth management firms offer estate planning services, but relatively few have in-house estate planning solutions. At Mercer Advisors, estate planning is integrated into your total financial picture. Our estate strategists work directly with our wealth advisors, tax and trust specialists, and financial planners to fulfill a singular goal: to help protect your loved ones and the wealth you’ve worked hard to build. - Insurance solutions
Insurance can be a critical — and sometimes overlooked — component of an integrated financial plan. That’s why we make it integral to our end-to-end wealth management approach. At Mercer Advisors, we take a fiduciary approach to insurance planning. Our comprehensive financial planning identifies gaps that our specialized insurance guidance helps you close.** - Trustee services
For families with complex estates, a corporate trustee brings objectivity, offers continuity, relieves a family’s burden, and maintains family unity — while helping ensure your trust structures are properly administered and aligned with your broader estate and financial plan.
A family office approach is about more than managing investments. It’s about coordinating every part of your financial life under one team so that each decision supports the others. By integrating financial planning, tax planning, investment management, estate planning, insurance solutions, and trustee services, a coordinated team can help you grow your wealth with sophisticated investing strategies, protect it through tax-efficient decisions, and save money through cost-conscious investing and foundational planning services.
Coordinated wealth management may help give you more time to focus on what matters most, added confidence from working with a dedicated team, and greater clarity around financial goals and priorities with your spouse, partner, and family.
Ready to see how a family office approach can help amplify and simplify your financial life?
FAQs
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Our family office approach is a coordinated wealth management model that connects your financial planning, tax planning and preparation, investment management, estate planning, insurance solutions, and trustee services. Once reserved for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, the family office is accessible to more families through the Mercer Advisors comprehensive approach.
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Traditional wealth management often centers on your investment portfolio with tax and estate strategies layered on top. A family office approach coordinates every discipline — investments, taxes, estate, and insurance — so each decision supports the others. The result may be a more efficient, aligned financial picture rather than isolated advice from separate advisors.
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Contact us to schedule a complimentary consultation and learn how Mercer Advisors can help amplify and simplify your financial life. With more than 450 advisors across the U.S., our family office model is designed to serve the diverse needs of families with a depth and breadth of resources.
1“A Short History of the Family Office: Origins to Present.” Family Office Advisory, April 19, 2026.
2”A Short History of the Family Office: Origins to Present.” Family Office Advisory, April 19, 2026.
*Tax preparation and tax filing are a separate fee from our investment management and planning services.
**Mercer Global Advisors has a related insurance agency. Mercer Advisors Insurance Services, LLC (MAIS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercer Advisors Inc. MAIS provides individual life, disability, long term care coverage, and property and casualty coverage through various insurance companies. For Mercer Global Advisors clients who wish to purchase insurance products, MAIS has entered into a non-exclusive referral agreement with Strategic Partner(s), where the Strategic Partner will provide necessary services relative to the marketing, placement, and servicing of the insurance products, including without limitation preparing and presenting illustrations, supporting the underwriting process, assisting with the completion and execution of applications, delivering policies, and servicing in-force business. MAIS and the Strategic Partner will be listed as either “agents” or “co-agents” on the policies. While Mercer Global Advisors does not receive a referral fee, Strategic Partner receives a percentage of the commission revenue. MAIS and Strategic Partner do have a revenue sharing agreement.
All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the author as of the date of publication and are subject to change. Some of the research and ratings shown in this presentation come from third parties that are not affiliated with Mercer Advisors. The information is believed to be accurate but is not guaranteed or warranted by Mercer Advisors. Content, research, tools and stock or option symbols are for educational and illustrative purposes only and do not imply a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell a particular security or to engage in any particular investment strategy. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.
For financial planning advice specific to your circumstances, talk to a qualified professional at Mercer Advisors.
Mercer Advisors is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice to clients. All Estate planning document preparation and other legal advice are provided through select third parties, with which Mercer Advisors has a contractual relationship. Tax preparation and filing services are provided by Mercer Advisors Tax Services, LLC. Clients will sign a separate agreement when engaging Mercer Advisors Tax Services that defines the services provided and any additional fees that may apply. Insurance products are provided by Mercer Advisors Insurance Services, LLC (MAIS), which places individual life, disability, long term care coverage, and property and casualty coverage through select insurance companies. Trustee services are offered through select third parties with which a client would sign an additional agreement, and additional fees may apply.
