The Family Office Literature
The books worth reading on family offices and family wealth — real titles by real practitioners, from the standard handbook to the governance classics. Links are verified automatically.
Featured
The Complete Family Office Handbook: A Guide for Affluent Families and the Advisors Who Serve Them (2nd Edition)
by Kirby Rosplock, PhD · Foreword by James E. Hughes Jr.
Wiley2nd Edition2020ISBN 978-1-119-69400-7
The standard end-to-end practitioner's guide to establishing and running a family office — from purpose and structure to staffing, investments, and governance.
What it covers
- Defining the family office — and honestly assessing whether you need one
- Single- and multi-family office models, structures, and services
- Staffing, compensation, and what to outsource
- Investment management, governance, and risk
- Succession, wealth transfer, and preparing the next generation
Written for affluent families, founders after an exit, and the advisors who serve them — the closest thing the industry has to a standard text.
Link verified Aug 10, 2026
The Shelf
The classic argument that a family's true wealth is human and intellectual capital — the philosophical foundation many family offices cite.
Fifty leading advisors each answer one hard question wealthy families actually ask.
The immigrant-to-wealth metaphor: how families acclimate to affluence without losing themselves.
How to give within families in ways that strengthen rather than weaken recipients.
Why next-generation members disengage, and how families keep their voices alive.
Making trusts humane: the relationships behind the documents.
A call to move family-wealth advising from fear-based narratives to positive psychology.
Lessons from long-lived family enterprises on governance and generational transitions.
For inheritors: turning the weight of wealth into agency and purpose.