Family office operating costs: benchmarks by AUM band

Running a family office costs around 40 basis points of assets a year in staff, premises and systems, with total costs including external managers and advisers typically landing between 0.6% and 1% of assets. In dollars that means roughly $1m a year for an office under $250m and $6m to $7m for one above $1bn. Staff are two thirds of the pure operating cost, and the cost ratio falls with scale, with a visible step down above $1bn.

Cost as a share of assets

UBS's Global Family Office Report 2025, covering 317 offices with average assets of $1.1bn, found a global average pure operating cost (personnel, infrastructure and IT) of 41.1 bps in 2024, against a planned 40.3 bps. By asset band the 2025 projections were 41.8 bps for offices with $100m to $250m, 42.4 bps for $251m to $1bn and 35.5 bps above $1bn. Offices attached to an operating business cost more (44.9 bps) than those without (33.0 bps), and first-generation offices less (36.8 bps) than later generations (44.0 bps). UBS's 2026 report found pure operating costs made up 53% of total expenditure, the largest single share.

The KPMG and Agreus 2025 Global Family Office Compensation Benchmark Report asked respondents for total running cost as a share of assets. The most common answer was 0.6% to 1% (36%), followed by 0.1% to 0.5% (32%), 1.1% to 1.5% (17%) and 1.6% to 2% (7%). Only 8% reported more than 2%. By region, 0.6% to 1% was most common in the UK (37%), the US (40%) and Australia (39%), while 0.1% to 0.5% led in the Americas outside the US (38%) and Asia (34%).

Morgan Stanley's 2025 Single Family Office Compensation Report found 89% of investment-focused offices run total operating costs at 1.9% of assets or less and 53% below 1%. Compensation alone was below 0.5% of assets at 55% of those offices.

Cost in dollars by size

J.P. Morgan's 2026 Global Family Office Report, covering 333 single family offices, found the average $1bn-plus office spends $6.6m a year, up from $6.1m in its 2024 report. The 2024 edition, summarised by Caproasia, gave an overall average of $3.2m and a median of $1.3m, with 33% of offices spending under $1m and 8% more than $10m. Campden Wealth and RBC's North America Family Office Report 2025, based on 141 offices, found average operating costs ranging from $1.1m for a small office to $9.8m for a very large one.

The medians again matter more than the averages for a new office: J.P. Morgan's 2024 median of $400,000 for offices under $500m is a quarter of the average, because a few large households inflate the mean.

What the money goes on

Staff dominate. UBS's 2025 report found staff at 66% of pure costs in 2024 and 67% in 2025, with legal and compliance at 10%, physical infrastructure 8%, IT 7% and research 5%. Pure costs were 57% of the total, asset management fees 21%, banking fees 10% and external structures 8%. The AlTi and Campden 2025 Family Office Operational Excellence Report found C-suite compensation alone is 72% of total costs at offices under $250m, 54% at mid-sized offices and 39% above $1bn, which is the clearest statement of why the ratio falls with scale. The same report found most offices spend $100,000 to $500,000 a year on technology and that outsourcing accounts for 19% to 32% of costs.

External spend is significant and varies widely. J.P. Morgan's 2026 report found about 26% of costs go to external providers on average, but over four in ten offices spend at least 30% externally and 19% spend half or more. Legal is outsourced by about 52% of offices and trading by over 45%.

What drives the ratio

Four factors explain most of the dispersion in the surveys. Size, since fixed costs are spread over a larger base above $1bn. Scope, since an office that runs household services, philanthropy and an operating business carries staff that a pure investment office does not; UBS's 2026 report found 40% of staff are in non-investment roles. Investment model, since a direct investment team costs more in salaries but can save on manager fees. And the in-house versus outsourced choice, where UBS's 2025 report found 56% of offices believe outsourcing is more cost-effective and 52% believe the opposite, which is discussed in outsourced CIO versus in-house.

Closing

A new office can budget on UBS's 40 bps for pure operating cost and KPMG and Agreus's 0.6% to 1% for the total, then adjust for scope. Headcount assumptions behind those figures are in family office staffing by size.