A Family Office Is a Discipline, Not a Label

BEYOND ALPHA | INTEGRATED WEALTH PLANNING

Omnia Family Wealth

There comes a point when managing investments is no longer enough and the whole of a family’s wealth needs stewardship. A multi-family office like Omnia can provide it, with one coordinated team, institutional rigor, and a plan built for generations, without the cost of building an office of their own.

Consider two families that each sell a business for about $40 million in the same year.

Family A’s financial life now includes a portfolio, homes in several states, several trusts, and significant charitable commitments. Their CPA, estate attorney, banker, and insurance advisor are highly capable, but no one owns the whole picture.

So, the sale closes before meaningful estate planning is done. A concentrated stock position goes untouched because selling it would trigger taxes, a question left to the CPA, who has little say over the portfolio. The estate plan was written for a much smaller fortune. Each advisor did their job, but no one was accountable for how those decisions fit together.

Family B’s advisors are just as capable, but they work from one plan that anticipates the sale. One of the first conversations is about the children. The parents want the money to give them opportunity and purpose without breeding entitlement or dependency.

Months before the sale, about $12 million of the business moves into trusts for the children. With proper planning and valuation, the transfer uses part of the parents’ gift tax exemption and moves future growth out of their estate. The stock position is diversified gradually with taxes in mind, appreciated securities fund the family’s giving, and the children are prepared for what lies ahead.

Take the trusts alone. At a hypothetical 6 percent a year, $12 million grows to about $38.5 million in twenty years, leaving roughly $26.5 million of growth outside the parents’ taxable estate. Taxed at 40 percent, that growth could have cost the family about $10.6 million. If the trusts are grantor trusts, the parents generally pay the income tax on trust earnings, so the trusts grow faster and the parents’ estate shrinks further. The 2026 federal exemption of $15 million per person leaves many families real room to plan.

Twenty years later, both families are still wealthy, but the first has lost ground to avoidable taxes and missed opportunities, and its heirs are unprepared. The second has kept more, and its heirs are ready to act as stewards.

The above situation is hypothetical and for illustrative purposes only. The above is not representative of results obtained by Omnia clients and should not be construed as such. Assumptions include 6% annual growth, a 40% estate tax rate, a taxable estate, and successful trust planning. The illustration excludes state taxes, fees, valuation discounts, and other potential tax implications. Actual results will vary based on each client’s individual circumstances and applicable tax laws.

What the Term “Family Office” Should Mean

Few phrases in wealth management have been stretched as far as “family office.” It now appears on the websites of firms whose main business is managing investments or distributing financial products. Both are legitimate, but neither alone is a family office.

The SEC’s 2011 family office rule creates a narrow exclusion for offices that serve a single family and are owned and controlled by it. Multi-family offices that give investment advice are generally regulated as investment advisers. The marketing term itself carries no standard of service or integration.

In our view, a family office is defined by what it takes responsibility for. It brings investments together with estate planning, tax, philanthropy, governance, and the needs of each generation. It gives objective advice, is open about how it is paid, and is accountable for decisions well beyond the portfolio. Sophisticated families, especially those who know the financial industry, tend to start with five questions.

Omnia was established as an independent multi-family office and registered investment advisor so that we could give substantive answers to each of them.

What Institutions Understand About Wealth

Wealth often builds gradually, while complexity can arrive almost overnight with a business sale, an inheritance, or a family transition. Endowments and pension funds learned long ago that lasting capital takes more than picking good investments. They rely on defined objectives, careful allocation, close oversight, explicit risk management, and horizons measured in decades. Families can bring that same discipline to decisions that are far more personal, involving relationships, generations, and purpose.

Why Coordination Matters

The biggest opportunities often sit where one discipline meets another. For a business owner facing a large capital gain from a sale, losses can be harvested in the portfolio over the preceding months. Business interests can be moved into trusts before the sale becomes too certain, potentially shifting future growth out of the taxable estate, and charitable structures can create meaningful tax benefits in the year of the sale. This takes careful sequencing and close work among investment, tax, and legal advisors, and much of it is impossible once the deal closes. As Ivan Hernandez, Omnia’s Co-Founder and Managing Director, often says, borrowing from President Eisenhower: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

The same principles apply every year. Asset location, ownership structures, systematic tax-loss harvesting, and careful management of concentrated positions can leave portfolios with similar pre-tax returns far apart after tax. In philanthropy, qualified charitable distributions, appreciated securities, donor-advised funds, and private foundations each suit different goals, and combining them well can increase a family’s impact and lower its taxes.

One family came to us after selling a business interest, with an estate plan nearly ten years old, charitable gifts made in cash, and a large low-basis stock position untouched. Working with their attorney and CPA, we revisited the trusts, began giving appreciated securities, and set a schedule for diversifying. Each step was simple. The value came from considering them together.

Planning for the Next Generation

Passing on wealth means preparing the people who will inherit the responsibility. A vacation home left to three siblings with no agreement on expenses, use, or a sale can quickly become a source of division. Family governance, education, and clear decision-making authority help wealth outlast the generation that created it, while giving each generation room for its own ambitions. Preserving financial capital depends on building the human capital to sustain it.

How Omnia Does the Work

“Honestly, we thrive on complexity,” said Steve Wagner, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Omnia Family Wealth. “Business sales, family transitions, three generations who all want different things. There’s not much we haven’t seen. And every family we work with gets the whole team.”

We do some of our most meaningful work with business owners, entrepreneurs, financial professionals, and multigenerational families. At Omnia, the people focused on investments, estate planning, tax, and family dynamics work as one team, alongside each family’s existing legal and tax advisors, and make those relationships work better together.

That matters because, like the parents in our opening example, families rarely come to us with questions that fit a single discipline. How do we prepare our children for wealth? Do we have enough to live the life we envision? How can our success make a lasting difference for our family and community? Answering them takes an understanding of the family behind the portfolio.

Our investment team, led by Alon Ozer, Partner and Chief Investment Officer, aims to build resilient portfolios with genuine diversification, access to private markets, and careful management of downside risk. Results are measured by what the family keeps after tax and what those returns make possible.

The Advantages of a Family Office, Without Building One

Few families need the staff, systems, and expense of a single-family office. A multi-family office like Omnia offers many of the same capabilities through shared expertise, institutional resources, and sophisticated reporting. The two families in our opening example both had excellent advisors. What separated them was a coordinated plan and someone accountable for the whole. Any firm can call itself a family office. The difference lies in the discipline behind the name, and in the legacy it helps a family build.

This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice. Omnia Family Wealth is a registered investment advisor. Registration does not imply any particular level of skill or training. Tax and estate planning strategies depend on individual circumstances and applicable law. Investment returns and tax outcomes are not guaranteed.

Five Questions to Ask Anyone Calling Themselves a Family Office

Sources

1. SEC, Staff Responses to Questions About Family Office Rule
2. IRS, Instructions for Form 706 (2026)
3. IRS, Publication 525, “Grantor Trusts”
4. Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, “Quotes”

Important Information

Omnia Family Wealth, LLC (“Omnia Family Wealth”) is a registered investment advisor with the SEC. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Omnia Family Wealth and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure.

The information provided is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice and it should not be relied on as such. It should not be considered a solicitation to buy or an offer to sell a security. It does not take into account any investor’s particular investment objectives, strategies, tax status or investment horizon. You should consult your attorney or tax advisor.

The views expressed in this commentary are subject to change based on market and other conditions. These documents may contain certain statements that may be deemed forward looking statements. Please note that any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected. Any projections, market outlooks, or estimates are based upon certain assumptions and should not be construed as indicative of actual events that will occur.

All information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy is not guaranteed. There is no representation or warranty as to the current accuracy, reliability or completeness of, nor liability for, decisions based on such information and it should not be relied on as such.

For additional information, please visit our website at www.omniawealth.com. For current Omnia Family Wealth information, please visit the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov by searching with Omnia Family Wealth’s CRD #170909.