A successful family office reflects the family's personal, business, and philanthropic goals. Venable delivers coordinated legal counsel across the full spectrum of family office needs, aligning advice with each client's core objectives to preserve wealth, manage risk, and support stewardship across generations.
Venable's Family Office team serves as long-term, trusted counselors, acting as a safe pair of hands for family offices as they preserve, grow, and transition wealth across generations. We offer the full suite of capabilities, providing a holistic approach where core family office functions work in harmony. Our work includes advising on governance frameworks and operational infrastructure that establish a durable foundation for managing and investing family capital; designing tax-efficient capital vehicles and investment and philanthropic strategies that support long-term stewardship across jurisdictions; representing family offices and their portfolio companies in M&A, financing, and real estate transactions; and helping anticipate, manage, and mitigate legal, operational, and reputational risk.
Our concierge approach makes us the first point of contact for legal, family, and investment-related needs, allowing us to provide bespoke solutions as family offices grow in scale and institutional complexity.
Structure and Governance
Families need a durable framework to guide decision making, allocate control and succession of governance, and support continuity over time. Venable advises on the governance frameworks and operational structures that help single-family offices function as enduring institutions. Our work includes entity, trust, and corporate planning; governance systems designed to reduce friction points; investment committee and board design; internal controls and operational infrastructure; leadership succession planning; and next-generation leadership development. We also advise on single-family office structuring, including analysis of the family office exemption and related registered investment advisor considerations.
Tax and Private Wealth Strategy
Venable advises family offices, their investment entities, and family members on state and local income tax strategies to preserve wealth across jurisdictions. Our work includes management and investment structures, service agreements, expense allocation, and compensation arrangements involving management fees, profits interests, and employee incentives. We assess whether family office activities constitute a trade or business and whether related expenses are deductible. We also address sales and use taxes associated with family assets and transactions. We integrate this work with estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax planning to preserve wealth across generations through gifts, sales, and charitable strategies. We also advise on modifying existing trusts through decanting, nonjudicial settlement agreements, and trust protector amendments. Our planning addresses specialized assets, including residential and investment real estate, art collections, media interests, sports teams, and intellectual property, including trademarks, patents, royalties, rights of publicity, and name, image, and likeness rights.
Investments, M&A, and Real Estate
As family offices deploy capital more actively, they look to outside counsel to support direct investments, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, and related financing transactions. Venable advises family offices on acquiring, selling, and financing businesses and real estate; investing as LPs in private equity and hedge funds; structuring co-investments and joint ventures; and negotiating key investment documentation. We also advise family offices as owners, developers, and investors in the acquisition, disposition, financing, and development of a broad range of real estate assets.
Risk and Enterprise Protection
As family offices grow in scale, complexity, and visibility, Venable helps clients anticipate and manage legal, operational, and reputational risk. Our support includes litigation strategy and dispute resolution, employment and workforce matters, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, data privacy, information governance, and personal security considerations. Venable's in-house cybersecurity and risk management teams provide prompt, tailored support to family offices, families, and businesses. We also advise on the responsible adoption and governance of AI tools, including vendor agreements, confidentiality, and data use, and assess the AI-related legal risks of portfolio companies, direct investments, and transactions.
Philanthropy and Legacy
Family offices are focused on sustaining values, relationships, and long-term stewardship alongside capital. Venable has one of the largest groups in the country that advise on tax exemption and the structures and strategies for sophisticated philanthropic planning through public charities, supporting organizations, private foundations, donor-advised funds, and charitable trusts, as well as more specialized planning, including purpose trusts and hybrid charitable vehicles for operating businesses and other investments. Venable also advises on next-generation engagement and stewardship of family values and legacy.
