The newly released Canadian Family Offices Multi-Family Office Landscape 2025 report provides a clear view into what Canadian Multi-Family Offices (“MFOs”) actually look like; who they serve, how they charge, and how they operate. But beneath the numbers lies a deeper story about what is and is not a true family office.
Two findings stand out above the rest:
- Many MFOs serve far too many families to provide genuinely bespoke, high-touch family office service.
- A large share rely on percentage-of-AUM fee structures that create unavoidable conflicts of interest—while only a minority use fixed-fee models aligned with fiduciary family-office principles.
Here’s what the report reveals and why it matters.
Client Base Size: The Limits of “Bespoke” at Scale
The survey shows a striking divide in client counts. About a quarter of MFOs serve 10 or fewer families, which is consistent with the intensive, highly tailored nature of real family-office work. But more than 30% serve over 70 families—some far more. At that scale, it is difficult, if not impossible, to offer the deep strategic planning, complex tax and estate coordination, governance, education, and multi-generational stewardship that define genuine family-office service.
This divide suggests that many firms labeled as MFOs are operating more like traditional wealth managers with a broader menu of services. Several offices also serve families with average net worths below $15M and even require less than $15M in AUM. These families deserve great service, but the model they’re being slotted into resembles mass affluent wealth management, not a true family-office structure built around low client ratios and high-touch engagement.
Serving under 10–25 families is consistent with true family-office work:
- generational planning and relationships with all generations
- formal governance (boards, committees, transparent decision-making processes)
- coordination of tax, legal, estate, philanthropy
- co-ordination with operating companies
- multiple accounts and private & direct (off-book) investments
This model requires time, senior attention, and multidimensional expertise. It cannot scale to dozens of families without sacrificing quality.
Fee Models: The Incentives Tell the Real Story
The survey highlights an equally important distinction in how MFOs are compensated:
- 29% rely primarily on AUM-based investment fees.
- Only 23% use fixed fees for services.
- 36% use a blend of AUM, fixed, and performance fees.
This is where the definition of “family office” becomes murky. A large share of Canadian MFOs charge fees based on a percentage of assets under management. This is standard for investment advisors, but it creates structural conflicts for anyone calling themselves a family office. An AUM fee encourages asset gathering and discourages decisions that may reduce assets under management—such as private investments, impact investments, investing in operating companies, directly held real estate, or making large philanthropic gifts. These decisions are often the right ones for families but the wrong ones for an advisor paid on asset size.
Fixed-fee models, which remain a minority in the Canadian landscape, align far better with the fiduciary foundations of a true family office. They remove incentive distortions and allow advice to be centred on family priorities, not portfolio size. If AUM fees continue to dominate, the MFO landscape will continue to straddle the line between investment management and genuine family-office stewardship.
The report’s data makes clear that most Canadian MFOs still operate primarily as investment-led firms, even if they brand themselves as family offices.
What Families Should Take From This
The 2025 report paints the picture of an MFO sector that is growing but uneven. Some MFOs deliver legitimate family-office depth; others are wealth managers using the family-office label as a marketing wrapper. Families evaluating an MFO should look beyond the branding and ask two simple questions: How many families do you serve? and How are you compensated? The answers reveal more about the firm’s true operating model than any brochure ever will.
The family-office title has power, but the fundamentals—low client loads, conflict-free pricing, independence, and holistic multi-generational support—are what determine whether a firm actually lives up to it.
