Build a Family Office Dynasty

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Are you ready to transition from individual success to building a multi-generational legacy?

Stop building wealth for a single lifetime and start engineering a legacy that lasts for centuries. In this episode of Making Billions, Ryan Miller breaks down the exact architectural blueprints used by the world’s wealthiest dynasties to engineer, protect, and scale their wealth. Ryan pulls back the curtain on the "Dynasty Blueprint" used by the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, and Waltons to safeguard billions against taxes, litigation, and economic decay.

Whether you are managing $1 million or $1 billion, understanding family office structures, offshore investment funds, and asset protection is the key to ensuring your capital endures for a century.

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[THE HOST]: Ryan Miller is a recovering CFO turned angel

Transcript

Ryan Miller

Cayman is one of the main hubs of hedge funds and offshore investment funds. See big names like Soros Fund Management, Citadel Blackstone and many more have used Cayman fund structures and family offices do the same. And why Cayman? Well, it's tax neutral at the fund level. It's globally recognized in their legal system, and it's stable and well known in the institutional investor world. 

Ryan Miller 

My name is Ryan Miller, and for the past 15 years, I've helped hundreds of people to raise millions of dollars for their funds and for their startups. If you're serious about raising money, launching your business or taking your life to the next level, this show will give you the answers so that you too can enjoy your pursuit of Making Billions. Let's get into it.

Ryan Miller  

If you're waiting to build a financial firm before building the foundation, you may be already too late. See, wealth is not something you build at the end. It is something you engineer from day one, and it all starts right now. Here we go. 

Ryan Miller   

Today we're going to walk through the same kind of structural thinking used by families like the Rockefellers, Rothschilds and others to build their family office. Now just a reminder, this is not legal, tax or financial advice. I'm just describing patterns that wealthy families are known to use based on public, verifiable information. So let's jump in. When you're building a family office, there are different layers that you get into. And the first one is really you can start at the 1 to 5 million starting point. So if you have a net worth or investable assets around there a lot of people, you can start at the 1 to 5 million. This is shocking to a lot of people and so here's the thing. See dynasties, they start early, John D Rockefeller did not wait until he was a billionaire to think about the structure he began while he was building Standard Oil. 

Ryan Miller  

So a little history here. In 1882 the Standard Oil trust was created, and by 1885 the Rockefellers had created what historians view as an early version of a modern family office. So by the early 1900s they were already placing assets in long term trusts for multiple generations, and the lesson for us is they built a structure while they were still building wealth. Now, how does that translate? So we'll talk to say, my American friends. So I want to introduce to the concept of the Wyoming Holding Company. See many modern wealthy families use a holding company in a state like Wyoming as a base. So why Wyoming? Well, number one, they have no public list of LLC members. Number two, there is strong charging order protection. Number three, they have low filing and annual costs. And number four, it's just simple to administer. See, this mirror is something the Rothschild family did in the 1800s in Europe. They didn't use Wyoming, of course, but they did use private holding companies in different locations. See the Rothschilds family operated out of London, Paris, Vienna, Frankfurt and Naples. Each branch used private companies and trusted partners to keep ownership and control out of the obvious public view. So you can look this up in books about the Rothschilds and their banking dynasty. 

Ryan Miller    

The next thing you want to look at is maybe something you explore with your attorneys, is what's called a revocable living trust. So at this level of the 1 to 5 million, many families will also form a basic revocable living trust. And the goal is simple ease of inheritance, basic control if something happens, and a first step toward governance. So let's look at where this shows up. By 1934 the Rockefeller family had placed a large portion of their wealth into a system of family trusts. These trusts have guided the family for generations and are still referenced today. This can be verified in public materials about the Rockefeller family office. And so the pro move here, a lot of dynasties use nominee relationship, the Rothschilds did this in the 1800s. This is where trusted associates would sometimes appear on documents, while real control rested within the family. 

Ryan Miller  

Now what's a modern version of that? So you form a Wyoming LLC, you hire a service like Northwest Registered Agent or Wyoming Corporate Services, and they appear as the manager of public filings. So you keep the real control in the operating agreement and internal documents, and the whole purpose of that is just to reduce personal exposure and public records. You want to keep your family name off of state websites, and you want to keep privacy while acting within the law. 

Ryan Miller  

Now the next phase is when you're around the 5 million to 25 million. Now you're starting to build the fortress. So once you start moving past that 5 million, you stop being invisible. So lawsuits, creditors, political and economic risks become real issues, and this is where many families begin taking global asset protection very seriously. So that's where we want to introduce something known as the Cook Islands trust. See, the Cook Islands is located in the South Pacific, they have become known for extremely strong asset protection law. So here's some facts about that. Cook Islands international Trust Act created a regime where foreign judgments are not automatically recognized. See, plaintiffs must bring a case in the Cook Islands under Cook Islands law usually with short limitation periods and high standards of proof. To date, Cook Islands asset protection trusts are widely regarded as the strongest in the world for legal defensive assets, and this has made the Cook Islands trust a common choice for very wealthy families looking to create the last line of defense for a holding structure. 

Ryan Miller  

The other one to look at is the Cayman Island exempted company. So now that we are at this place, we can pair that trust with a Cayman Island Company. So Cayman is one of the main hubs of hedge funds and offshore investment funds. So by the late 1990s over 70% of the world's hedge funds were domiciled in Cayman, and today, Cayman still hosts a very large share of global hedge fund assets estimated in the trillions of dollars. So there probably is something there worth investigating with your attorney. See big names like the Soros Fund Management, Citadel, Blackstone and many more have used Cayman fund structures and family offices do the same. And why Cayman? Well, it's tax neutral at the fund level. It's globally recognized in their legal system, and it's stable and well known in the institutional investor world. So what's the pro move here? The Pro move is, I would say, once you stand that up, you also want to put IP into the offshore structure. So some families would move intellectual property or other core assets into an offshore company tied to a trust. And you can see similar patterns in history with the Pritzker Family, they use complex combinations of trusts, holding companies and other entities to centralize and protect assets like business interests and IP. So the modern version of that on this pro move is one, Cook Islands trust is formed. Two, the trustee forms a Cayman Island exempt company. Three, the intellectual property, for example, software, trademarks or brand rights is also transferred into the Cayman company, and four the operating company in the US or elsewhere, pays a license fee to the Cayman company for the use of that IP. So hopefully you can see how a lot of people do this. 

Ryan Miller  

And the purpose of that is you want to move the most valuable intangible asset into a protected offshore container. You want to separate legal ownership from operating risk, and you want to reduce the chances that a lawsuit against the operating company can seize that IP. Again, you want to talk to your attorney or tax advisor and other professionals, just to clarify what we're talking about here. 

Ryan Miller  

Now the next level here for family offices that get established is usually, you see around the 25 to 50 million this is where we really start to dial in the we'll say the family office operating system. See, at this level, wealth becomes a business. So you're no longer just a successful person, you are running what is effectively a private wealth enterprise. Let's take a page out of the Pritzker playbook. The Pritzker Family, known for Hyatt Hotels and many other holdings, built one of the most complex family structures in US history, see hundreds of entities often formed in Delaware. They use Delaware Business trusts and other vehicles. They have ownership split across branches of the family and governance systems to coordinate all the major decisions. This isn't just urban legend, journalists and other authors have written extensively about this structure, and you can search about the Pritzker Family Trust and settlements online for sure, just to verify this. See, many families between the 25 and $50 million net worth will keep a Wyoming holding company or similar. They'll add a Delaware entity for the formal family office operating company and why would someone do Delaware? Well, let's take a look. See, in Delaware, they have deep corporate case law. They have familiar legal framework to lawyers, banks and institutional partners. They are known as optimal for hiring staff and entering into contracts. So this is really good when you're dealing in that world, when you're running family money as a business. That's also another one that you might want to explore with your attorney. 

Ryan Miller  

Now when it comes to a constitution, this is where that starts to make sense. This is a family office constitution, who knew you could have that? Well, apparently you can't. So this is where a lot of those dynasties write their internal playbook. See the Rockefellers. They're a famous one, for example, they have a constitution, like a family document, that describes values, mission, governance and expectations, and it's guided their family decisions for decades. Many other families use similar documents. You can have a family charter, family constitution, a governance framework, and the goal is really simple. You just want to clarify how decisions are made. You want to create continuity across generations, and you want to reduce conflict by documenting expectations really early. So what's the pro move here? Well, at this stage, dynasties treat their family like a board-governed institution, and the patterns that you can observe is the Rockefeller family councils and forums, or the Walton family coordination across trusts and holdings, or even the Mars family governance bodies. See, you want to schedule quarterly meetings where the family board reviews, investments, risks, philanthropy, long term goals. They want to keep minutes and treat it like a real board meeting. And the cool thing about this is, what gets governed gets preserved. 

Ryan Miller  

Next, we want to talk about what happens when you're around the 50 to $100 million single family office. See, at this stage, you're now building what most people think of when they hear family office. So let's look at George Soros, for example. He created the quantum fund in 1973 it was domiciled in an offshore jurisdiction, originally Caraco, and later the Cayman structures became standard for hedge funds that were inspired by that model. So why offshore? Well, to access global capital is number one. Number two. You want to create tax neutral vehicles, and you want to operate under a flexible regulatory regime. Now, flexible doesn't mean illegal, it just means understanding of who their client is. And see, this offshore model became the blueprint for countless hedge funds and family offices and other private funds. The next thing is a Cayman Island master holding company. See, at this level, many families use a Cayman holding company at the top of their global investment structure, and some of the benefits of that are central ownership of foreign and domestic SPVs, easier to manage multi jurisdictional investments, and they're more familiar to major institutional counterparties. 

Ryan Miller  

The next structure that you start to see in this is what's called the Singapore VCC. Singapore launched the variable capital company regime in 2020 and the thing that is noticeable is this is hundreds of VCCS formed within the first couple of years. See Singapore government and MAS, or Monetary Authority of Singapore. They promote it as a flexible structure for fund managers and family offices so often at that level, this sounds like something that a lot of families would benefit from. See, all it is is one legal entity with multiple internal sub funds, or cells, as they call them. Each cell can hold a different strategy or pool of assets, and it allows for asset and liability separation between cells. And finally, it has one overall regulatory framework. So as you can see, this is a powerful tool for a family office that wants a credit strategy in one cell, a venture strategy in another, and a real estate strategy in a third, and have it all under one umbrella. And the pro move here, professional allocators often put each major strategy in its own cell inside of a VCC. They keep leverage risk and investor agreements completely separated in the structure, and they get institutional level clarity and reporting. And what's cool about it at this level or above, many families start to explore a PPLI or a private placement life insurance, see publicly documented uses of that are tax deferred, investment growth inside an insurance wrapper. It can hold hedge funds, private equity and other alternative investments. It's often domiciled in places like the US, Bermuda, Switzerland or Singapore. And families use it because it combines insurance law with investment strategy. It can play a role in estate planning and asset protection. Again, this is educational only. It's always good to talk about all this with a licensed professional before doing anything like this. 

Ryan Miller 

Hey, thanks for listening to Making Billions. If you liked this episode, could you do me a huge favor and go leave a review? This helps us to get the podcast to more ears, to help people raise capital, learn fund management strategies and serve our mission to help fund managers and deal syndicators to gain greater hope and focus as they build their empire. All right, let's get back to the show now.

Ryan Miller   

The next phase is, when you're at the 100 million to 500 million, you enter what I call the dynasty mode. See, once a family crosses into this range, the question is no longer, how do we make money? The real question is, how do we keep this together for 50 to 100 years? And let's look at the Walton family. The Waltons, heirs to the Walmart fortune, are prime examples of this. And when you look at it and study what they've done, they leverage the use of guarantor trusts, the use of charitable trusts, and the use of Delaware LLCs and holding companies. And finally, it's coordinated voting among entities so that the Waltons and the family retain control. They do not rely on direct, visible individual ownership. See, the architecture of entities and trust does much of the work. 

Ryan Miller  

Another one to look at is the Mars family. The Mars family is another great example of quiet, disciplined dynasty structure. See the Mars Incorporated a privately held company. The family avoids public markets and remains highly private. Control and succession are handled through trust and governance bodies rather than public shareholders. So they show how privacy can be used as a strategy, not for secrecy, but to reduce noise and to protect alignment. 

Ryan Miller  

The other area that you can look at is Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein foundations are common in the European dynasty, so this is for all you European friends, some of the key features here is it's a foundation as a separate legal person, not a trust. It can exist indefinitely, and it can hold assets and operate under clear governance rules. What's also cool about that is it's often used by wealthy families to separate ownership from control and create perpetual structures. 

Ryan Miller   

So let's dive into that. See many dynasties at this level divide roles into different foundations or entities. So typical pattern that might show up is the wealth foundation. It holds the main assets and the investments. And then there's the governance foundation it holds. Voting rights and oversees family constitutions and major decisions. Then there's the philanthropy foundation. It oversees charitable activities in public image. Allows younger generations to learn stewardship through giving. Another cool part about this is it has business or operations on the foundation where it coordinates the operating companies or management structures, and the whole purpose of that is to separate missions reduce risk that one legal or financial problem spreads everywhere, and it's to keep clarity between money control, mission and operations. 

Ryan Miller  

Now, with the PPLI that we talked before, or the PPVA at this level, many families integrate that private placement life insurance and private placement variable annuities. And why do they do that? Well, they can provide tax deferred growth. They can help with estate planning and generational transfers. They can also add another layer of protection between personal ownership and investment of those assets. Jurisdictions where this is commonly used include the United States under specific rules, Bermuda, Switzerland and Singapore. So these tools show up over and over in the world of large family offices. Now, finally, when you've really hit it big and your family's wealth is around 500 million to 5 billion, you would be at what I would call the institutional level. See at this tier, a family operates like a private sovereign wealth fund, and often you see a lot of them show up in Singapore, see public reports from Moss and other major firms show a large increase in single family offices in Singapore over the last few years. Many sources cite that growth from dozens of family offices to well over 1000 The cool thing about it is it has zero capital gains this VCC structure, it also brings strong banking and legal infrastructure as well. Now what if you decided to do it in Switzerland? Well, instead of Singapore and you do it in Switzerland, you now have a long history as a private banking center. It's home to banks like Pictet, Julius, Baer, Lombard Odier and UBS. It's used heavily by wealthy families for capital preservation and banking. Other places where you see this show up is Dubai or Abu Dhabi global market, or we'll call it the ADGM. The ADGM uses an English common law framework. It has also positioned itself as a hub for wealth management and family offices. The cool things about it is it has zero taxes on many of these structures, and it has rapid growth in the number of licensed financial wealth management entities. 

Ryan Miller  

Now the next thing to consider are staffing this thing, typical roles in a mature family office like this. You're going to look at hiring a chief investment officer that oversees asset allocation, manager selection and doing direct deals. A CFO who manages Treasury cash flow reporting and financial controls, and don't forget the chief risk officer who monitors and models risk, especially at higher asset levels. Then you got general counsel who coordinates legal structures, compliance and cross border issues. And don't forget about the software, operations and reporting staff, they use software like Addepar, Eden solutions, SEI or Arch for accounting and reporting. The deal team or investment team, often ex private equity investment banking or hedge funds, professionals. And so you're going to see a lot of these people. So if you're raising capital from them, you kind of know what you're up against. If you are that, or you're about to be that. Now you know some certain structures that you can talk about with your attorney. 

Ryan Miller  

So let's talk about some of the tech tools. So some of the common platforms you can look up at a par for portfolio reporting and data aggregation, Eaton solutions, that's family office administration platform, or the SEI family office services, which is long standing wealth management and reporting and Arch it's used for entity management and document organization. And also Carta and similar platforms use when families invest in venture capital and want cap table clarity. They also have private secondary platforms like Forge or equities end. They give access to private company secondary shares for qualified investors. And if you're at that place, at that wealth level, that is certainly one of those areas that you get to look into see what's cool is there are trends that are widely reported by consulting firms and wealth managers. And some of the findings are more family offices in Singapore and the Middle East, more interest in direct deals, in private equity, venture capital and real estate, and more complex multi jurisdictional structures. They have more emphasis on governance and education for the next generation, and the use of AI and better data systems for investment reporting and risk monitoring. So as we round third base, let's bring it home. Money fades. Markets move, businesses change, but structure endures. The Rockefeller family is still here because of structure. Rothschilds are still here because of structure. The Waltons still quietly control the world's largest retailer because of structure. And the Mars family still owns 100% of a privately owned global company because of structure. So the secret of dynasties is not only in what they own, but in how they own it. And a family office is one of those tools used in making and preserving billions. So if you want the downloadable PDF with some diagrams and flow charts that you can walk through with your attorney and just have a visual layer. Then click the link in the description, and if you're a fund manager, deal syndicator, or an investor who wants to learn how to raise capital at a professional level, and you want to join a community that has already raised over $1 billion following these methods, then also click the link in the description to join the Fundraise Capital Community, you do these things, and you too will be well on your way in your pursuit of Making Billions.

Ryan Miller    

Wow, what a show. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Now, if you haven't done so already, be sure to leave a comment and review on new ideas and guests you want me to bring on for future episodes, plus, why don't you head over to YouTube and see extra takes while you get to know our guests even better, and make sure to come back for our next episode, where we dive even deeper into the people, the process and the perspectives of both investors and founders. Until then, my friends, stay hungry. Focus on your goals and keep grinding towards your dream of Making Billions.