Single family offices in Monaco

A single family office is not a distinct type of entity in Monaco. It is a Société Anonyme Monégasque (SAM), a joint stock company whose incorporation is authorized by Ministerial Order, built around the assets of one family and operating for that family alone.

It may hold family assets directly, hold underlying business and wealth management assets, or supervise independent structures such as trusts and manage banking and real estate assets held abroad.

Whether it is worth setting one up

Below a certain level of net assets, there is little point in establishing a single family office in Monaco. The structure costs more to run, in governance and in reporting, than the control it returns. Above that level it starts to earn its place.

We would rather say this at the first meeting than eighteen months into a structure nobody needed.

The line you cannot cross

A single family office serves one family. The moment it advises, invests, or manages for others, it is engaging in a regulated activity and requires a license from the Financial Activities Supervisory Commission (CCAF).

That line is not theoretical. Authorizations have been withdrawn in the Principality in recent years for engaging in reserved activities without the corresponding license. Getting the scope right at the outset is therefore not a formality. It is what determines whether the structure is still standing in five years.

What the process involves

Establishing a SAM requires at least two shareholders, a minimum share capital of 150,000 euros, Memorandum and Articles of Association drawn up as an official deed by a Monegasque notary, and approval of those articles by Ministerial Order, which constitutes the authorization for incorporation.

Where residency fits

For most families setting up a family office, residency is part of the picture. It is not a separate mandate. We address it as part of the overall structuring of assets and activity, and where a client only needs a residency application, we say so, and they do it without us.

A European base for families established in Asia

A significant share of family offices based in Asia are considering a European presence, or already have one. Monaco is a candidate for that base on grounds that have nothing to do with taxation and everything to do with institutional stability: the same dynasty has governed the State for more than seven hundred years, and the jurisdiction complies with international standards on tax transparency and anti-money laundering. What Monaco offers a family office is a small, regulated, exceptionally stable base from which the rest of the world remains within reach.

We handle that work ourselves. We are not local counsel executing instructions drafted elsewhere by a firm that has never dealt with the Business Development Agency (DDE).

Structurally independent advice

We receive no retrocession from any bank, fund, or intermediary. When a family office selects its banking counterparties, its custodians, or its managers, our view is worth exactly what it says, because nothing else depends on it.