Family Office Global (FOG) has always been about depth. Since its inception, it has been the place where GPFO steps back from the headlines to examine the issues that genuinely matter to family offices, not just what is new, but what is important.
Over the years, the format has evolved to meet readers where they are. FOG began in 2009 as a physical magazine, at a time when print was still the natural home for long-form thinking. It later transitioned into an online e-magazine as digital consumption became the norm. Today, we are relaunching FOG once again – this time on Substack – reflecting how information is now accessed, shared, and acted upon.
This change is not happening in isolation. It builds directly on the success of our monthly Family Office Insider (FOI) newsletter, which provides an independent overview of family office news, senior moves, and commentary from across the globe. FOI has grown rapidly in recent years, fast approaching 5,000 subscribers, which tells its own story about the appetite for trusted, agenda-free information in an expanding ecosystem.
The new FOG is designed to sit alongside FOI, not replace it. Where FOI captures the breadth of what is happening, FOG will focus on depth – offering timely, in-depth analysis of the structural, strategic, and philosophical questions facing family offices today. It will not just be the voice of GPFO but for family offices themselves and leading specialists in the field, and we welcome the views and actively seek contributions from all who work with family offices.
FOG will also reconnect readers with our editorial archive: 350+ articles published since 2010, written by contributors from across the family office ecosystem. That back-catalogue charts how the family office landscape has evolved – often in ways that are only clear with time and context. In a world that rewards speed, there is value in returning to what has endured.
This relaunch also invites reflection on first principles. When GPFO published the first edition of FOG in 2010, we stated that our aim was ‘to develop niche, focused, private networking and educational resources and opportunities to international family offices and the families behind them’. That ambition has not changed. What has changed is the environment in which family offices operate.
Since 2009, global private wealth has expanded at an extraordinary pace, with total global wealth more than doubling and the number of family offices increasing several times over. What was once a relatively small, discreet community has become a global ecosystem spanning continents, asset classes, and operating models. Family offices today are more visible, more professionalised, and more sought after than ever before.
With that growth has come opportunity – but also noise. Family offices now have a far greater ability to insource investment, operational, and advisory functions. At the same time, an ever-growing number of institutions, managers, and service providers are actively catering to them. Choice has expanded dramatically, but so has complexity.
It is for this reason that one of the first questions we ask families considering a family office often comes as a surprise: ‘why do you want one?’. For many families, particularly those focused primarily on wealth preservation and governance, there are excellent solutions available without the need to build a fully-fledged family office. Running a family office brings responsibility, cost, and operational burden. It can be the right answer, but it should be a deliberate one.
Where it is the right answer, clarity becomes essential. No family office can do everything well. The most effective ones understand their priorities, are deliberate about what they do internally, and are pragmatic about what they outsource. Crucially, they learn from peers who have faced similar challenges – avoiding complexity for its own sake.
This is where GPFO has always played a role: facilitating conversation, sharing experience, and providing perspective grounded in practice. As a private membership association with members across more than 20 jurisdictions, we exist to help families and their teams compare notes – quietly, candidly, and with a long-term view.
FOG is one expression of that mission. It is a platform for long-form writing and discussion on the issues that matter to family offices – especially best practice across investing, governance, operations, and geopolitics. Not every reader will agree with every contributor, and that is part of the point. FOG works best when it helps sharpen thinking, challenge assumptions, and surface second-order implications.
What to expect next is straightforward: regular articles, thoughtfully curated. Some pieces will take a longer view of structural shifts – policy, markets, governance, technology, geopolitics. Others will be practical: operating lessons; frameworks; common pitfalls; questions worth asking, and examples of how family offices are approaching the same challenge in different ways.
If you have been reading FOG for years, thank you. If you are new, welcome. Either way, the intent is constant: substance over noise, and a place for informed, respectful debate.
If you’d like to follow the publication, subscribe. And if you have a perspective worth sharing – grounded in experience and written with care – we would welcome proposals for future contributions.
Fantastic to have access to more creative thinking about the family office space as it continues to evolve. Thank you for your leadership in creating this content!