Quora Answer: What is the Difference between a Family Office & Trust?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What is the difference between a family office and a trust?” 

A family office is simply a privately-held company or group of companies created solely for the purpose of managing the wealth of a family or a group of families.  The intent is to ensure that wealth is nurtured so that it can be transferred across generations. 

A trust is an entity created solely to facilitate a legal arrangement where a legal person or persons, the trustee or trustees, manages assets on behalf of the original owner, the settlor, so that it can be distributed to beneficiaries according to a letter of wishes. 

Whilst both a trust and a family office may be used to transfer wealth across generations, a family office is a more comprehensive arrangement, with both immediate and long-term objectives.  A family office may be a trust, it may include one or more trusts, or it may not.