Family offices
A family office in Luxembourg, built in the right order.
We help families set up and run a single or multi-family office in Luxembourg. That covers the vehicles, the substance, the service providers and the governance. Reporting is designed to run on Atelier, our own tool for family offices, which is currently in development.
Establishing a family office in Luxembourg
For families and entrepreneurs from Africa, the Gulf, Asia or closer to home who want their own office, or a shared one, in a jurisdiction designed for holding assets across borders.
Luxembourg has the vehicles, the service providers and the treaty network. What a family usually lacks is someone to put them together in the right order. That is our job, and we stay on afterwards to run the reporting.
Discover
We map what the family owns today, through which entities and in which countries. This becomes the Atelier graph, and every later decision is based on it.
Design
Single-family or multi-family; governance and family charter; the holding, partnership and fund vehicles that fit; tax and succession with counsel.
Establish
Entities, substance and directors; administrators, depositaries and auditors; banking and custody relationships; regulatory filings where required.
Operate
Consolidated reporting on Atelier; investment access through Cordis structures and third-party managers; an annual review of structure and cost.
What we build for a family office
An office is a set of structures before it is a team. We put it together from what Luxembourg does well, and we remain responsible for the whole.
Holding and partnership vehicles
Special limited partnerships, holding companies and private wealth vehicles, chosen to hold operating companies, private investments, real estate and liquid portfolios under one set of rules. We apply the same approach as in our structuring work for entrepreneurs.
Governance and family charter
Who decides what, how members join and leave, how disagreements are settled and how the next generation comes in. All of it is written down before any capital moves.
Substance in Luxembourg
Independent directors, domiciliation, accounting and audit, so that banks, counterparties and tax authorities see a real office rather than a mailbox.
Banking, custody and administration
Account opening and know-your-customer files, depositary and administrator appointments and custodian relationships, coordinated by one person instead of five.
Succession and cross-border planning
Done with counsel in each country where the family lives or holds assets, so the structure still works after the founders are gone and when the children live in different countries.
Investment access
The Cordis platforms and third-party managers, on the same terms as the firm’s partners, with independent valuation and disclosed fees.
Reporting on Atelier
Consolidated reporting across every entity, custodian and jurisdiction, designed to be reconciled monthly from source documents. The scope of reporting support is confirmed for each engagement. Atelier in detail.
One partner is responsible for the whole relationship. The family keeps its own auditors, lawyers and banks.
Why families choose Luxembourg for a family office
Luxembourg is not the cheapest place to hold wealth, and it is not the most secretive. What it offers is a way to hold many assets, in many countries, under one roof that banks, courts and tax authorities everywhere recognise.
A Luxembourg family office sits inside the European Union, with company law designed for cross-border ownership and a service industry that specialises in it. For a family spread across several countries, that matters more than any single tax rate.
The legal toolbox
Special limited partnerships (SCSp), holding companies (SOPARFI), private wealth vehicles and reserved funds, each with a settled body of practice. The right combination lets one family hold operating businesses, private equity, real estate and liquid portfolios in structures that outlive the people who set them up. See our structuring work.
Recognition everywhere
An EU member state with one of the widest double-tax-treaty networks in the world, a AAA sovereign rating and courts that international counterparties trust. A Luxembourg entity opens accounts, signs contracts and passes due diligence without explanation.
An industry of specialists
Fund administrators, depositary banks, auditors, domiciliation agents, independent directors and law firms who work on family structures every day. The office does not need to build these skills in-house. It needs to choose the right providers and coordinate them.
Stability and discretion
A stable political system, a regulator that engages with family-office questions, and confidentiality that comes from law and professional secrecy rather than from hiding. Substance requirements are real, and a well-run office meets them.
Questions families ask
How much wealth does a family office in Luxembourg need?
There is no legal threshold. In practice a dedicated single-family office with its own staff and entities starts to make sense from roughly €50 million of assets, when the complexity of what the family owns justifies a permanent team. Below that, a shared or multi-family office gives the same governance at a fraction of the fixed cost. The better question is how many entities, custodians, countries and private positions there are to keep track of.
Single-family office or multi-family office?
A single-family office serves one family and is controlled by it. A multi-family office serves several families under one team and one set of systems, sharing the cost of directors, reporting and compliance. Families with complex holdings but no wish to run an organisation usually start with a multi-family arrangement and keep the option to spin out a dedicated office later. Cordis supports both routes.
Does a family office need a licence in Luxembourg?
An office that serves only one family, or that is owned and controlled by the family it serves, generally does not. An office that provides family-office services to third parties on a professional basis falls under the Luxembourg law of 21 December 2012 on the family office activity and must be carried out by an authorised professional, for example a regulated professional of the financial sector, a lawyer, a notary or an auditor. We map the regulatory perimeter with counsel before any office is established, and we say so plainly when a licence is required.
How long does it take to establish a family office in Luxembourg?
Entities can be incorporated in weeks. Banking takes longest. Opening accounts and completing know-your-customer and source-of-wealth reviews for an international family usually takes two to four months. From first conversation to first consolidated report, plan for three to six months. The discovery phase, working out what the family already owns, usually decides most of the timeline.
What does a family office in Luxembourg cost to run?
The recurring cost is substance and service: independent directors, domiciliation, accounting, audit, depositary and administrator fees, and the reporting layer. It scales with the number of entities and jurisdictions, not with the size of the portfolio. Our own fees work the same way. They are based on complexity, not on a percentage of assets, and we disclose them in advance.
Can a family based outside Europe set up a family office in Luxembourg?
Yes. A large share of new offices are established by families from Africa, the Gulf and Asia precisely because Luxembourg structures are recognised in their home countries and by international banks. The office needs genuine substance in Luxembourg, and the family needs to be ready for a thorough source-of-wealth review. Both can be done, and neither can be skipped.
Where does the family's data live?
Atelier is being built to hold data in the European Union, with documented access, egress and AI-processing rules and an on-premise option planned. Data-handling arrangements are confirmed for each engagement. Reconciliation is not audit or a valuation opinion; the family's auditors, administrators and valuers remain in place. Atelier in detail.