Family Offices and Private Equity

The term “family office” has become incre­asingly popu­lar among the public in recent years, espe­ci­ally in busi­ness publi­ca­ti­ons. The same people still have only a vague idea of what lies behind this term. There is a certain paral­lel with “private equity”, which hardly anyone in Germany knew until Franz Müntefering’s legen­dary speech at the market­place in Hemer in 2004, and whose para­ble of the locusts then led to the most adven­tur­ous ideas in the minds of the public.

Prof. Nadine Kammer­lan­der and her team from the Insti­tute for Family Busi­ness at WHU have, for the first time in the German-spea­king world, shed light on termi­no­logy, scale and beha­vior with their study on family offices (FO), family equity (FE) and private equity (PE). It is equally welcome that FYB 2020 is dedi­ca­ted to the topic of family offices.