Those who visit Florence cannot help but notice the imprint of its most famous family. More than five centuries after the height of the Renaissance, the Medici legacy remains visible in landmarks such as the Bargello Museum, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Palazzo Vecchio and Pitti Palace. More than architectural treasures, these buildings reflect how one family’s wealth helped shape a city, influenced a nation and left an enduring legacy.
The Medici story is, certainly, exceptional, but the decisions they faced were not. Every family of means, at some point, faces the same strategic question: What should its capital accomplish? Families have wrestled with this for centuries.
Building Lasting Wealth
Most significant family fortunes begin in much the same way. An entrepreneur builds a successful private business, creating wealth that extends well beyond the founder’s lifetime.
In the second half of the 19th century, John D. Rockefeller built Standard Oil into one of history’s largest companies. In 1853, Richard King acquired the land that became King Ranch, now one of North America’s largest ranching enterprises. More than a century later, Steve Case helped introduce millions of Americans to the internet through AOL before co-founding Revolution.
In each case, the family’s financial success began with a privately owned enterprise. However, creating wealth is only the beginning. Families should determine how to preserve it, involve future generations and deploy capital in ways that reflect their values. The modern family office has emerged as the vehicle to address those topics.
The Rise of the American Family Office
Families have managed investments and estates for centuries, but the late 19th century produced a new generation of American industrial fortunes. Families led by Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, John Jacob Astor and Rockefeller accumulated extraordinary wealth through shipping, railroads, steel, real estate and energy.
Perhaps no family better illustrates this evolution than the House of Morgan.
J. P. Morgan reorganized Drexel, Morgan & Co. into J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1895, creating one of the world’s most influential private banking partnerships. Like the Medici Bank four centuries earlier, Morgan’s firm became a trusted source of capital for governments and businesses alike. When confidence in the U.S. gold standard faltered in 1895, Morgan assembled an international banking syndicate that supplied 3.5 million ounces of gold to replenish the U.S. Treasury’s reserves, restoring confidence in the nation’s financial system at a time when the United States had no central bank. Morgan later expanded beyond banking into direct investments and corporate reorganizations involving railroads, steel, electric power, shipping and mining, helping build many of America’s largest industrial enterprises.
The Modern Family Office
The family office as we know it today emerged after the Second World War. Privately owned businesses continued creating substantial wealth in manufacturing, agriculture, finance, energy and retail. As it grew, families established formal structures to oversee investments, trusts, taxes, philanthropy, governance and succession planning.
The trend accelerated during the technology boom of the 1980s and 1990s, when companies such as Microsoft, Dell and AOL created a new generation of entrepreneurs. According to research by Deloitte, the number of family offices globally has grown by roughly 75% over the past decade.
In less than a decade, researchers estimated there were approximately 5,400 family offices worldwide. By 2025, that figure exceeded 9,000, collectively overseeing an estimated $5 to $7 trillion in asset, according to research by Campden Wealth.
Four Families, Four Approaches
The Medici: Shaping a City
The Medici family shaped Florence and Tuscany for nearly three centuries, from Cosimo de’ Medici’s rise to political prominence in 1434 until the dynasty ended in 1737. During that period, the family transformed a successful private bank into a multigenerational enterprise that influenced commerce, government, religion, and culture throughout Europe. Their reach extended to Rome in 1513, when Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope Leo X.
Although the Medici Bank stood at the center of the family’s success, their commercial interests extended well beyond banking. The family built wealth through silk production, wool manufacturing, international trade, real estate, agriculture mining, and financial services to the Papacy. As the family’s commercial and political influence expanded, the Medici centralized many administrative functions in the Uffizi, constructed beginning in 1560. Originally built as government offices, the complex reflected an increasingly sophisticated approach to managing family affairs and eventually became today’s Uffizi Gallery.
The Rockefellers: Building Institutions
After building Standard Oil, Rockefeller directed much of his family’s wealth toward education, medicine, scientific research, and public health. His philanthropy helped establish lasting institutions, including the Rockefeller Foundation and major support for the University of Chicago. Rockefeller believed that “the best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities… an attempt to cure evils at their source.”
Rather than simply distributing wealth, the Rockefeller family sought to build institutions capable of addressing society’s most fundamental challenges.
The King Family: Stewarding an Enterprise
For more than 170 years, the descendants of Richard King have maintained ownership of King Ranch through a corporate structure designed to preserve the enterprise across generations. Now, the ranch encompasses approximately 825,000 acres, making it one of the largest ranching operations in North America.
Rather than dividing the property among heirs, the family retained collective ownership through shares in the business. Over time, King Ranch expanded beyond cattle into agriculture, energy, wildlife management, and consumer products. The family’s approach demonstrates how long-term stewardship can preserve both an operating business and a shared purpose.
The Case Family: Expanding Opportunity
After helping build AOL, Steve Case co-founded Revolution in 2005, an investment firm that supports entrepreneurs and growth companies. Through Revolution and its Rise of the Rest initiative, Case has argued that startups are the “seed corn” of future economic growth. His investments help entrepreneurs build stronger local economies, create jobs, and bring capital to communities often overlooked by institutional investors.
What Successful Families Have in Common
Though they operated in different industries and lived in different times, they share three defining characteristics.
- First, they built wealth through ownership of private enterprises.
- Second, they viewed capital as a strategic resource capable of building businesses, strengthening institutions, and creating opportunities, not simply generating financial returns.
- Third, they established structures that allowed future generations to continue to implement the family’s vision.
For many families, direct investing remains a natural extension of that entrepreneurial mindset. Rather than limiting investments to public securities, they continue allocating capital to private companies, real estate, and operating businesses, much as earlier generations did.
David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, a leading diversified private equity and alternative investment firm, has observed that many of the world’s largest fortunes were created through ownership of private businesses.
According to Deloitte’s Family Office Insights Series: Defining the Family Office Landscape (2024), family offices devote roughly half of their time to portfolio management (30%) and direct investing (22%). This underscores the importance of investment management while keeping family values in mind.
A Legacy Beyond Wealth
Family offices have deep historical roots. From Renaissance banking families to today’s technology entrepreneurs, successful families have consistently used private capital to build businesses, strengthen institutions, support communities and create opportunities for future generations.
As James E. Hughes Jr., a leading authority on multigenerational wealth, observed, “Families are more complicated than their assets.” That simple observation helps explain why no two family offices look alike. Every family brings its own history, values, aspirations and definition of success. These factors continue to shape the world’s most successful enterprising families, just as they did in Renaissance Florence.
Whether a family office remains connected to an operating company or evolves into an independent organization, every family eventually deals with the same questions that faced the Medici centuries ago: How should its capital be deployed and to what strategic end?