A Magic Wand

One of my U.S. working mothers, Renee Walker, is an entrepreneur. She told me that if she could wave a magic wand to ideally care for her household, she would have a “family office.” That seemed achievable. I asked her whether it was just a room or part of a room, with a desk and perhaps a filing cabinet. She responded that with a family office, you no longer have to see or touch a single bill or organize any activities related to the house. So, I asked again, is this someone who sorts her mail and helps schedule her day? Again, she said no.

She took more time to explain. Apparently, a family office is a team of individuals who manage all your money, handle your bills, and act as household managers from afar. You don’t have to wrangle over a medical bill, schedule appointments, pay Casella Waste, hire a cleaner, or book a hotel. She also noted that only very high-net-worth individuals employ one.

Pocket Change at $25 Million

A family office sounded beneficial, but I felt limited in how I would use one. Shortly after our interview, I imagined myself as a wickedly high-net-worth individual and asked Claude, “Let’s say I have $25 million, how could I use a family office?” To my dismay, Claude responded that I might share a family office with several other families, but I would be considered pocket change. I then tried $60 million. Claude replied that I couldn’t yet afford my own office, but I would be treated as a significant client. But at $500 million, I would have a dedicated family office that might employ between 15 and 30 people.

Hmmm…so who are these families that can afford a family office for just themselves? How did they amass such wealth? They aren’t high-earning doctors or lawyers. Professionals like these are paid in wages, and wages are taxed heavily. It is these entrepreneurial and dynastic families, whose most high-profile surnames include Bezos, Musk, and Walton, that pay only one to three percent of their wealth in taxes because their unrealized gains on assets aren’t taxed, while doctors pay around 30% of their incomes. On The Ezra Klein Show, Ray Madoff, professor of law at Boston College and an expert on US tax law, notes that these families actively influence government rules to keep money within the family.

Diamonds and Triangles

I get why Renee wants a family office. She can offload time-consuming administrative work in her business and home life and benefit from the expertise an office can provide to grow her business. However, I feel somewhat alarmed by the family office when I put my political science hat on.

A healthy democracy needs a vibrant, thriving middle class. We thus want a diamond-shaped society (see below) where the largest portion of society bulges in the middle. Why? Politicians must appeal to middle-class voters, so laws generally benefit the middle class. It is also in the interest of the middle class to consider the needs of the upper and lower classes, because a middle-class individual could move into another class and vice versa.

To me, a family office indicates a triangle-shaped society (see above). Those in the upper class who can afford a family office have enough influence to ensure that laws favor them at the expense of the rest of the population. Because the family office is private, it is less regulated. In effect, it can reinforce private gains for the wealthy and outsource costs to everyone else (check out the 2021 collapse of the Archegos Capital Management family office as an example).

Communal Support

For working moms, the triangle-shaped society also tends to distort a communal sense of mutual support, disconnecting the rest of the population from the upper class. I am in a Facebook group for parents of University of Chicago students. Recently, a parent asked the group what kind of winter coat to get their child to weather Chicago winters. The moderator’s response was that students wear coats ranging from The North Face to brand names I’d never heard of that, when I looked them up, cost upwards of $1,200. The range was so out of whack, as I would have thought The North Face represented the upper end and Walmart coats, which my children have worn and my husband loves, represented the lower end. I mean, come on, in Canton, our nearest major store is Walmart!

The disconnection runs the other way, too. Having interviewed some very wealthy working mothers, I have been immensely impressed by their conviction and efforts to give back to their communities. But the giving tends to flow in one direction. Because they belong to very wealthy households, their gifts dwarf what anyone else can offer. In university fundraising, for example, just 2% of donors contributed 89% of the funds in fiscal year 2025 (Council for Advancement and Support of Education, 2026). Supporting a university becomes less a shared effort across its whole community and more a matter of relying on a few families, who not only end up carrying the weight largely on their own.

In this society, it’s hard to imagine a high-net-worth working mother having an emergency with one child and being able to hand off her other two children to a neighbor. Instead of community, she has paid help, which is privileged but not quite the same as having a neighbor.

A Family Office for Renee

A vibrant, strong middle class ties the rich and poor together. Renee, and entrepreneurial working mothers like her, shouldn’t have to wait until they have assets of $60 million to have an office help with bills, appointments, and household logistics. There should be a version of a family office for individuals like Renee! In this kind of world, care and community are such that every member feels seen, is appreciated, gets help, and can make meaningful contributions.