Leading institutions for family office education
A curated overview of executive programmes for families and family offices
1. IMD Business School: Leading the Family Office
2. Harvard Business School: Building a Legacy – Family Office Wealth Management
3. Pepperdine Graziadio Business School: Financial Management for the Family Office
4. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University: The Single Family Office
5. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: Family Wealth Management
6. Chicago Booth: Private Wealth Management
7. HEC Business School: Entreprises Familiales – Gouvernance et Management
8. Columbia Business School: Family Enterprises and Wealth (Online)
Historically, much of family office knowledge was acquired informally. Family members and hired executives often learned on the job, drawing on experience from adjacent fields such as banking, legal, or corporate finance. As family offices have grown more institutional in structure and responsibility, leading academic institutions have begun developing dedicated executive education programmes to address these gaps more systematically.
Today, these programmes serve a range of distinct needs, from educating next-generation family members preparing to engage with family wealth, to supporting the professionalisation of family office leadership, governance, and long-term planning.
Below is a curated overview of leading institutions offering executive education relevant to family offices, spanning governance, investment oversight, and organisational leadership.
IMD Business School: Leading the Family Office
This highly specialised, five-day executive programme focuses on the design, governance, and leadership of a single family office. Delivered as an in-person, residential course in Switzerland, Leading the Family Office addresses the family office landscape, long-term structural decision-making, investment oversight, and the integration of areas such as impact investing and high-performing governance.
The programme is intentionally restricted to family members and senior executives employed by a single family, creating a closed, non-commercial learning environment. It is particularly well suited to families establishing, restructuring, or professionalising a single family office, rather than managing an operating family business.
Harvard Business School: Building a Legacy – Family Office Wealth Management
Harvard Business School’s Building a Legacy: Family Office Wealth Management programme examines how investment decisions, governance structures, and family dynamics intersect within a family office context. Using the case method, the curriculum explores investment oversight, wealth management, philanthropy, and intergenerational wealth transfer, with particular attention to how family behaviour influences long-term outcomes.
Designed for family principals and senior executives working within a single family office, the programme excludes general service providers, creating a peer-driven learning environment focused on stewardship, decision-making, and legacy rather than product selection. Family members involved in wealth transfer and governance are encouraged to attend.
Pepperdine Graziadio Business School: Financial Management for the Family Office
This two-and-a-half-day executive programme from Pepperdine Graziadio focuses on the financial and operational mechanics of running a family office. The curriculum covers corporate governance, financial management, reporting, and evaluation to support well-informed investment and oversight decisions.
Delivered at the Drescher Graduate Campus in Malibu, the course is suitable for executives from both single and multi-family offices, as well as family members seeking a more practical understanding of wealth management. Unlike some closed-door programmes, it welcomes a mixed audience, making it particularly relevant for CFOs, controllers, and operational leaders.
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University: The Single Family Office
This executive education programme is designed specifically for senior professionals working within a single family office. It focuses on the leadership, trust-building, and decision-making skills required to operate effectively in a high-stakes, family-centred environment that differs fundamentally from traditional corporate structures.
Key objectives include aligning family office operations with family expectations, establishing executive authority, managing family dynamics, and navigating succession at both the family and organisational level. Participation is screened to ensure a peer group of dedicated single-family office executives rather than advisors or multi-family office professionals.
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: Family Wealth Management
Wharton’s executive education offering in Family Wealth Management focuses on advanced financial strategies for high-net-worth families, including asset allocation, portfolio construction, manager selection, and risk management across generations. The programme reflects Wharton’s strength in quantitative finance and investment decision-making rather than family office governance design.
While the Wharton Global Family Alliance operates as a research and convening platform, the executive programme itself typically brings together a mixed classroom of family members, family office executives, and professional advisors. It is therefore best suited to participants seeking deep technical expertise in wealth management rather than a closed, family-only learning environment.
Chicago Booth: Private Wealth Management
Chicago Booth’s Private Wealth Management programme is designed for wealth owners seeking greater clarity and control over their long-term financial strategy. Targeted at ultra-high-net-worth individuals, the course focuses on defining financial objectives, evaluating advisory relationships, and understanding how incentives, costs, and risk affect outcomes over time.
Rather than teaching participants how to manage money directly, the programme equips them to oversee advisors more effectively, make informed governance decisions, and preserve wealth across generations. It is best suited to family principals rather than professional managers or service providers.
HEC Business School: Entreprises Familiales – Gouvernance et Management
This in-person executive education programme at HEC Business School in Paris focuses on governance and management within family-controlled operating businesses rather than standalone family offices. Delivered as a certified programme, it addresses board structures, executive leadership, and long-term succession in family enterprises.
The course is most relevant for families whose wealth remains closely tied to an operating company, particularly those navigating shareholder alignment, board professionalisation, and leadership transition. It is less suited to families managing predominantly liquid wealth through a dedicated family office structure.
Columbia Business School: Family Enterprises and Wealth (Online)
Columbia Business School’s Family Enterprises and Wealth is a six-week, online programme designed to provide foundational education on family governance, ownership structures, and wealth stewardship. Delivered in a flexible digital format, it is particularly well suited to next-generation family members, new family office hires, or families seeking a structured introduction to complex family enterprise dynamics.
Priced at a significantly lower level than residential executive programmes, the course functions effectively as an onboarding or refresher option rather than a deep, peer-network-driven experience. It is curated by Professor Patricia M. Angus, Managing Director of Columbia’s Global Family Enterprise Program and an adjunct professor at the Business School.
The continued growth and professionalisation of family offices is reshaping expectations around governance, leadership, and decision-making. As wealth structures become more complex and responsibilities extend across generations, education is no longer an informal add-on but a core component of operating a resilient family office.
Institutions offering dedicated executive education in this space play an increasingly important role in supporting family office leaders, family principals, and next-generation members as they navigate evolving approaches to wealth management, investment oversight, governance, and long-term stewardship.