Risk advisory for households with trustees, foundations, and complex liability.

A family office is not a household. In liability terms, it is closer to a small enterprise — with employees (the household staff and family-office staff), legal entities (the trusts, foundations, single-purpose LLCs), and exposures (foundation trustee liability, domestic-employee EPLI, aviation passenger liability, K&R for international travel) that the standard private-client carriers will not write.

The Family Office Advisory practice exists to give the household one broker for the aggregate risk profile — coordinating across the principals' personal program, the operating businesses, the trust structures, and the foundation boards. The work is led by Ted Whitcombe III and supported by Patricia Devanney (Risk Management) and Margaret Whitcombe-Lockhart (Newport coordination).

Most family-office engagements begin with a discovery conversation, followed by an aggregated risk review across all entities, followed by a coordinated program written across three to seven carriers. The annual renewal cycle is co-managed with the family-office's general counsel and CFO.

The Steward's Brief™ is the practice's signature deliverable — a quarterly written advisory document summarizing exposure changes, claim activity, renewal posture, and policy-language drift across the household's entire program. It is read by trustees and board members.

What we typically advise on

Aggregated household risk review

Across operating businesses, trusts, foundations, and significant personal assets. Identifies coverage overlaps, gaps, and policy-language inconsistencies.

Trustee liability and Foundation D&O

Personal protection for foundation trustees and board members. Placed through Chubb, AIG Private Client, or Berkley Specialty depending on foundation type and assets.

Employment Practices Liability for household staff

EPLI for households with three or more domestic employees — driver, housekeeper, gardener, household manager, nanny. Most private-client carriers offer this as an endorsement; the limits typically need to be uplifted for households with five or more domestic employees.

Personal Cyber Liability and identity restoration

Identity-restoration programs, social-engineering loss coverage, ransomware-specific endorsements. Increasingly material for households with significant financial-account exposure.

Crisis Management and Kidnap & Ransom

For international travel and for households whose principals are public figures. Placed through Tokio Marine HCC; the policy is never disclosed outside the firm.

Domestic-employee Workers Compensation

Most states require Workers Compensation coverage on domestic employees. Many households have it under the homeowner policy as an automatic extension; many do not.

Aircraft and yacht passenger liability

For households with private aircraft or yachts that carry guests. Passenger liability is typically excluded or limited on the standard hull-and-machinery placement and must be scheduled separately.

Charter-out and bareboat-charter exposure

For yacht owners who occasionally charter their vessel — commercial-operations endorsements, charter-passenger liability, and the coordination with the standard yacht placement.

The Steward's Brief™

The Steward's Brief™ is a quarterly risk-advisory document delivered to family-office and foundation clients. Each issue summarizes: the year-to-date claim activity (across all policies, all entities); any exposure changes the firm has identified (new acquisitions, new entities, new staff hires, new travel patterns); the renewal posture going into the next twelve months; and any policy-language drift the carriers have introduced.

The document is written by partners, not by marketing staff. It is delivered in a sealed envelope by hand or by courier to the family-office principal. It is read by trustees, board members, and family-office principals — and, in our experience, frequently referenced at board meetings and in trust-formation conversations.

A family office is not a household. It is, in liability terms, closer to a small enterprise — and the carriers that write its exposures are not the carriers that write its principals' primary homes.

Carriers we use for family office work

Chubb

Foundation D&O, household EPLI, K&R (Chubb Personal Risk Services). The primary placement for most family-office engagements.

AIG Private Client

International exposures, multi-jurisdictional households, the Concierge form for aggregated household risk profiles.

Berkley Specialty

Foundation D&O for non-501(c)(3) entities and complex single-purpose LLC structures.

CNA

Professional liability for family-office investment advisors when the office holds an SEC-registration. Coordinates with the household's personal-umbrella tower.