The Standard
The framework for how a Lean Family Office is governed, recorded, and kept true — published, consistent, applied the same way every time.
The Lean family office standard
You are the family office. That's the problem.
Circle 26 is the professional home for Lean Family Offices — the standard, the method, and the peer circle for the people who run complex family wealth without an institution behind them. Principals, operators, and the family member who inherited the job.
The problem
Who actually runs your family office?
At some point wealth stops being a financial question and becomes a coordination problem. Several entities. More than one jurisdiction. A web of advisors, each managing their slice. The advice is handled. What isn't handled is the whole — and the whole lives in one person's head.
Sometimes that person is the principal. Sometimes a chief of staff, a family office manager, or the family member who inherited the job. Whoever it is, they hold the full picture from memory, with no standard to work to, no peers who understand the role, and no way to know if they're doing it well.
The families with the most at stake often have the least structure behind them — and the person holding it together has no professional home. Until now.
What it is
What is Circle 26?
Circle 26 is the professional home for Lean Family Offices. We set the standard for how these offices are run, and equip our members to run them: the Lean Family Office Blueprint™, a working operating system, a facilitated assessment of where the office actually stands, and a peer circle of people doing the same job.
The Method
The Blueprint: 18 steps, five pillars, 70+ templates, and a working operating system for the office. Artefacts, not theory.
The Peer Circle
A capped peer circle of people running family offices — working sessions, Chatham House Rule, no commercial agendas.
Who it's for
Who is Circle 26 for?
The Principal
“I am the family office. That's the problem.”
You built the wealth and you run the coordination — from memory, between everything else. It works, and nobody could take over.
See the Principal page →The Operator
“I do the coordination. Nobody else knows what that means.”
Chief of staff, family office manager, director, or CEO — whatever you call it, you hold the whole picture for one family, with no standard, no benchmark, and no peer who understands the job.
See the Operator page →The economics
The same standard, at a fraction of the cost.
Staffed single family office
~$3M / yr
The running cost of a fully staffed office. Source: J.P. Morgan Global Family Office Report.
A Lean Family Office
<2%
Of that spend — the same coordination, method, and standard, run lean.
Most families cross the complexity line long before they cross a wealth threshold.
How it works
How does membership work?
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STEP 1
Take the free assessment
Five minutes, and an honest picture of where your office stands.
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STEP 2
Apply for membership
Membership is capped and reviewed individually.
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STEP 3
Start with the Wealth Clarity Session
A facilitated Wealth Clarity Session and a roadmap built for your office. Included in year one.
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STEP 4
Do the work, in the room
Monthly working sessions where members build the same artefact together, finished by the end.
About us
Who is behind Circle 26?
The team behind Circle 26 has spent a decade building and running family office infrastructure for principals and entrepreneurial families — as directors, operators, and engineers inside the structures themselves.
Read the full story →Insights