Family Office Insurance in Greenwich and Fairfield County: D&O, E&O, Cyber, Crime, and the Gaps Between Them

Short answer: A family office needs management and professional liability insurance even though it serves only one family, because family members, trust beneficiaries, employees and counterparties can all bring claims. A typical program combines directors and officers (D&O), professional liability for investment and administrative services, employment practices, fiduciary liability, cyber, and crime coverage with strong social engineering limits, coordinated with the family's personal private-client program.

Why a family office is not "just the family"

Single-family offices are generally excluded from SEC adviser registration under the Family Office Rule, but exemption from registration is not exemption from lawsuits. Claims commonly come from:

• Family members or beneficiaries alleging mismanagement, conflicts or unequal treatment, especially across generations or after a death or divorce
• Employees, through employment practices claims
• Co-investors and portfolio companies when the office takes board seats or leads deals
• Regulators and taxing authorities in investigations

Core coverages

• D&O for the office's directors, officers and managers, including outside directorships at portfolio companies.
• Professional liability (E&O) for investment advice, accounting, bill pay, tax and administrative services. Watch for "insured versus insured" exclusions that bar family-member claims; family office forms carve these back.
• Employment practices for office staff and, sometimes, household staff employed through the office.
• Fiduciary liability for the office's retirement plans, and in some cases trustee activities.
• Cyber: family offices hold the data and banking access of very wealthy people and are targeted accordingly; see cyber liability.
• Crime with high limits for funds-transfer fraud and social engineering, the most frequent serious loss.

Coordinate with the family's personal program

• Personal umbrellas often exclude board service and business pursuits; office D&O and E&O must fill that space. See high-limit umbrellas.
• Household employees paid through the office need workers' compensation and EPLI in the right entity; see household staff coverage.
• Personal cyber for family members complements the office's cyber; see personal cyber.
• Art, aircraft, yachts and real estate owned through office entities must be insured in the names that actually own them.

Greenwich and the Fairfield County corridor remain one of the densest concentrations of family offices and hedge funds in the country. New England Insurance, an independent Connecticut agency in Bridgeport since 2012, coordinates family office management liability with the family's private-client coverage. See insurance for advisers and funds or contact us.