141: 5 Reasons You Should Not Start a Micro Family Office

Most people listenins to this episode should not build their own wealth management infrastructure. And hearing that upfront might save you from a very expensive mistake.

Managing an $8M Micro Family Office has taught me something most content in this space avoids saying out loud: this approach is incredibly powerful—but only for a very specific type of person. If even one of five key conditions applies to you, building a Micro Family Office will likely create more friction than freedom. But if none of them apply, managing your wealth like a business may be the highest-return decision you ever make.

In this episode, I walk through the five reasons you should not build a Micro Family Office—covering mindset, time commitment, tax strategy, portfolio structure, and asset scale. This isn’t hype or theory. It’s a reality check based on running my own portfolio with a CEO-level operating model, where income, growth, and preservation work together as a single system.

You’ll hear why passive, “set it and forget it” investors are better served by traditional advisors, why proactive tax strategy can quietly add tens of thousands of dollars per year to your bottom line, and why portfolios under $1M usually don’t justify the infrastructure required. We’ll also break down the real weekly time commitment, what “active ownership” actually looks like, and the critical difference between drawdown portfolios and Evergreen Portfolios designed to fund life without selling assets.

This conversation reframes wealth entirely: a multi-million-dollar portfolio isn’t just an account—it’s a business. One capable of generating six figures in annual income with a fraction of the effort most people spent building their careers. The question isn’t whether you’re capable of running it. It’s whether this model truly fits how you want to live, think, and engage with your money.

If you’re frustrated with cookie-cutter advice, want real control over your financial future, and are serious about building generational wealth—not just spending it down—this episode will help you decide, clearly and honestly, whether a Micro Family Office is the right path for you.