Genuine multi-family offices (MFOs), which are owned by the client families, tend to be few and far between despite an explosion in the number of institutions that use the moniker in recent years.

London-based Holbein Partners, the outcome of a 2013 merger between Cunningham Loewenstein Asset Management and MaxCap Partners, brought together a number of individuals already active in overseeing their wealth as well as that of the rich and famous.

These included the late Prince Rupert Lowenstein, possibly best-known as the Rolling Stones’ financial adviser, his daughter Dora Loewenstain and Michael George, who had establ...