Managing your own family’s wealth does not require CNMV authorization. Issuing investment recommendations to third parties does. If your family office serves more than one family, it is worth checking which side of the line you are on before the supervisor asks.
Is your family office in regulated territory? Find out for free
Tell us who you provide services to and how you charge, and we will tell you whether you need a license and which license type would be right.
Whether you want to stay outside the regulatory perimeter or it is time to institutionalize, these are the building blocks we work with.
Legal design of the family office: holding companies, governance, family protocol and allocation of roles between family members and professionals, making sure the activity does not stray into reserved investment services.
When the family office advises third parties, an EAF (empresa de asesoramiento financiero — financial advisory firm) is the natural choice: a CNMV license to issue personalized recommendations, with capital and structure proportionate to the business model.
Which activities remain unrestricted (own wealth, generic analysis) and which ones trigger the reserved activity rules.
The complete guide to regularizing a multi-family office: requirements, capital, application and timelines with the CNMV.
If, besides recommending, you make investment decisions on behalf of third parties under a mandate, the service (and the license type) changes.
Club deals, co-investments and vehicles: how to structure family office deals without inadvertently creating a regulated service.
A family office’s drift into regulated activity is almost never a decision: it is an accumulation of favors, requests and fees. Four scenes we often come across.
“We manage only our own family’s wealth, through the holding company. As long as we do not provide services to anyone else, we do not need a license; what we need is a well-designed structure and governance.”
“Another family asked us to guide their investments the way we do ours, for a fee. That is when we stopped managing our own wealth: we started providing a service to third parties.”
“We serve five family groups with personalized investment recommendations and we charge for it. As a general rule, that model requires authorization: the question is no longer whether we need a license, but which one.”
“I want to set up a multi-family office for several wealthy clients who trust me. I would rather start out with a CNMV license than build a business on a reserved activity that someone could challenge.”
“Family office” is a commercial label, not a legal category. What the supervisor looks at is who you provide services to, what those services are and whether you charge for them.
Believing the label protects you: calling yourself a family office exempts you from nothing. If you issue personalized investment recommendations to people or families outside your own wealth, you are providing a reserved service, whatever the company is called.
Mistaking a favor for an activity: regularly guiding other families’ investments for a fee “because we trust each other” is precisely the pattern of a multi-family office that needs authorization. Trust is no substitute for a license.
Waiting for the CNMV to ask: providing investment services without authorization is a very serious infringement, with possible fines, public reprimand and disqualification. Regularizing in time is a project; doing it after a request for information is a problem.
| Structure | License required? | What it can do |
|---|---|---|
| Single family office | As a general rule, no | Manage and invest a family’s own wealth (usually through a holding company), hire external advisers and organize its governance. Without providing services to third parties. |
| Multi-family office | Usually yes, depending on the services | By serving several families, it provides services to third parties: if it recommends investments it needs, as a general rule, authorization (an EAF or another investment firm, depending on what it does). |
| EAF | Yes: CNMV authorization | Investment advice to any client, under MiFID II: suitability test, cost disclosure and ongoing supervision. Initial capital of €75,000. |
We audit what you actually do (who you serve, what you do and how you charge), tell you clearly whether there is any reserved activity and design the way out: reorganizing your operations to stay outside the perimeter or applying for the EAF license that institutionalizes the project.
It depends on who it provides services to. As long as the structure only manages a family’s own wealth—directly or through its companies—there is no investment service to third parties and, as a general rule, no authorization is required.
The license comes into play when the office starts providing investment services to people outside that wealth: other families, co-investors, acquaintances. At that point the activity may become reserved and require an authorized entity, such as an EAF.
A single family office serves one family and works with its own wealth: this is the typical license-free scenario. A multi-family office serves several families and, by definition, provides services to third parties.
That nuance changes everything: when an MFO issues personalized investment recommendations or manages other people’s portfolios, it performs services that the law reserves for authorized entities. That is why the analysis of an MFO does not start with the tax structure, but with the inventory of services it actually provides.
There is no closed list, but the indicators we look at are consistent: personalized recommendations on specific financial instruments to people outside the family group, remuneration for that service (subscription fees, advisory fees, profit sharing), regularity and presenting yourself to the market as an investment services provider.
The more indicators are present, the harder it is to argue that this is management of the family’s own wealth. We analyze each boundary in detail in can you give investment advice without a license?
It depends on the main service:
Choosing the license type means tailoring it to the inventory of services; we explain the common procedure in investment firm (ESI) authorization.
Charging to issue personalized recommendations on financial instruments to third parties is, as a general rule, investment advice: an activity reserved for authorized entities.
There are non-reserved areas—financial education, generic non-personalized analysis, corporate advice unrelated to financial instruments—but recurring payment for tailored recommendations is one of the clearest indicators of regulated activity. Before you invoice, validate the regulatory fit: it is far cheaper than unwinding it.
The reserved activity rules in Law 6/2023 make providing investment services without authorization a very serious infringement. Broadly speaking, the penalty regime provides for fines, public reprimand and disqualification of directors and officers, plus the reputational damage of appearing as a sanctioned party.
There is an additional cost that is often overlooked: the penalty and the prior irregular activity complicate a future license application, because the CNMV assesses the good repute of shareholders and directors. Regularizing early also protects the future project.
It becomes a supervised entity, with everything that entails: a suitability test before each recommendation, cost disclosure, conflict of interest management, reporting to the CNMV, audit, membership of FOGAIN, qualified staff and an anti-money laundering system.
It is no small thing, but it comes with benefits: legal certainty, the ability to grow by taking on new families and an institutional credibility that an unregulated MFO cannot offer. The details are in EAF obligations.
The typical project has three layers: clearly separating the own wealth (which stays in the family structure) from the activity of providing services to third parties (which moves into the new entity); building the authorization application (capital, program of activities, fit and proper directors and officers, MiFID II and AML/CFT policies); and filing with the CNMV, which as a general rule decides within up to 6 months from the complete application.
The full roadmap, checklist included, is in how to set up an EAF.
Before deciding whether you need a license, you need to know exactly what you are doing. This is the exercise we carry out with every family office.
Identify every person and entity that receives investment guidance from your team, and their relationship with the family wealth. The line between “own” and “third party” is the first and most important line of all.
Classify what you do for each recipient (recommend, decide, execute, invest through vehicles) and who pays for what. The combination of service, third party and remuneration is what does or does not trigger the reserved activity rules.
With the map in front of you, there are two clean ways out: scale the activity back to your own wealth (and document it) or institutionalize the service to third parties with the right license type, usually an EAF.
If the assessment points to a license, continue with how to set up an EAF; if you want to shield your unregulated structure, see our family office in Spain service.
The 10 steps to set up your Financial Advisory Firm (EAF) with the CNMV, with the evidence you must be able to show at each one. Keep it at hand throughout the project.
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The licensing conversation is won through conceptual precision. These nine terms define what is reserved, what is unrestricted and why.
An organization dedicated to managing the wealth of one or several families: investments, tax, governance and succession. A commercial label, not a regulatory category.
Serves a single family and works with its own wealth. As a general rule, outside the CNMV authorization perimeter.
Serves several families, so it provides services to third parties. If it recommends investments or manages portfolios, as a general rule it needs an authorized license type.
Making decisions about the money of the family itself or its companies. An unrestricted activity: nobody needs a license to invest their own money.
Law 6/2023 reserves investment services for authorized entities. Providing them without a license is a very serious infringement.
Suggesting specific financial instruments to a specific client based on their circumstances. It is what turns an opinion into a regulated service.
Investing third-party portfolios with decision-making power. A reserved service distinct from advice, with its own license types.
Financial advisory firm authorized by the CNMV: the usual route to institutionalize an MFO that recommends investments.
Mandatory assessment of the client’s knowledge, situation and objectives before making a recommendation (MiFID II Art. 25). It marks the difference between informal tips and a supervised service.
Unrestricted activity: it is investment on own account, with no service to third parties and no need for authorization, regardless of the amounts involved.
Corporate structure and ownership records showing that the managed wealth belongs to the family group.
As a general rule, investment advice: a reserved service that requires an EAF or another authorized entity.
If you regularize: advisory agreements, suitability tests and a record of the recommendations issued.
Discretionary portfolio management: a reserved service distinct from advice, which points to a portfolio management company (SGC) or another authorized investment firm (ESI).
Management mandates, agreed investment policy and periodic reporting to the owner.
Usually unrestricted if the family office does not issue its own recommendations on instruments: it selects and oversees regulated providers.
Minutes and communications showing that the recommendation is issued by the authorized entity, not by the family office.
Depending on the design, it may come close to reserved services or trigger other kinds of obligations: each vehicle and each role requires prior analysis.
Term sheets, vehicle documentation and allocation of roles between sponsors and investors.
Any of these practices calls for an urgent review of your regulatory fit, ideally before the next invoice.
When the assessment confirms reserved activity, the family office has several routes depending on the service it provides: the advice license, the management license or collective investment vehicles. These pages help you compare before you decide.
The natural route for an MFO that recommends: requirements, €75,000 capital, application and timelines with the CNMV.
If the family delegates and you decide, the license type changes: discretionary management under a mandate, with its own license.
For offices that channel private equity and venture capital from several families through managed vehicles.
If, besides recommending, you are going to handle transactions for the families, it is worth comparing the next license level up.
Would you rather stay outside the regulatory perimeter? We design the structure with our family office in Spain service and set the operational limits with can you give investment advice without a license?. And if the path is a license, we start with the EAF authorization or the investment firm (ESI) authorization that applies.
Describe your family office’s activity and we will tell you whether it is still management of the family’s own wealth or already a reserved investment service.
In Spain there is no “family office license”: a family office is not a regulated category, but a way of organizing wealth. What does exist is a reserved activity regime: Law 6/2023 of March 17 reserves investment services—including investment advice—for entities authorized and supervised by the CNMV. That is why the right question is never “do family offices need a license?” but “what exactly is this family office doing, for whom and in return for what?” The answer places each office on one side of the line or the other.
Investing your own money is not an investment service: it is the position of any investor. A single family office that manages a family’s wealth through its companies—hiring banks, asset managers or authorized external advisers when it needs them—remains, as a general rule, outside the authorization perimeter. Its legal challenge lies elsewhere: corporate structure, governance, family protocol and tax, which we cover in family office in Spain. The condition for staying in this unrestricted territory is demanding in its simplicity: do not provide investment services to third parties.
The line is crossed when the office starts issuing personalized recommendations on specific financial instruments to people outside the family wealth. The indicators that weigh most are the personalization of the recommendation, remuneration for the service, its regularity and how it is presented to the market. No label—“investment club,” “wealth mentoring,” “consulting”—neutralizes the reserved activity rules if the substance is advice. Providing the service without authorization is a very serious infringement, with fines, public reprimand and possible disqualification on the terms set out in the legislation. The detailed map of what remains unrestricted is in can you give investment advice without a license?
A multi-family office is, by design, a provider of services to third parties, and its regulatory fit depends on its main service. If it recommends and the families decide, the natural choice is an EAF, with initial capital of €75,000 and CNMV supervision. If it decides under a mandate, we are talking about discretionary portfolio management and the entities authorized to provide it, such as a portfolio management company. And if it channels collective investments through vehicles, the regimes for fund managers come into play. A single MFO may combine several services: its program of activities must reflect all of them.
Regularizing an MFO has a cost—capital, application, MiFID II compliance, membership of FOGAIN, ongoing reporting—and a return: legal certainty for shareholders and directors, the ability to take on new families without a legal ceiling and an institutional credibility that opens doors with banks, asset managers and co-investors. As a general rule, the CNMV decides on the application within up to 6 months from the date the application is complete. The full operational roadmap is in how to set up an EAF, and life after the license in EAF obligations.
Key legislation, linked to the official text:
Legislation and links reviewed in .