For many of the world’s richest families SFOs -- Single Family Offices -- play an essential role in their investment strategy. SFOs manage the family financial portfolio and often provide other services such as handling children’s college applications or managing the family fleet of jets. Up until now however little has been known about these powerful entities. Yet new Wharton research shows that they play an important role in managing major investment portfolios guiding significant philanthropic endeavors and maintaining a core set of values across generations of extremely wealthy families.