What is a virtual family office and how is it different from working with one advisor?

A virtual family office is a coordinated structure in which one firm holds the center of your financial life and keeps your investment, tax, estate, insurance, and business planning aligned under a single plan. A traditional advisory relationship usually manages the portfolio and refers you elsewhere for everything else, leaving you to connect the pieces. The virtual model makes that connective work part of the engagement rather than your responsibility.

Can a virtual family office work with the CPA and attorney I already have?

Yes, and that is how it is designed to work. Your existing CPA, attorney, and insurance professional are kept in place and brought into one coordinated plan rather than replaced. Where a professional is missing from the picture entirely, we can introduce a vetted one through our network.

How much money do you need for a virtual family office?

There is no required minimum. Most of the households we work with hold $1M to $10M+ in investable assets — most often closely held business owners, corporate executives, physicians, and multi-generational families — but fit is judged on planning complexity rather than on assets alone, and planning-only engagements are available for clients who are not placing investment assets under management. You certainly do not need the nine-figure balance sheet that a private single family office requires, because you are receiving the coordination as a service rather than building and staffing an office of your own.

Do I have to live in Iowa to work with you?

No. We have offices in Urbandale in the Des Moines metro and Clear Lake in North Iowa, and we work with clients across Iowa and the Midwest, but the virtual family office model supports fully remote relationships anywhere in the United States. Meetings happen by phone or Zoom, documents move securely, and coordination with your other professionals works the same either way.

Does a virtual family office help when I am selling my business?

A sale is where coordinated advice matters most, because the CPA, attorney, banker, insurance professional, and advisor all touch the same transaction and rarely speak to each other. We hold the coordinating seat so those professionals work from one set of numbers, and we plan for what happens after the closing, when an illiquid position becomes cash that has to produce income, absorb a tax year, and eventually transfer.

What is the first step?

A 30-minute exploratory call to determine whether there is a fit, with no plan presentation and nothing to prepare. For planning questions or anything involving documents, email is the faster path, and Scott can be reached directly at setzel@etzelfinancialresources.com.

What Is a Virtual Family Office? | Etzel Financial Resources

A virtual family office is a coordinated advisory structure in which one firm holds the center of a family's financial life and keeps every specialist in it working from the same plan. Investment decisions, tax strategy, estate documents, insurance coverage, and business planning are handled as one connected engagement rather than five separate conversations you are left to reconcile.

Traditional family office services were built for households that could hire a staff. A single family with a very large balance sheet stands up its own office, employs a chief investment officer, a tax director, and a controller, and carries the payroll that comes with it. The virtual model delivers the same integration as a service you receive instead of an organization you build.

That distinction is the whole point. You do not hire staff, license software, vet contractors, or assemble anything. We occupy the coordinating seat, and the professionals you already trust stay exactly where they are.

What separates this from a conventional advisory relationship:

One firm is accountable for how every part of your plan fits together, not just the portfolio.
Your CPA, attorney, and insurance professional are kept and coordinated rather than replaced.
Tax position, estate structure, and investment design are treated as inputs to each other instead of separate annual projects.
The people doing the coordinating are named and consistent, so nobody has to be re-briefed on your situation.
Investment management, tax planning, estate planning, risk management, business planning, and retirement-income planning run as one coordinated process rather than six separate ones.
The purpose is not simply to manage investments. It is to help you make better decisions across your entire financial life, which is where the interactions actually happen.
You keep your own attorney, CPA, and other professionals, and each of them continues to advise within their own area of expertise. Our role is coordination, not replacement.
Access does not depend on a nine-figure balance sheet.

Scott Etzel does the coordinating, and his credentials and background are worth reading before a first conversation.

Most accomplished people already have good advisors. What they rarely have is a team. The greatest financial mistakes we see are rarely the result of an advisor being incompetent. They happen because good advisors work independently instead of collaboratively, each doing sound work inside a boundary nobody is looking across.

The coordination layer is what a virtual family office adds. Your investment strategy is designed knowing what your estate documents actually say. Your tax planning happens before December rather than after April. When a decision touches three professionals, one conversation covers all three instead of three phone calls you have to make yourself.

Keep the professionals you trust. Lose the job of managing them.

If you are weighing this against the arrangement you have now, the differences between a virtual family office and a traditional financial advisor are worth reading side by side before your first call.

Step 1:

Discovery Meeting

We listen before we recommend anything. This conversation covers the company, the family, the timeline you have in mind, and the professionals already advising you. Nothing is presented and nothing is sold.

Step 1:

Financial Stress Test

We pressure-test the current plan against the exit paths that are realistic for your business, including the ones you have not considered, and show where the plan holds and where it breaks.

Step 1:

Discovery Meeting

Step 1:

Discovery Meeting

This is where high-level strategy lives, organized around the four areas that create long-term impact.

Wealth enhancement: reducing tax drag, improving cash flow, and raising after-tax returns.
Wealth transfer: moving wealth efficiently across generations and business structures.
Wealth protection: limiting liability exposure and shielding key assets from threats.
Charitable giving: building tax-aware giving strategies that match what you care about.

Etzel Financial Resources does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance.

This is the coordination seat, and it is a defined body of work rather than a courtesy.

Clear, ongoing communication with your CPA, attorney, and insurance agent
A single central point of coordination among you and every other professional you retain
Centralized planning updates and strategy alignment across every professional involved
Proactive problem-solving before an issue reaches your desk
One consistent contact who knows your full situation

We have seen what happens when a CPA never speaks to the attorney, or when a portfolio is built without regard for the tax bracket it sits in. That gap is where the blind spots live, and closing it is the job. The model earns its keep most clearly when decisions involving taxes, estate planning, business ownership, insurance, investments, or real estate affect one another — which, in a complex financial life, is most of the time.

You keep your own attorney, CPA, and other professionals, and they continue to provide advice within their respective areas of expertise. What changes is that someone is finally responsible for making all of it add up.

Etzel Financial Resources is a fee-based practice. Depending on the relationship and the services provided, compensation may include asset-based investment advisory fees, financial-planning and consulting fees, and commissions on certain insurance products, including annuities where those apply. Ongoing wealth-management relationships are generally priced as a percentage of assets under management and may step down at higher asset levels. Comprehensive planning is also available on a selective planning-only basis for clients who want the coordination without placing investment assets under management.

Coordination is part of the advisory relationship here, not a separate retainer layered on top of it. You are not paying a second fee to have your professionals talk to each other.

You also are not paying twice for the same seat. Your existing CPA, attorney, and insurance relationships are retained rather than duplicated, so nothing you are already paying for gets rebuilt inside our engagement.

The services provided, the compensation arrangement, and the anticipated cost are reviewed with you before an engagement begins, along with any potential conflict of interest, and the specific terms are confirmed in writing rather than discovered later. The complete fee schedule and its breakpoints are in the firm's Form ADV. Our fee structures, who the practice is built for, and the questions worth asking any advisor are laid out on How We Work: Our Process & Fees.

The assumption that family office coordination starts at $100 million is the single biggest reason a qualified reader talks themselves out of the conversation. This model does not require the balance sheet of a private family office, because you are not funding one.

There is no required minimum here. Most of the households we work with hold $1M to $10M+ in investable assets, but that describes the practice as it stands rather than a line you have to clear. Relationships are evaluated on planning complexity, the services required, and whether the coordinated model actually fits — and selective planning-only engagements let us serve clients whose complexity sits in a business, in real estate, in retirement-plan assets, or in a high income rather than in an investment account.

Most commonly, that means:

Closely held business owners approaching succession or a liquidity event
Corporate executives with stock options, restricted equity, and deferred compensation
Physicians and other medical professionals converting high income into long-term wealth
Multi-generational families focused on legacy, charitable giving, and wealth transfer
Companies and nonprofits needing retirement plan or endowment oversight

Family office thinking, sized to the life you actually have.

Step 1:

Discovery Meeting

Step 1:

Financial Stress Test

We pressure-test the current plan against the exit paths that are realistic for your business, including the ones you have not considered, and show where the plan holds and where it breaks.

Step 1:

Discovery Meeting

Step 1:

Discovery Meeting

We work from two Iowa offices, Urbandale in the Des Moines metro at 2350 NW 128th Street and Clear Lake in North Iowa at 29 Lido Road, serving clients across Iowa and the surrounding Midwest. Because the coordination happens through scheduled meetings, shared documents, and direct contact with your other professionals, the model supports fully virtual relationships for clients anywhere in the country. In-person is available and never required.

The credentials behind the coordination:

Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) designation, earned in 2007 through the College for Financial Planning
Series 7 and Series 66 registrations
State insurance licenses
Investment Advisor Representative of and investment advisory services offered through Independent Wealth Network, Inc., a SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Etzel Financial Resources is not affiliated with Independent Wealth Network, Inc.
Client assets held at independent third-party custodians, with client account access through Schwab Alliance and TIAA

Etzel Financial Resources does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance.

What is a virtual family office and how is it different from working with one advisor?
A virtual family office is a coordinated structure in which one firm holds the center of your financial life and keeps your investment, tax, estate, insurance, and business planning aligned under a single plan. A traditional advisory relationship usually manages the portfolio and refers you elsewhere for everything else, leaving you to connect the pieces. The virtual model makes that connective work part of the engagement rather than your responsibility.
Can a virtual family office work with the CPA and attorney I already have?
Yes, and that is how it is designed to work. Your existing CPA, attorney, and insurance professional are kept in place and brought into one coordinated plan rather than replaced. Where a professional is missing from the picture entirely, we can introduce a vetted one through our network.
How much money do you need for a virtual family office?
There is no required minimum. Most of the households we work with hold $1M to $10M+ in investable assets — most often closely held business owners, corporate executives, physicians, and multi-generational families — but fit is judged on planning complexity rather than on assets alone, and planning-only engagements are available for clients who are not placing investment assets under management. You certainly do not need the nine-figure balance sheet that a private single family office requires, because you are receiving the coordination as a service rather than building and staffing an office of your own.
Do I have to live in Iowa to work with you?
No. We have offices in Urbandale in the Des Moines metro and Clear Lake in North Iowa, and we work with clients across Iowa and the Midwest, but the virtual family office model supports fully remote relationships anywhere in the United States. Meetings happen by phone or Zoom, documents move securely, and coordination with your other professionals works the same either way.
Does a virtual family office help when I am selling my business?
A sale is where coordinated advice matters most, because the CPA, attorney, banker, insurance professional, and advisor all touch the same transaction and rarely speak to each other. We hold the coordinating seat so those professionals work from one set of numbers, and we plan for what happens after the closing, when an illiquid position becomes cash that has to produce income, absorb a tax year, and eventually transfer.
What is the first step?
A 30-minute exploratory call to determine whether there is a fit, with no plan presentation and nothing to prepare. For planning questions or anything involving documents, email is the faster path, and Scott can be reached directly at setzel@etzelfinancialresources.com.

Virtual Family Office

The Virtual Family Office: One Coordinated Team for Your Entire Financial Life