Arman Salavitabar, CFA

Founding Partner, FundFront

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Segregated Portfolio Companies Explained for Multi-Household Family Offices

If you are part of a family office managing wealth across a multi-household family office, you have likely faced this challenge; how do you pool resources for operational efficiency while still giving each member or household the flexibility to pursue its own investment strategy?

A Segregated Portfolio Company (SPC) is built for exactly this scenario. It allows a family office to centralise structure and administration while giving each family branch or member full autonomy over their investments.

This article explains SPCs from the ground up, focusing on how they work, why they differ from holding companies and what makes them practical for complex family setups.

What is a Segregated Portfolio Company?

Many multi-household family offices face the same challenge, how to pool resources and centralise administration without imposing a single investment strategy on everyone involved.

A Segregated Portfolio Company (SPC) solves this by allowing each household or individual to choose which investments they want to participate in and by how much, without having to set up separate legal entities. It enables the family office to offer multiple investment strategies or themes under one roof, where each member can opt in or out of specific opportunities based on their own goals, preferences and risk appetite.

No one is forced into a centralised investment portfolio simply because they are part of the family office structure.

An SPC is a single legal company that can create and manage multiple segregated portfolios (sometimes called “cells” or “sub-funds”). Each portfolio is legally distinct. That means:

Assets and liabilities are not shared between portfolios.
Each portfolio has its own investment strategy, holdings and returns.
Creditors of one portfolio cannot access the assets of another.

Each cell can be used to capture a particular investment theme, asset class, or strategy (e.g. private equity, ESG, venture, real assets, or public markets). This allows family members to allocate capital selectively, participate only in the themes that align with their goals and control their exposure to different strategies without interfering with others’ choices. It also makes ongoing monitoring and reporting cleaner, as each strategy is ring-fenced in its own portfolio.

The result: shared infrastructure with individual control.

Who Owns the SPC?

The SPC is usually incorporated and owned by a family controlled entity typically the family office or a trust company. However, family members do not buy shares in the SPC itself. Instead, each household or individual invests directly into one or more of the SPC’s portfolios.

Each investor is the beneficial owner of the assets held in their respective portfolios. Ownership is tracked through internal registers and investment documentation, similar to subscribing into a private fund.

How Do Allocations Work?

An SPC gives each household flexibility:

One household can invest in a dedicated portfolio tailored to its needs.
Multiple households or individuals can invest in the same portfolio if they share a strategy or theme.

For example, if two siblings are both interested in private credit, they can allocate into the same portfolio and share proportional ownership of its returns. If a parent wants a more conservative income strategy, they can invest separately.

What Happens When You Redeem?

When a household or individual wants to exit or rebalance:

They redeem their interest in their specific portfolio or their share of a pooled one.
The SPC liquidates the relevant portion of that portfolio and pays the proceeds directly to the investor.
The capital does not stay in the SPC unless the investor chooses to leave it in cash.

A portfolio can also be shut down if all investors redeem, with no effect on the other portfolios.

How a Holding Company Centralises Decisions, Not Just Resources

A traditional holding company allows a family office to centralise ownership and administration of investments, but it does so by treating all shareholders as participants in the same pool of assets.

When a family member buys shares in a holding company, they are buying a slice of the company’s entire portfolio. This means:

Everyone is tied to the same investments, in the same proportion.
You cannot pick and choose which themes or opportunities you want exposure to.
You cannot allocate differently across strategies based on personal preferences or risk appetite.

The holding company model simplifies administration, but it also centralises decision-making. One board or manager decides what goes into the portfolio and all shareholders are exposed to those choices equally, regardless of their individual goals.

By contrast, a Segregated Portfolio Company separates investment flexibility from administrative centralisation. It still allows the family to share service providers, governance and reporting infrastructure, but each investor or household has full freedom to:

Choose which portfolios (themes or strategies) they invest in
Set their own allocation sizes
Opt in or out of new opportunities individually

In short, an SPC preserves independence of choice without duplicating operations. It’s centralised where it makes sense, legal entity, administration, cost sharing, but fully decentralised when it comes to investment control.

Who Manages the Investments?

Each portfolio can be structured independently:

Appoint different investment managers
Use different custodians
Apply different valuation policies
Provide separate investor reporting

The SPC itself has a central board and administrator who ensure the entity remains compliant, handles filings, coordinates audits and oversees service providers across all portfolios.

What Happens in Case of Legal or Financial Issues?

Thanks to the SPC’s legal structure:

Creditors can only access the assets of the portfolio involved.
A failed investment or lawsuit in one portfolio does not expose the others or the general assets of the SPC.

This provides a major layer of protection over traditional pooled structures.

Can You Move Between Portfolios?

Yes, but with formal steps:

You redeem from one portfolio.
You subscribe into another, typically at its current NAV.

This keeps each strategy cleanly managed and avoids unintended co-mingling of assets.

Conclusion

Family offices often struggle to strike the right balance between personalisation, control and efficiency, especially when managing investments for multiple branches of the same family. Traditional holding companies fall short on flexibility and legal segregation. Separate accounts create duplication and complexity.

An SPC resolves these challenges. It provides a single, streamlined structure with the flexibility to serve diverse investment goals, protect assets and reduce operational friction, while preserving individual investment choice and control.

Explore SPC Solutions with FundFront

If your family office is exploring more scalable, secure ways to manage capital across households or generations, an SPC may be the right next step. FundFront helps structure and administer SPCs tailored to your exact needs, with seamless onboarding, thirdparty oversight and technology,driven efficiency.

Get in touch to learn how an SPC could support your family office. Fill out our contact form or book a call at a time that is convenient for you here.

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Disclaimer

FundFront provides operational and technological solutions for fund structuring, securitisation and management. We do not provide legal, tax or financial advice. We recommend that you consult with professional legal or financial advisors to ensure compliance and appropriateness for your specific situation.

Written by:

Arman Salavitabar