Northwestern Mutual Launches Family Office Services, Enabling Firms to Comprehensively Serve Ultra High Net Worth Clients

Specialized team delivers coordinated legal, tax, insurance, investment, and legacy planning for personalized, complex, multi-generational wealth management at scale 

New data underscores the opportunity: 52% of high-net-worth Americans say their financial planning needs improvement – and 1 in 4 turned to an advisor for the first time last year

MILWAUKEE, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwestern Mutual is announcing Family Office Services, a new integrated offering designed to serve select clients with more coordinated, multi-generational financial planning. The move brings family office capabilities into Northwestern Mutual's advisor model at scale – helping meet the growing marketplace demand for highly specialized financial services and expertise.

Backed by a dedicated team of 40+ in-house specialists, Northwestern Mutual Family Office Services will partner with the company's advisors and teams nationwide to serve clients with at least $50 million in net worth. The comprehensive suite of services includes legal, tax, investment, banking and lending, philanthropy, legacy planning, risk management, founder and business planning, and other services that meet the unique needs of ultra-high-net-worth clients.

"Many affluent families have strong individual advisors but lack coordination across their full financial picture," said John Roberts, Northwestern Mutual's chief field officer responsible for leading the company's wealth and investment management business. "Our Family Office Services team brings those fractured and fragmented pieces together – aligning investment, insurance, tax, and legacy strategies under one strategically connected approach."

The launch comes as high net worth (HNW) investors face increasingly complex planning decisions. More than half (52%) of high-net-worth individuals in America (people with $1 million or more in investable assets) say their financial planning needs improvement, according to Northwestern Mutual's 2026 Planning & Progress Study. Moreover, the same amount (52%) also believe that they are placing too much emphasis on growing wealth over strategies to protect their wealth from risks like taxes. Perhaps as a result, one in four high-net-worth individuals say they turned to a financial advisor for professional advice for the first time last year.

At the same time, the number of HNW and ultra HNW households in America continues to rise. According to Cerulli, there are now more than 100,000 households with financial wealth exceeding $50 million in the U.S.

Together, these trends point to a growing opportunity for firms that can deliver more comprehensive and coordinated advice – particularly among HNW clients whose needs are becoming more complex. Northwestern Mutual Family Office Services are designed for ultra-wealthy clients managing complex financial structures, including business owners, multi-generational families, and philanthropic entities.

"A dedicated family office model creates a single point of accountability across a client's full financial picture," Roberts said. "Backed by a team of experts, our advisors can operate as 'quarterbacks' of their clients' finances without needing to identify specialists on their own. This clarity, efficiency, and long-term discipline become more valuable as wealth and complexity grow."

Northwestern Mutual Family Office Services delivers these capabilities within the advisor relationship keeping the advisor at the center. The offering is designed to help advisors serve more complex clients, deepen existing relationships, and support long-term wealth transfer across generations.

The launch underscores Northwestern Mutual's continued investment in helping its advisors grow with increasingly sophisticated clients and compete at the highest levels of the wealth management industry. The leading financial services company is consistently ranked annually as one of the top independent broker dealers in America, with over $450 billion in retail client investment assets held or managed by Northwestern Mutual.

About Northwestern Mutual
Northwestern Mutual has been helping people and businesses achieve financial security for more than 165 years. Through a comprehensive planning approach, Northwestern Mutual combines the expertise of its financial professionals with a personalized digital experience and industry-leading products to help its clients plan for what's most important. With more than $780 billion of total assets¹ managed across the company's institutional portfolio as well as retail investment client portfolios, more than $40 billion in revenues, and $2.5 trillion worth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to more than five million people with life insurance, disability income insurance, long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services. Northwestern Mutual ranked 109 on the 2025 FORTUNE 500 and was recognized by FORTUNE^® as one of the "World's Most Admired" life insurance companies in 2026.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (investment brokerage services), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company^® (NMWMC) (investment advisory and services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance). Not all Northwestern Mutual representatives are advisors. Only those representatives with "Advisor" in their title or who otherwise disclose their status as an advisor of NMWMC are credentialed as NMWMC representatives to provide investment advisory services.

¹ Includes investments and separate account assets of Northwestern Mutual as well as retail investment assets held or managed for clients.

SOURCE Northwestern Mutual