A consultant lands a year-one family office engagement at $80,000 project plus 25 percent contingency on $120,000 of recovered overcharges. Year-one revenue: $110,000. Year two, the same family office signs a $15,000 quarterly retainer for ongoing CRE reporting and adds two acquisition due diligence projects at $20,000 each. Year-two revenue: $100,000. The fee model is what determines whether the second year happens at all — a partner who priced year one as pure contingency and got most of the upside upfront would have nothing recurring to renew.
I built CAMAudit because the audit production cost is now low enough that any reasonable pricing structure leaves room for healthy margin. The question is how to layer fees so the year-one engagement opens the year-two retainer rather than closing it.
This is the breakdown.
What family office advisor fees look like
Four common structures, usually combined:
Retainer. Quarterly fee for ongoing services — CRE reporting, monitoring, and event support. Range is $5,000 to $25,000 per quarter depending on portfolio size and reporting cadence. Retainer fits year two onward, after the initial sweep is complete.
Project. Fixed fee for a defined scope — year-one lease audit, portfolio benchmarking, acquisition due diligence, sale-leaseback structuring. Range is $15,000 to $100,000 depending on scope. Most year-one engagements are project-priced.
Contingency. Percentage of recovered dollars, typically 20 to 30 percent. Used as a layer on top of project fees rather than standalone, because pure contingency leaves the partner exposed if recoveries do not clear.
Hourly. $250 to $500 per hour. Reserved for ad-hoc work outside the main scope — landlord dispute negotiation, document discovery for litigation support, board presentations.
Family offices prefer predictability. Retainer plus project plus contingency is the model that fits because each fee shape covers a different work pattern.
The services overview explains how these fee structures fit inside the broader CRE service line.
How partners structure fees in practice
The two-phase model:
Year one: project pricing for the lease audit and benchmarking sweep. $30,000 to $100,000 depending on portfolio size. Plus contingency at 20 to 30 percent on recovered overcharges. The project fee covers your time regardless of recovery; the contingency captures the upside.
Year two onward: quarterly retainer for ongoing CRE reporting, lease monitoring, and event support. $5,000 to $25,000 per quarter. Plus project add-ons for spike work — renewals, acquisitions, dispositions, sale-leasebacks.
Why the structure works:
Year one is heavy. The portfolio sweep across 20 to 60 leases is concentrated work delivered in 6 to 10 weeks. Project pricing fits because the scope is defined and the deliverables are known.
Year two onward is event-driven. CRE reporting runs on a quarterly cadence regardless of activity level. Lease events spike intermittently — a renewal here, an acquisition there. Retainer pricing covers the recurring reporting; project add-ons handle the spikes.
Without the year-two retainer, the engagement is a one-off. With the retainer, the relationship compounds and the lifetime value of the family office multiplies.
The audit playbook covers the year-one engagement in detail. The CRE reporting guide covers the year-two retainer scope.
What each model pays on real numbers
A representative engagement: family office controlling 9 operating companies with 30 leases.
Year one:
- Project fee: $1,000 per lease × 30 = $30,000
- Contingency: 25 percent on expected recoveries (30 × $5,000 × 70 percent clearance = $105,000) = $26,250
- Plus benchmarking project: $20,000
- Total year one: $76,250
Year two onward:
- Quarterly retainer: $10,000 × 4 = $40,000
- Project add-ons (typical year): $20,000 to $40,000
- Total year two: $60,000 to $80,000
Software cost on CAMAudit: 30 audits at $49 each on the 5-pack tier = $1,470 in year one. Marginal cost on year-two work scales with the number of properties re-audited.
Partner time: roughly 80 to 120 hours in year one, 40 to 80 hours per year thereafter. Effective hourly rate: $400 to $700 in year one, $500 to $1,000 per year thereafter.
The pitch sequence covers how to position pilot pricing within this structure so the year-one engagement converts cleanly.
When each model fits
Retainer fits when:
- The relationship has cleared year one and the family office wants ongoing visibility
- Quarterly reporting is part of the family's financial cadence
- The portfolio is stable enough that monthly work is predictable
Project fits when:
- Year-one sweep across the full portfolio
- One-off engagements (acquisition due diligence, sale-leaseback structuring)
- The scope is defined and the deliverable is bounded
Contingency fits when:
- Layered on top of project pricing on the audit component
- Recoveries are likely material (portfolio has not been audited in years, lease structures suggest leakage)
- The partner wants alignment of incentives with the principal on actually clearing recoveries
Hourly fits when:
- Ad-hoc work outside the main scope
- Landlord dispute negotiation where the back-and-forth is unbounded
- Document discovery for litigation support
The niche services inventory maps adjacent revenue lines that fit different fee structures across the engagement lifecycle.
How to position fees during the family office pitch
Lead with the project fee, not the contingency. Family offices respond to defined scope and defined cost. Pricing the year-one engagement as a project ($30,000 to $100,000) makes the budget conversation clean.
Layer the contingency as an alignment mechanism. Frame the contingency as your skin in the game on actually recovering dollars, not as the primary revenue line. This positions you as a partner, not a vendor extracting upside.
Reserve the retainer conversation for the year-one delivery presentation. The retainer is sold to the principal after they have seen the year-one deliverables, not during the initial pitch. Selling the retainer too early increases sales-cycle friction; selling it after the deliverable lands makes it almost automatic.
Include benchmarking as a project add-on, not bundled. The portfolio benchmarking deliverable is valuable enough to price separately. Bundling it into the audit fee gives away revenue.
Where CAMAudit fits
The platform's per-audit cost is the floor for your pricing.
$79 single credit. $59 per audit on the 3-pack. $49 per audit on the 5-pack. At even the highest tier, the platform cost is well under 5 percent of a $1,000 per-property fee. That margin holds across project, retainer, contingency, and hourly pricing because the audit production cost is the same regardless of how you charge.
White-label at /partners/white-label does not change per-audit unit economics — it adds your firm's branding to every report and dispute letter. For family office work, this is required, not optional.
Revenue-sharing at /partners/revenue-sharing inverts the model where appropriate. Refer an operating company to CAMAudit, the operating company pays the platform directly, and you earn commission per audit. This rarely fits the main retainer engagement (where the principal is buying a branded service) but can fit one-off operating company referrals outside the main scope.
You can run a free audit at /scan to validate the platform output and produce a deliverable to walk a family office CFO through during pricing conversations.
Closing CTA
Pricing is the lever that determines whether your family office engagement is a one-off project or a multi-year recurring line. Project for year one, contingency as an alignment layer, retainer for year two onward, hourly for the spikes.
Run a free audit at /scan, then look at white-label for branded delivery or revenue-sharing for referral economics on one-off operating company work. The fee model that fits is the one that lets the year-two retainer happen.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are family office advisor fees for real estate work?
Family office real estate advisor fees typically combine a quarterly retainer ($5,000 to $25,000), project fees for specific engagements ($15,000 to $100,000), and contingency on recoveries (20 to 30 percent of recovered overcharges). Pure hourly is rare because family offices prefer predictable budgets. The mix depends on portfolio size, engagement scope, and whether the work is recurring or project-based.
How do partners actually structure family office advisor fees?
Most partners run a hybrid model: project pricing for the year-one audit and benchmarking sweep, contingency on the recovered dollars from that audit, and a quarterly retainer for ongoing CRE reporting and lease event support after year one. The structure works because year one is heavy and event-driven; year two onward is monitoring-driven. Different fee shapes fit different work patterns.
What do family office advisor fees cost or pay?
A 30-lease portfolio engagement typically generates $50,000 to $80,000 in year one (project plus contingency on recoveries), and $40,000 to $100,000 annual recurring in year two onward (retainer plus project add-ons). Software cost on CAMAudit is sub-$50 per audit at pack tiers, so the platform fee is a small slice of the total economics. Effective hourly rate runs $300 to $700 across mature engagements.
Where does CAMAudit fit into family office advisor fees?
CAMAudit's per-audit cost sits at the floor of your pricing — at $79 single credit and $49 per audit on the 5-pack, the platform fee is a small percentage of any per-property fee you set. White-label adds branding without changing per-audit unit economics. Revenue-sharing inverts the model where appropriate — referring an operating company to CAMAudit pays a commission per audit, which can fit one-off engagements outside the main retainer.