Our History
Founded in 2008 by Chris Cecil, Biltmore Family Office fills a gap in the investment industry as a family office with a collaborative, aligned approach to growing generational wealth. "We serve families seeking a more collaborative level of investing, planning, and education than the traditional Wall Street firm," Chris said. "We identified the need for this approach during my two decades on Wall Street, where highly successful wealth creators and business owners were asked to check their industry brilliance and entrepreneurial spirit at the door following their company sale or liquidity event. This industry expertise and unique access are worth more to the mission of our process than their liquid assets. Collectively, we all became wiser investors and legacy-builders." This investment strategy required providing world-class investment due diligence within a repeatable and ongoing process.
In 2013, Biltmore Family Office expanded with a second founding family, the Gorelick Family. Rael Gorelick and his family came to Biltmore with a deep credit, equity, hedge fund, and real estate analysis background seeking a more open business model that valued their expertise. "We'd hired and fired almost every Wall Street firm and bank as we could not find the level of accountability and alignment we sought," Rael said. Hence, a perfect fit for our firm, allowing Rael to fully build our investment due diligence, portfolio construction, and investment services.
Together, they created a collaborative family financial office for like-minded families focused on long-term wealth re-generation and growth to serve many future generations to come.
A family office is neither a product nor a list of services; instead, it's the understanding that investing, planning, education, and governance all carry an equal and intertwined commitment to the betterment of the family, not to the business and not to the service provider. Both Chris and Rael have experienced the ups and downs of generational families, agreeing that each successive generation must be accountable and responsible stewards of their legacies while continually growing, evolving, and outperforming the prior generations to outpace the stresses of generational math.
Hence, they believe that "Every generation is the first generation." SM As Biltmore Family Office's roster of committed family clients grew, so did the size of the team of partners. Mike Farrell joined Biltmore Family Office, bringing a culture of intense client service. Mike has been advising families for over fifteen years with a level of dedication that redefines the industry standard. Recognizing the strong culture of service and devotion to providing independent, transparent advice, Nikki Gokey, CPA, joined BFO to open and lead the Florida office. Nikki has over twenty-five years of expertise in taxation and generational planning.
The experience each partner brings to the table uniquely shapes Biltmore Family Office's approach to business. The founding partners, all fee-paying clients, participate in each family relationship and personally invest alongside their clients. Our team is careful about who we partner with, just as you are careful with whom you entrust your assets. We deliberately built Biltmore Family Office to serve a limited number of families and put your needs before the firm's needs. We find that this sensible and aligned approach works well.
Today, Biltmore Family Office's mission is to foster the collaboration between the client families' intellectual capital and seek the best investment, wealth planning, education & governance, and reporting available. Our culture and structure create long-lasting partnerships between family clients, partners, and professionals.