The Fractional CISO for Family Offices
A family office can move a fortune with a team of five. What it almost never has is the one person whose job is to make sure none of it is stolen.
The modern family office is a paradox. It manages the wealth of a corporation with the headcount of a boutique. The investment side is rigorous — advisors, lawyers, accountants, governance. The security side is, too often, whoever set up the laptops, plus hope.
That gap is not an oversight; it is a hiring problem. A genuine Chief Information Security Officer commands a seven-figure package and wants a large team to lead — neither of which a lean office can justify. So the role goes unfilled, and nobody owns the question of whether the principal's entire digital life is actually safe.
What a CISO actually owns
Security leadership is not buying products. It is the discipline that decides what matters and holds everyone to it:
- Strategy. A clear-eyed view of what the family must protect — wealth, identity, communications, reputation, physical safety — and a plan that fits its real risk.
- Governance & access. Who can do what, across family, staff and advisors; separation of duties; the end of shared passwords and standing access nobody remembers granting.
- Vendor & advisor oversight. The banks, the IT firm, the lawyers — every third party with access is a risk, and someone must hold them to standard.
- Incident readiness. A rehearsed plan for the day something goes wrong, so the response is calm and fast rather than improvised and public.
The fractional model
A fractional CISO gives the office exactly that leadership — senior, experienced, accountable — at a fraction of a full-time hire, scaled to the size of the family. You get the judgment of a security executive without building a department to house one.
An office that would never invest without a strategy should never secure without one either.
How Obsidian Helm delivers it
We pair the leadership with the hands. A senior operator owns your security strategy and governance — the CISO role — while our Personal Cybersecurity and Concierge IT offices execute it day to day. One accountable relationship, under NDA, covering the family office, the principal and everyone who serves them. It is the governing layer above the family-office cybersecurity standard.
Give your security an owner
A $4,999 Private Strategy Session — we assess your office, define the strategy and show you what a CISO would do first. Credited toward membership.
Request Your InvitationFrequently asked
What is a fractional CISO?
A senior security executive engaged part-time — the strategy, governance and oversight of a full-time CISO without the cost of a permanent hire, scaled to your office.
Why does a family office need one?
Enormous wealth, small team, no security leadership. A CISO sets strategy, vets vendors, governs access and owns incident response — turning ad-hoc IT into deliberate protection.
How is it different from an IT provider?
IT keeps systems running; a CISO decides how they are secured and holds everyone to it. We provide both — the leadership and the team.
What does it cost?
A $4,999 Private Strategy Session to begin, credited toward membership; then a retainer scaled to the office and its exposure.