Chicago Booth Family Office Summit

The Chicago Booth Family Office Summit is run by the Family Office Initiative at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The second edition took place in May 2026 at the David Rubenstein Forum on the university campus and drew about 200 attendees from 150 family offices. The organiser says information on the 2027 summit is coming soon; the first two editions both ran in May.

Who attends

Principals and executives of single and multi-family offices make up the core, joined by Booth faculty, students and a smaller number of advisers, consultants and registered investment advisers. The organiser frames the day as a solicitation-free environment for confidential peer exchange, and the programme reflects that: sessions are led by faculty and practitioners rather than by sponsors.

That combination is rare. Most family office events are run by publishers, event companies or membership networks with a commercial interest in the room. A business school has a different one, namely research access and relationships with families, which shows in the agenda.

How access works

Attendees create an account on the summit hub and register; the Family Office Initiative reviews registrations. No fee is published. Ask the Initiative about cost and eligibility, and expect priority for family offices over advisers.

What attendees get

A day and a half built around three things: faculty-led research on family office governance, investment and leadership; practitioner sessions on current questions facing offices; and networking, including a welcome dinner, breakout sessions and meet-and-greets with students who may become future hires. Conversations run under confidentiality.

For a North American family office this is one of the few events where the content is driven by research rather than by a sales calendar, and where the student presence gives an office access to talent as well as ideas. The trade-off is scale and polish: a university summit runs once a year, has limited places and publishes little between editions. Families who want a larger peer room in the same city can look at the FOX Family Forum each October or the Chicago Family Office & High Net Worth Conference in June.