The family offices I've worked with do pretty much everything. Part of the reason to do everything is that you have the freedom to do so. I literally called a friend on behalf of another friend to get him a bridge loan for a house once.

A free mandate makes for more interesting work, plus as the manager you can stick things in illiquids that have no mark-to-market. That's the uncharitable view, of course. The charitable view is that you are better at evaluating opportunities and are able to do things other institutions are not.

Main thing about FOs is they are just the article says, totally idiosyncratic. One FO I know is basically just a wily old guy who does all his business by phone, meets people to look them in the eye, that type of thing. Made a lot on crypto.

Another FO is basically a hedge fund. Bunch of different desks doing various things, a lot of focus on regulatory approval (that's still a thing, not sure why the article makes it look like there's no hurdles).