Top Family Offices in Chattanooga 2026

Key Facts About Chattanooga's Family Office Market

• Chattanooga has an estimated 8 to 12 family offices and firms offering family office services. These span single family offices (SFOs), multi-family offices (MFOs), independent trust companies, and national wirehouse teams.
• Three legacy SFOs anchor the market: Lupton Family Office, Maclellan Family Office, and Sage Hill Investors. Their roots trace to Coca-Cola bottling, manufacturing, and the milling industry.
• Sage Hill Investors launched in 2019 after the Grizzard family divested its milling and baking business. It marks the most recent SFO formation in the city.
• Independent trust companies form a distinct tier. Southeastern Trust, Magnolia Trust Company, and Pendleton Square Trust provide fiduciary estate and trust administration without bank conflicts.
• Capital from local offices flows mainly toward Southeast real estate, private equity, impact investing, and sports franchise ownership.
• Chattanooga's family office culture ties strongly to charitable giving. The Maclellan Foundation and multiple offices integrate community giving into their mandates.
• National firms including UBS, Morgan Stanley, Raymond James, and Baird maintain Chattanooga teams. These teams offer family office-style services to ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients.

Family Offices in Chattanooga, Tennessee: Landscape Overview

Chattanooga holds a smaller but sharply defined wealth management market in the Southeast. Legacy industrial wealth built the foundation. The Lupton family's sale of its Coca-Cola bottling empire, the Maclellan family's manufacturing and insurance holdings, and the Grizzard family's milling and baking operations each produced single family offices that remain active today. These three SFOs operate alongside two MFO consulting firms, three independent trust companies, and four national wirehouse teams with local offices.

The market's structure reflects its origins. SFOs here formed after major liquidity events, not gradual asset growth. Clarity Family Office and LBMC Family Office serve multiple first and second-generation entrepreneurial families through consulting models. Their focus includes tax planning, wealth transfer, and asset protection. Visionary Horizons Wealth Management Group has introduced a "Community Family Office" concept blending advisory services with a collaborative advisor platform.

Growth comes from two sources. Entrepreneurial business exits continue to generate new wealth requiring dedicated management, as Sage Hill Investors showed in 2019. The city's expanding tech and innovation ecosystem is producing a next wave of liquidity events.

Access to these offices runs through relationships. Introductions from local estate planning attorneys and CPA firms remain the standard pathway. This charitable, community-oriented market stands apart from larger Southeast hubs like Nashville and Atlanta, where scale and institutional capital dominate.

Family Office Comparison at a Glance

Chattanooga's market includes dedicated SFOs, consulting-model MFOs, independent trust companies, and wealth management teams at national firms. The table below compares all identified offices by type, focus, and services. No assets under management (AUM) column appears because public AUM data is unavailable for offices in this market.

Family Office	Type	Investment Focus	Key Services	Location
Lupton Family Office	SFO	Direct investments, fund commitments, real estate	Patient capital allocation, community initiatives	Chattanooga, TN
Sage Hill Investors	SFO	Private securities, public markets, real estate, sports	Diversified investing, charitable legacy management	Chattanooga, TN
Maclellan Family Office	SFO	Private equity, impact investing	Values-driven PE, global grant-making	Chattanooga, TN
Clarity Family Office	MFO Consulting	Tax planning, wealth transfer, asset protection	Family office support, sports and entertainment advisory	Chattanooga, TN
LBMC Family Office	MFO Services	Full wealth management	Accounting, tax, bill pay, estate planning	Tennessee
Southeastern Trust	Independent Trust Co.	Trust administration, real estate, private investments	Banking consulting, charitable giving, family education	Chattanooga, TN
Magnolia Trust Company	Independent Trust Co.	Trust and estate administration	Trust management, legacy preservation	Chattanooga, TN
Pendleton Square Trust	Independent Trust Co.	Trust administration (no investment advice)	Estate administration, advisor partnerships	Chattanooga, TN
The Tindall Team (Raymond James)	WM Team with FO Services	Intergenerational wealth management	Family oversight, legacy planning, risk management	Chattanooga, TN
Reynolds and Park Group (UBS)	WM Team with FO Services	UHNW planning, alternative investments	Exit planning, business succession, charitable giving	Chattanooga, TN
Whitney Drayer Team (Morgan Stanley)	WM Team with FO Services	Estate planning, retirement, business succession	Private banking, investment management	Chattanooga, TN
Baird Private Wealth Management	WM with FO Services	Long-term financial planning	Financial planning, investment management	Chattanooga, TN
Mariner Wealth Advisors	WM with FO Services	Broad wealth management	Tax planning, trust services, insurance	Chattanooga, TN

The strongest specialized services sit with the three SFOs and three independent trust companies. Wirehouse teams offer broader platform access but may carry product mandates tied to their parent firms.

Top Picks by Strategy

• Legacy Wealth Steward: Lupton Family Office allocates patient capital to long-term partners in direct investments, fund commitments, and real estate. Community initiatives form a core part of its mandate from the Coca-Cola bottling fortune.
• Most Diversified Portfolio: Sage Hill Investors spans private securities, public market hedge fund positions, Southeast commercial real estate, and international sports club ownership. It is the broadest allocator among Chattanooga SFOs.
• Best for Impact Investing: Maclellan Family Office invests in private equity companies with an explicit social impact emphasis. This connects to the Maclellan Foundation's global generosity mission.
• Top MFO for Entrepreneurs: Clarity Family Office built its consulting model for first and second-generation entrepreneurial families. Services cover income and capital gains tax planning, wealth transfer modeling, and asset protection.
• Strongest Trust Platform: Southeastern Trust operates as an independent trust company with former banking executives on staff. It offers banking and credit consulting, charitable giving plans, and family education programs free of bank-product conflicts.
• Leading Intergenerational Planner: The Tindall Team at Raymond James (Pinnacle Asset Management) specializes in family oversight structures, legacy planning, and coordinated management of complex multigenerational portfolios.
• UHNW Exit Planning Leader: The Reynolds and Park Group at UBS brings business succession planning, alternative capital deployment access, and global platform resources. Jim Reynolds holds Forbes Best-in-State recognition for 2020, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Leading Offices: In-Depth Profiles

Lupton Family Office

Lupton Family Office anchors Chattanooga's legacy wealth scene, managing proceeds from the Lupton family's sale of its Coca-Cola bottling empire. The office allocates patient capital to long-term partners through direct investments, fund commitments, and real estate projects in North America and selective international markets. Community initiatives serve as a core allocation category alongside financial investments.

What sets Lupton apart is its time horizon. The office operates with a generational perspective, favoring partners who align with a decades-long outlook rather than short-cycle returns. For families studying how to structure a community-oriented SFO after a major business exit, Lupton's model offers a regional blueprint. Formally established in 2011, the office carries over a decade of operational track record in this market.

Sage Hill Investors

Chattanooga's newest private wealth office emerged in 2019 after the Grizzard family divested its milling and baking business. Sage Hill Investors describes itself as a generalist investor, and the portfolio backs that claim. Private securities come through relationships with high-performing fund managers and their sidecar co-investment opportunities. Public market exposure runs through concentrated positions with select long-only and long/short hedge fund managers.

The most distinctive feature is sports franchise ownership. Sage Hill is the parent company of Chattanooga Football Club and holds interests in international soccer clubs. Real estate allocations prioritize multi-family and commercial projects in the Southeast, with a strong local preference. The office's stated mission centers on sustaining the Grizzard family's charitable legacy, making wealth preservation and giving equal priorities.

Maclellan Family Office

Maclellan Family Office sits at the intersection of private equity and social impact in the Southeast. The office invests in companies with an explicit emphasis on businesses that generate measurable social good. It connects to the Maclellan Foundation, which runs a global grant-making strategy focused on generosity and community development.

Daryl, an executive committee member of the Maclellan Foundation, actively invests in private equity companies and sits on over 10 profit and nonprofit boards. He speaks globally on impact investing and generous giving for business leaders. Families seeking to integrate values-driven capital deployment with competitive returns will find Maclellan's approach distinctive in this market. The combination of PE investing and faith-based charitable giving creates a model rarely seen outside this community.

Clarity Family Office

Entrepreneurial families seeking a dedicated consulting team in Chattanooga turn to Clarity Family Office. The firm operates as an "idea factory" for first and second-generation entrepreneurs. It provides planning and management for income and capital gains tax reduction, wealth transfer, and asset protection. Clarity does not manage assets directly; it builds tax-efficient structures and coordinates with each family's existing advisors.

The team includes specialists in estate planning (John Bedayo), family office services and risk management (Trevor Evett), and a dedicated sports and entertainment division led by Colin Longworth. This breadth is uncommon for a consulting-model MFO in a mid-size metro. Clarity builds wealth transfer models designed to keep assets outside the taxable estate while remaining fully controllable by the client and heirs.

Southeastern Trust

Independent trust administration with full family office capabilities sets Southeastern Trust apart from both the SFOs and the wirehouse teams. No bank owns the firm, so it works with multiple banking partners to secure the best credit and financing terms for each client. Former banking executives on staff bring insider knowledge of how banks structure loans and evaluate credit.

Services extend well beyond trust management. Southeastern Trust handles estate and wealth transfer planning, charitable giving plans with annual Form 990 filings, private investment oversight, and real estate management. Properties range from residential and commercial to vacation, rental, and timber holdings. The firm's family education program sets timelines for learning goals and facilitates meetings to strengthen family communication. Families wanting fiduciary trust services combined with concierge-level support will find both here.

Pendleton Square Trust

Families who want trust administration separated entirely from investment advice will find Pendleton Square Trust built for that purpose. The firm handles trust and estate administration but does not provide investment recommendations. Instead, it partners with each client's selected advisors, keeping fiduciary duties distinct from portfolio management.

This model appeals to families who already have capital managers they trust and need a corporate trustee focused on compliance, distributions, and estate execution. In a market where several firms bundle trust and allocation services, Pendleton Square's narrow focus offers a clean separation of roles.

The Tindall Team (Raymond James)

Multigenerational families with complex portfolios need coordinated oversight, and The Tindall Team at Raymond James (Pinnacle Asset Management) specializes in exactly that. Their service model covers family governance structures, legacy planning, wealth transfer, and trust services alongside portfolio management.

The team positions itself as a "financial concierge," managing affairs that span multiple platforms and professionals while maintaining privacy. Banking and lending solutions come through Raymond James Bank. Insurance planning is available through Raymond James Insurance Group. For families with substantial portfolios spanning generations that require structured succession planning, The Tindall Team offers national platform backing with local Chattanooga presence at 801 Broad Street.

The Reynolds and Park Group (UBS)

Business owners approaching a liquidity event or needing global capital deployment access find specialized support through The Reynolds and Park Group at UBS. Jim Reynolds brings over 40 years of experience and earned Forbes Best-in-State recognition in 2020, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Ricky Park adds over 30 years and received the same recognition annually from 2020 through 2025.

The team covers exit planning, business succession, alternative investments, and trust and estate strategies through UBS's global platform. Ultra-high-net-worth families who have outgrown regional options or need international investment exposure can reach institutional-grade resources without leaving Chattanooga. The team operates from One Union Square and includes advisors with CIMA and CFP credentials.

Investment Trends Shaping Chattanooga's Market

Southeast Real Estate as a Core Allocation

Chattanooga SFOs concentrate capital in local multi-family and commercial real estate. Sage Hill Investors explicitly prioritizes Southeast projects with a strong preference for Chattanooga properties. Southeastern Trust manages residential, commercial, vacation, rental, and timber real estate within its trust portfolios. Population growth, Tennessee's zero state income tax, and lower cost of living compared to Atlanta or Nashville drive sustained demand.

Impact Investing and Values-Driven Capital

Maclellan Family Office channels private equity capital through an explicit social impact lens, backed by the Maclellan Foundation's global generosity programs. Multiple offices in this market integrate charitable giving and community development into their mandates. Sage Hill Investors ties its entire mission to sustaining its charitable legacy. Lupton Family Office lists community initiatives as a core capital allocation category.

Sports Ownership and Alternative Assets

Sage Hill Investors' ownership of Chattanooga Football Club and interests in international soccer clubs mark a distinctive trend in this market. Sports franchises serve as alternative assets offering both returns and community visibility. On the public market side, Sage Hill takes concentrated positions with select hedge fund managers rather than broad index exposure. This conviction-based approach to portfolio construction is uncommon in smaller metros.

New Office Formation from Business Exits

Sage Hill Investors' 2019 launch after the Grizzard family's milling and baking divestitures shows a recurring pattern. A business exit generates liquidity, the family forms a dedicated office, and the office builds a diversified strategy. Chattanooga's growing tech and innovation ecosystem creates conditions for a next wave of exits. Clarity Family Office has positioned itself to serve these newly liquid entrepreneurs with tax and wealth transfer planning from the outset.

How to Evaluate a Family Office in Chattanooga

Start by distinguishing true family offices from wealth management teams using family office branding. Chattanooga has at least four wirehouse teams (UBS, Morgan Stanley, Raymond James, Baird) that offer "family office services" but operate within national platform mandates. Independent firms like Southeastern Trust and Pendleton Square Trust carry no bank-product obligations and can source banking relationships on a client's behalf.

Charitable giving capability matters more here than in most markets. Chattanooga's legacy families expect advanced estate planning that integrates donor-advised funds, private foundations, and annual grant-making strategies. Southeastern Trust builds full charitable giving plans including Form 990 filings. Offices without this depth may fall short of local expectations.

Service breadth varies sharply in this market. Clarity Family Office provides full tax, wealth transfer, and asset protection consulting but does not manage investments. Pendleton Square Trust handles trust administration but offers no investment advice. The Tindall Team bundles oversight, banking, insurance, and portfolio management into a single relationship. Map your actual needs before defaulting to the broadest service provider.

Test multigenerational experience by asking how the office handles family oversight and next-generation education. Southeastern Trust runs structured family education programs with defined timelines. The Tindall Team builds formal succession structures. In a market where legacy wealth spans decades, succession planning expertise is a baseline requirement rather than a premium service.

Access is relationship-driven. Cold outreach to SFOs like Lupton or Maclellan is unlikely to succeed since these offices serve their founding families exclusively. Introductions through local estate planning attorneys and CPA firms remain the standard entry point for MFOs and trust companies.

Which Family Office Fits Your Needs?

UHNW families managing legacy wealth that spans generations should look first at Chattanooga's independent trust companies. Southeastern Trust combines fiduciary administration with banking consulting, charitable giving plans, and family education. Pendleton Square Trust serves families who want trust administration kept separate from portfolio management. The Lupton and Maclellan offices offer models for community-oriented SFO structures, though neither accepts outside clients.

Entrepreneurs who recently sold a business or plan an exit face different priorities. Clarity Family Office specializes in building tax-efficient wealth transfer structures for first and second-generation founders. The Reynolds and Park Group at UBS brings exit planning, business succession strategy, and access to alternative investments through a global platform. Sage Hill Investors, while not open to outside families, shows how a newly liquid Chattanooga family structured its own SFO after a major divestiture.

Next-generation wealth holders and families seeking structured oversight should consider The Tindall Team at Raymond James. The team builds formal family frameworks and legacy plans for complex multigenerational portfolios. Families needing international investment access or private banking can look to the wirehouse teams. Those who prioritize independence and local relationships will find stronger alignment with the independent trust companies and MFO consultants.

Methodology

This guide to family offices in Chattanooga draws on analysis of firm websites, public filings, industry databases, and competitor content review as of early 2026. Selection criteria included offices headquartered in Chattanooga or actively serving UHNW families in the metro area. The guide covers dedicated SFOs, MFO consulting firms, independent trust companies, and national wirehouse teams providing family office-level services.

Managed asset data is not publicly available for most offices in this market. The guide therefore focuses on office type, investment focus, service scope, and distinctive capabilities rather than asset size rankings. Office profiles rely on publicly stated information from each firm. This resource receives periodic updates to reflect new office launches, service changes, and market developments.