List of the 30 Largest Single Family Offices Illinois [2023]

List of 3 Single Family Offices in Illinois

This list contains three selected single family offices from our list. We want to provide you with an insight into what our list includes.

1. Equity Group Investments (Chicago)

Equity Group Investments was founded by Sam Zell more than 50 years ago. He is the Chairman of this single family office. Sam founded Equity Office Properties Trust, a large office REIT. It was sold for $39B in 2007. Besides his family office, he nowadays chairs four further companies that are all listed on the NYSE. Those companies are Equity Residential, Equity LifeStyle Properties, Equity Commonwealth, and Equity Distribution Acquisition Corp. Through the Zell Family Foundation, Sam also engages as a philanthropist. His family office invests in any asset classes and stages with no specific focus on any industry or geography. Able Freight,  EagleRidge Energy LLC, and Elessent Clean Technologies are among others part of its huge investment portfolio.

2. Spring Creek Partners (Rockford)

John R. Anderson was an early investor in Silicon Valley in the late 60s. He is the founder of Spring Creek Partners and senior partner at Anderson Enterprises, the holding company of the Anderson family. In 1968 he also founded Anderson Packaging Inc., a pharmaceutical packaging company. This single family office invests mainly in Venture Capital at every stage.

3. TK Capital LLC (Chicago)

TK Capital LLC was founded by Dennis Keller. Dennis is co-founder of Adtalem Global Education Inc., a company with the purpose to empower students to achieve their goals and be successful. He chairs the National Board of the Smithsonian Institution, the Princeton University School of Engineering and the Mpala Wildlife Foundation. Dennis is also the former director of Nicor Inc and Ryerson Inc. TK Capital LLC is interested in long-term investments in private companies with a healthy platform.

Directory of single family offices from Illinois

Illinois is home of many different American single family offices. Chicago, Illinois’ most populated city, is one of the most important financial centers in the United States. Our list of Illinois-based SFOs is an excerpt of our unique database of American single family offices. The list helps to get in touch with relevant single family offices, the investment firms of high net worth families. Our customers include family offices, investment banks, funds, startups, real estate brokers as well as consultancies and service companies.

Many different data points: emails, net worth, investments, family background

We tailor our high quality single family office lists to the needs of our customers. The list includes a broad range of data points, from contact details (like general e-mail addresses, phone numbers, website, postal address) to executive details (if available: roles, LinkedIn profiles) to investment specifics (capital markets, private equity, real estate, venture capital) to exemplary investments.

Disclaimer: due to the secrecy of some family offices, we are sometimes not able to provide you with email addresses or other pieces of information. In case we don’t know the exact investment focus, the specific column is marked as n.a.

Why Illinois is home to so many single family offices

There are several reasons for more than 30 single family offices being located in Illinois. The Lake Michigan bordering state has many extremely wealthy counties. For example,  Lake County, on the shores of Lake Michigan, is the 27th wealthiest county in the United States. Besides that, Illinois’ Chicago is the third most populated U.S. city – and a major financial and industrial center. Many major banks and investments firms have their headquarter in Chicago. Just to name a few: investment bank William Blair with $94BN assets under management, BMO Harris Bank or financial services company Northern Trust with $6BN assets under management.

Strong economy, dozens of billionaires, many family investment firms

Forbes counts 18 billionaires in Illinois in its richest list. Many of them are managing their fortune through own investment firms, so-called single family offices. The wealth’ of Illinois-based single family offices (and billionaires) is rooted in different sources. Ken Griffin from Chicago made its $11.7BN net worth through hedge funds, Sam Zell earned $5.5BN through real estate and private equity deals. Also the strong economy of Illinois’ created many wealthy families and single family offices. To give a few examples: Boeing (Chicago), Walgreens (Deerfield), Caterpillar (Deerfield) and AbbVie (North Chicago) are located in Illinois.

Investments of single family offices from Illinois

Many of the Illinois-based single family offices are pursuing a rather traditional investment style: