A decade ago, family offices operated quietly behind the scenes. Today, they dominate headlines. Governments compete to attract them, and an entire industry has grown to serve them. 

Along with this has come a boom in family office conferences and events, multiple private networking groups, and RIAs repositioning themselves as multi-family offices.

At the same time, dubious players exploit the industry’s opacity, posing as family offices to ingratiate themselves with legitimate operators or to scam fundraisers.

Aside from being more visible, the industry is notably more professional and is in the midst of mass digitalization, helped by a powerful wealthtech market.

So what does the average family office look like today, and what are the common themes they share with others worldwide?

Today we go deep and take a look at the state of family offices in 2026. Not an outlook, but an observation of how things stand today. 

A primer for anyone new to the industry, but also hopefully useful highlights for anyone working with family offices.

There’s no single global definition or legal outline, which can cause confusion, but for most, a family office is an organization established to manage the complex wealth and related needs of an ultra-high-net-worth family, or multiple such families. 

The majority of worldwide family offices were founded in the last 20 years, and most still operate a family business.

Often they begin as embedded structures within these businesses, sharing resources, though independent entities are considered more effective.

Their reason for being? To preserve and diversify complex family wealth through a professional setup that also ensures a smooth transition between generations.

Core variations are well outlined in the recent IMDB Global Family Office Report 2025.

The Single Family Office (SFO) manages the wealth of a single family, and can manage either one direct family or for a wider family with multiple branches. 

The Multi-Family Office (MFO) serves multiple unrelated families and has three versions: those started to serve multiple families, those started as an SFO that evolved into an MFO, or those started by an existing larger private bank or institution.

There are other variations, like the Virtual Family Office, where a family structures a network of service providers in a dedicated ecosystem to manage their needs rather than hiring their own team.

Together, the estimated AUM for family offices is between $5 - $10 trillion.

Individually, there’s a lot of noise around what level of wealth is needed before you need a dedicated family office (spoiler alert: it’s not just about total wealth, but about complexity).

Most family offices surveyed have way more: most global reports share that over 50% of the family offices surveyed have over $500M in assets. The average is usually around $2B, with between 5%-10% of those surveyed having over $5B in assets.

Study the asset allocations in family office reports year-to-year and one pattern stands out: they barely change.

Usually just over 50% split to liquid assets compared to illiquid. And they’re in it for the long haul, meaning decisions are based on the next 50 years, not five. 

Real estate and private equity loom large (though notably less in Asia). Direct investing is growing and expectations indicate more direct and co-investments ahead, but it still represents a relatively modest share of overall portfolios compared with pooled private equity or real estate exposures.

Impact investing is gaining attention, but doesn’t factor in much and risk appetite is fairly low.

While family offices do explore emerging opportunities like private credit or digital assets, these might make up 2% of their assets combined, usually less. 

Total numbers for family offices vary based on methodology (e.g. tracking registered family offices in a region versus using statistics), but estimates are around 20,000 globally.

The United States dominates as a jurisdiction for family offices, with likely around 35% located here.

Traditional centers of wealth like the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Hong Kong have developed ecosystems, but new hubs have emerged, notably Singapore and the UAE, with many countries now launching initiatives to attract family offices.

Most family offices have less than 5 employees, yet KPMG’s recent report noted 19% have 20 or more. UBS noted an average number of 12 in their most recent report.

Generally, the larger the family AUM the more they handle internally, whereas smaller family offices can have small teams of just two or three dedicated employees.

The first hire? Usually investment portfolio managers or lawyers.

Family offices, regardless of size, work with a growing network of service providers to fill their internal gaps. This family office services market was valued at over $20B last year.

Key offerings are around wealth management, legacy planning and investment solutions, with specialist tax, legal, cybersecurity, and lifestyle management experts becoming increasingly popular.

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