The State of Family Offices 2026 (Full Article)

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.

Trade wars, actual wars, geopolitical conflicts, and potential recessions top the lists of major concerns for today’s family offices. A climate of economic uncertainty has made them increase liquid assets and encouraged diversified portfolios to support their goal of protecting capital. It’s also forced them to consider additional locations, for both family office teams and family residences. 

Family offices are notoriously slow to embrace new technology, with spreadsheets widely used for financial reporting.

Privacy remains a key constraint on technology adoption, but wealthtech uptake is rising as portfolios grow more complex and next-generation principals expect real-time visibility and insights.

Reports highlight that only just over half of family offices have adopted AI into their operations, possibly the influence of the next generation. Despite slow internal adoption, family offices engaged in more AI-related VC deals than any other category in the last year.

Cost sensitivity is standard throughout family offices, regardless of size. Teams are lean since people are the largest single cost for family offices.

Most common outsourced roles are tax and legal services (around 70% of family offices), estate planning, cybersecurity and education, though the latter is surprisingly not even offered by many.

Due diligence and investment research are also frequently outsourced, around 10% of family offices fully outsource investments, while nearly a quarter use (or have used) an outsourced CIO.

If there’s one thing family offices unanimously value, it's other family offices.

They particularly favor club deals where they invest alongside other family offices, highlighting their preference for risk-sharing and pooling resources.

The BlackRock Global Family Office Report 2025 found that, after performance benchmarking, the most pressing private-markets need for family offices is support with co-investments and direct deal sourcing.

Family office numbers are rising globally, but they face increasing competition with established industries for talent.

The most common entry point into family offices is from banking and investment management, putting them in direct competition with global financial institutions that offer stronger brand recognition and clearer internal career paths.

Roles in family offices are often stretched due to small teams, and more than half of new employees have zero prior family office experience.

Despite hefty remuneration, attracting top talent to what are often anonymous companies isn’t easy, and recruitment was one of the top two challenges cited by family offices we engaged with in 2025 (the other being dealflow). 

There is a mass transition of wealth to a younger generation that has a very different perspective.

Many heirs feel detached from their family wealth, and have no interest in working with existing advisors or wealth managers.

Those that are involved with their family office are pushing for modern technology, like real-time portfolio updates via mobile apps, and often bring different values they want to align investments with, or even completely alter the purpose of the family office.

An enormous change is underway in the wealth management industry that we’re only seeing the beginning of.

While technological advances bring clear benefits to family offices, they also lower the barrier for bad actors, which helps explain why cybersecurity so often ranks as the number one concern.

As family offices become more visible, accounts of phishing, ransomware and malicious data breaches, become increasingly common.

Most family offices don’t have team members who can sufficiently handle these risks and rely entirely on external experts, which in itself can present a challenge. Credit card and wire fraud are also common, and these aren’t just external threats, with around 20% having suffered internal fraud.

Government legislation such as the Corporate Transparency Act in the US and similar regulations in other countries mean privacy is harder than ever for family offices. Easier access to beneficial ownership and financial information by the media and other private organizations means family offices are under more scrutiny than ever.

Given the option of flying below the radar or having a distinctive public profile, most family offices opt for total privacy, a preference that shapes how they operate and network.

The Great Wealth Transfer gets a lot of headlines and a large part of this around succession planning. Remarkably, industry reports reflect that around half of family offices don’t have a succession plan in place.

This increases risk, particularly with first-generation principals where the next generation often has no involvement with the family office, and are frequently scattered around the world. Family education is another crucial area with much room for progress. 

While family offices professionalize, much of this is investment-focused, with Citi Private Bank’s recent report noting 57% of family offices have an investment committee. Establishing formal structures to make decisions, manage leadership transitions, and handle family-related issues is critical.

Dominant first-generation principals can hamper this process though, and the larger the level of wealth, the riskier informal decision-making becomes. 

A theme that’s emerged in recent years is the desire for optionality.

Whether through acquiring additional citizenship, operating across multiple jurisdictions, investing in lifestyle-driven residences, or using specialist financing to unlock illiquid capital, family offices are deliberately building flexibility into their structures and strategies.  

Family offices networks exist in various forms, from long-established organizations that bring over 500 members together for formal gatherings, to informal WhatsApp-based groups that arrange popular monthly meetings at local restaurants.

The objective is usually the same: to bring family office leaders together in a safe space where they can interact without the hassle of being sold to.

These are observations from our work and interaction with family offices and service providers, complemented by insights from the latest industry reports.

But what is your perspective?

If you’re working in the family office industry and feel there’s something we’ve missed, get in touch.

Either join the conversation on X and LinkedIn, or simply mail us a short note with your perspective.

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