Family Office Landscape Study

The global family office sector is in a period of structural transition. Three converging dynamics stand out across the latest wave of large-scale institutional surveys: a growing emphasis on operational discipline and the economies of scale that larger offices command; a sustained reorientation of capital toward U.S. markets at the expense of emerging and developing economies; and a clear rotation of portfolio strategy from wealth preservation toward growth-oriented, alternatives-heavy allocation. These three themes are examined in turn below.[i]

This study synthesises the most comprehensive publicly available data on the sector, drawing on eight major reports published between 2023 and 2025: the PwC 2024 Global Family Office Deals Study (11,000 family offices, average net worth US$2.4 billion); the EY 2025 Global Wealth Research Report; the UBS 2025 Global Family Office Report (317 offices, average AuM US$1.1 billion); the Campden Wealth Operational Excellence Report 2025 (146 offices); the HSBC Private Bank & Campden Wealth European Family Office Report 2024 (101 European offices); the Deloitte Family Office Insights Series, Global Edition 2024; the JP Morgan Private Bank Global Family Office Report 2024 (190 offices); and the Goldman Sachs Family Office Investment Insights (166 offices, Q1 2023). Together, they provide a robust, multi-perspective picture of a sector that manages trillions of dollars in private capital worldwide.

Operational Efficiency and Economies of Scale

One of the most consistent findings across all surveyed reports is the inverse relationship between asset base and operating cost expressed as a percentage of assets under management. Larger family offices benefit from fixed-cost structures that become progressively diluted as AuM grows, giving scale a compounding operational advantage.

The average running cost of a family office stands at approximately 0.41% of AuM globally, but this figure masks wide variation by scale. Offices below US$500 million in AuM face costs as high as 1.05%, falling to 0.54% for those in the US$500 million to US$1 billion band and compressing to 0.36% for offices above US$1 billion. In absolute terms, annual operating expenditure averages US$1.5 million for sub-US$500 million offices, US$2.7 million for mid-size offices, and US$6.1 million for those managing more than US$1 billion, corresponding to a declining cost-to-AuM ratio as assets grow.[ii]

The most granular cost breakdown available shows that staffing absorbs 67% of operating expenditure and 57% of total costs when investment management fees and banking charges are included in the denominator. Legal and compliance account for 10%, physical infrastructure for 8%, technology for 7%, and research for 5%. These are largely fixed items: salaries within a given labour market do not scale linearly with AuM, nor do compliance retainers or software licences. The result is that once an office has established its operational infrastructure, incremental growth in assets is largely margin-accretive.[iii]

The strategic response to this dynamic is increasingly visible. Approximately one third of surveyed offices intend to expand their use of external vendors, particularly in investment administration, specialist tax work, and technology. Separately, 34% of offices plan to increase outsourcing to external specialists, while 43% have active technology-deployment strategies, even as 72% consider their current systems underinvested. Outsourcing selectively and investing in scalable technology infrastructure are becoming the primary levers through which offices of all sizes seek to close the efficiency gap with their larger peers.[iv]

Sustained Migration of Capital Toward U.S. Markets

A second structural shift evident across the data is the ongoing reorientation of family office capital toward the United States, at the expense of emerging markets and, to a lesser extent, other developed regions. This movement reflects a combination of return expectations, liquidity considerations, and a wider reassessment of geopolitical risk.

The scale of existing U.S. concentration is already substantial. U.S. assets account for approximately 63% of average holdings, with other developed markets adding a further 21%. Crucially, 41% of Asia-Pacific offices have already planned to increase their U.S. exposure, suggesting that concentration will deepen rather than moderate over time. The United States retains its position as the top recipient of family office deal flow, capturing 47% of global transaction volume, with Europe second at 32%.[v]

Directional momentum reinforces the picture. North American asset concentration has recorded a positive 3% annual change, accompanied by marked home bias among U.S.-domiciled offices: 53% of their assets are held in passive instruments, predominantly U.S.-listed vehicles. At the same time, fixed income and equity allocations are migrating from developing-country exposures toward developed-market instruments, and cash holdings have fallen from 13% to 6% of the average portfolio over the past six years, reflecting a redeployment of liquidity into longer-duration, return-seeking positions.[vi]

Within U.S. equity, the sector-level tilt is consistent. Some 43% of offices overweight information technology and 34% overweight healthcare as structural long-term growth themes, both of which are primarily expressed through U.S.-listed positions. Artificial intelligence, electrification, and healthcare are cited as the primary areas of forward interest, offset in the near term by concerns over trade policy and geopolitical instability following the announcement of the Trump tariff package in early April 2025.[vii]

Reorientation from Wealth Preservation to Growth-Oriented Alternatives

The third and perhaps most consequential shift concerns portfolio construction philosophy. Across the surveyed universe, the traditional family office model anchored in capital preservation through diversified public securities is giving way to a more aggressive posture in which alternative assets form the largest single allocation category.

Alternatives represent approximately 45% of the typical family office portfolio, with a median target return of approximately 11%. Private equity is the dominant sub-category, at 30% of portfolios on average, ahead of listed equities at 25%, and one third of respondents plan further increases. Private equity, real estate and infrastructure, hedge funds, and private credit together account for 44% of the average portfolio, with forward intentions pointing toward further increases in private equity and private credit specifically.[viii]

The broader strategic context for this rotation is notable: European family offices are explicitly switching strategies from capital preservation to growth, albeit from a more conservative starting point than their North American counterparts. Some 24% of European offices plan to increase private credit allocations even as slower private equity exits are constraining near-term liquidity, a tension that defines the transition period the sector currently occupies.[ix]

Club deals are an important structural enabler of this rotation. Co-investments now account for 60% of all family office deal flow, reducing per-ticket risk while allowing offices to participate in transaction sizes that would otherwise exceed their individual capacity. Direct deal interest is also rising: while most transactions remain small (at or below US$25 million), there is increasing appetite for larger deals, consistent with the broader push for return enhancement through concentration rather than diversification.[x]

Impact investing represents a further dimension of the growth orientation, though its trajectory is nuanced. Impact investments surpassed 50% of total investment volume in 2022, led by education (29%) and renewable energy (24%), while housing allocations remain comparatively modest at 4%. Separately, 46% of surveyed offices invest with sustainability criteria, with the share projected to rise from 17% to 29% of total portfolio assets within five years. European offices lead this trajectory at 57% adoption, compared with 26% in North America.[xi]

Taken together, these three dynamics reflect a sector at an inflection point. The discipline of operational scale, the gravitational pull of U.S. markets, and the migration from preservation to growth are not independent trends: they reinforce one another. Larger, more efficient offices are best positioned to allocate meaningfully into illiquid alternatives; U.S. markets offer the deepest private equity and technology deal flow; and the compression of cash and fixed income holdings is the mirror image of the alternatives build-out. The family offices that navigate this transition most effectively will be those that resolve the tension between short-term liquidity constraints and long-term return ambitions, while continuing to invest in the operational infrastructure that makes scale sustainable.

The transitions documented in this study are not merely directional: they are quantitatively complex. Optimizing the cost structure of a growing operation, calibrating exposure to U.S. private markets against liquidity constraints, and constructing alternatives-weighted portfolios with credible return targets each require analytical frameworks that go beyond conventional consultancy. Quantitative Partners was founded precisely to close that gap. As a Luxembourg-based advisory boutique with academic roots in quantitative finance, we work confidentially with a selected number of family offices to design and implement the models, processes, and research capabilities that allow investment decisions to be made with greater precision and less reliance on heuristic judgment. Offices navigating the operational and strategic inflection points described above are welcome to open a conversation.