Family Office Forum

Daily dispatch for the family office community. Generational wealth: Real facts. Real data. Global events directory at

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

Every week, one post. One real fact about the family office world.

Just data, patterns, and the occasional observation about generational wealth.

Global family office events directory → https://t.co/jgUyuB0Ku4

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

A textile mill in Roubaix, 1905.

Louis Mulliez told his children: don't inherit my company. Build your own. I'll invest.

Five generations later: 130+ businesses. Decathlon. Auchan. 80 countries.

The family rule: everyone owns a piece of everything.

(IMD, 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

Families prepare the next generation to be executives.

Almost none prepare them to be owners.

Owners vote on strategy. Owners resolve conflict. Owners fire the CEO.

3% of family businesses survive to the fourth generation. Those families taught ownership first.

(HBR, 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

Every family office surveyed plans to increase its private equity allocation.

Not most. All of them.

66% by 25–50%.

The question isn't whether families are moving to alternatives. It's how fast.

(Ocorian, 2026 — $119B in assets, 16 countries)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

Running a family office at $250M in assets: $875,000 a year.

At $1 billion: $6.6 million.

A quarter of that goes to outsourced services — legal, cybersecurity, trading.

The portfolio scales. The organization scales faster.

(J.P. Morgan 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

October 2010: LVMH reveals a secret 17% stake in Hermès.

The family's response: pool 50.2% of the company into a holding called H51. Irrevocable.

April 2025: Hermès market cap surpasses LVMH's — for the first time ever.

The family chose illiquidity. It won.

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

55% of ultra-high-net-worth wealth transfers only at death.

Not because the plans aren't ready. Because the conversations haven't happened.

Only 20% of heirs feel "very prepared."

The families who talk about money transfer it earlier — on their terms.

(BNY Wealth, 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

Hong Kong just passed Switzerland as the world's largest offshore wealth center.

3,384 single-family offices. Up 25% in two years.

59% of managed assets originate from mainland China.

UBS just leased an entire building at West Kowloon.

(Deloitte China/BCG 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

72% of family offices hold zero gold.

Central banks bought over 3,000 tonnes in three years.

Same top fear. Opposite response.

Institutions thinking in centuries are buying. Families thinking in generations are not.

(JPMorgan 2026; World Gold Council)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

A cotton ginning factory in 1926.

₹14 trillion market cap in 2026.

India's Bajaj Group turns 100. Five-member council. Merit over bloodline. A 2018 succession deal settled internally — no courts.

The hardest thing they built wasn't the business. It was the agreement.

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

Nearly half of family offices have now formally answered the question: what is this wealth actually for?

48%, up from 33% last year.

The top reason they did it: to prepare the next generation.

Only 17% have the next generation involved.

(AlTi Tiedemann/Campden 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

60% of family foundations put the next generation on the board.

Not to observe. To vote.

The giving table is where most families first learn to make decisions together.

Lower stakes. Real disagreements. And the skills transfer.

(Exponent Philanthropy 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

14% of "healthy" executives who get full-body scans have a life-threatening condition no one knew about.

Every family office insures the key person.

Almost none monitors whether they're failing now.

The portfolio is stress-tested. The principal isn't.

(Fountain Life)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

98% of Japan's 81,000 annual adoptees are adult males.

Not children. Executives.

When there's no worthy heir, they adopt one.

Firms run by adopted heirs outperform blood heirs.

Japan asks: what if the next generation isn't born yet?

(Mehrotra et al., JFE)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

Who makes the final investment call at your family office?

47% now: a committee.
6%: the founder.

The hardest part of building a family office isn't the portfolio.

It's learning to trust the room you built.

(Ocorian 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

"Is lack of open communication a problem in your family?"

5% of wealthy Boomers said yes.
32% of Millennials said yes.

Same survey. Same families.

The parents think the wealth conversation happened.

Their children are still waiting for it.

(Lombard Odier, 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

80% of family offices outsource at least some portfolio management.

Not because of cost. Because PE and hedge funds pay more.

A family office used to mean "we manage our own money."

Now it means "we choose who does."

Different skill. Maybe a better one.

(J.P. Morgan, 2026)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

1 in 3 family offices has invested in sports.

Not just teams — venues, streaming, media rights.

It's the only asset where three generations care about the same thing at the same time.

Art hangs on a wall. A team builds a table.

(BNY 2025)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

$54 trillion will transfer between spouses in the coming decades.

Nearly $40 trillion to widowed women.

80% of family office CEOs are men.

She built the family alongside him. The office was built around him.

That's starting to change.

(Cerulli 2025)

[Family Office Forum @FamilyOfficeF]

Family offices have 42% in alternatives.

Ask how the returns look: excellent.
Ask for the cash: it hasn't come back.

28,000 PE-backed companies sit unsold globally. $3.2 trillion in unrealized value.

The wealth is real. The liquidity isn't.

(BlackRock 2025 / Allianz 2026)