|
|
Sixty percent say they are changing. Twenty percent actually did. |
|
One Number
Family offices planning to change strategic asset allocation in 2026. UBS Global Family Office Report, 2026 This is the highest level UBS has recorded this decade - up from 25-34% in 2020-22 and 35% in 2025. |
|
|
One Argument Family offices are telling pollsters they are about to move. The numbers beg to differ.On its own, that number looks like a turning point - family offices, famous for slow, deliberate decision-making, suddenly acting like everyone else. UBS’s own report leans into that framing, calling it a break from a decade of stable allocation patterns. But the two biggest parts of the average portfolio have not moved. Stocks are unchanged at 27%. Bonds are unchanged at 14%. If sixty percent of these investors were really repositioning, this is where it would show up first. It does not. Whatever the sixty percent are planning, it isn’t in the numbers yet. Maybe it's just early. A survey taken in January doesn't capture moves made in June. Saying "yes, I plan to change" and actually changing can be months apart — so the flat numbers might just mean the shift hasn't landed yet. However, something else already moved. Real estate holdings fell from 11% to 8% this year. So when family offices wanted to move, they moved. And that happened inside the same window the survey covers. That 8% figure is a global average and it hides a split. In the US, real estate holdings have roughly doubled over three years and now sit near 20% of the average portfolio. It is almost triple the global figure. And only 21% of US family offices say they plan any changes this year, the lowest of any region surveyed. The group saying the least is the group that moved the most.
|
|
One Position Forget about the sixty percent. That number describes what family offices have been telling about their intentions, not what they actually did with their money. When you read the next “family offices are doing X” headline, ask which number it is reporting - the survey answer or the allocation. They are rarely the same thing. I may be wrong if next year's report shows those flat equity and bond numbers finally catching up to this year's stated intent — that would mean the sixty percent was simply early, and the real story was timing, not talk. Where else are you mistaking what someone says for what they've done? |
|
If this was forwarded to you and you'd like to receive Corporate Financier's Notes every Thursday, you can subscribe here. Reading on your phone? Tap the three dots or overflow menu in the top corner of your email app and select View in browser for the best experience.
|