Family Barometer 2025

For the first time, ‘Building family legacy’ ranks among the top three family-related topics in the Family Barometer 2025, with a particularly strong showing in Asia, where it takes third place. This reflects a generational handover underway across many family enterprises, especially in the East, where patriarchs and matriarchs are looking beyond succession planning toward more lasting, values-based imprinting.

This shift is shaping how UHNW families approach philanthropy, governance, and education. Families are investing more time and resources in articulating their values, vision, and purpose – codifying these into family constitutions, mission statements, and intergenerational mentoring. The growing focus on legacy signals a change in mindset: from managing wealth purely as a financial resource to stewarding it as a vessel for identity and purpose.

Wealth strategy now intersects with emotional intelligence, long-term planning with narrative building. The prioritisation of legacy reflects a broader recalibration – where financial capital is aligned in service of human and social capital, not the other way around.

Around 40 per cent of UHNW clients surveyed currently either have or are served by a Family office. Yet this year’s Family Barometer Highlights the barriers that continue to deter many others. Cost remains the most frequently cited concern, followed by management complexity and the perception that their wealth may not be substantial enough to justify setting up a single family office.

These concerns are prompting families to explore more flexible, collaborative models. Increasingly, UHNW families are turning to wealth managers to access a curated suite of family office-style services without assuming the full operational burden themselves. This hybrid approach allows families to outsource selected functions while retaining control over others – tailoring the setup to their specific needs, priorities, and stage of maturity.

The survey reveals clear preferences when it comes to delegation. Services such as philanthropy, succession planning, and cybersecurity are often named as areas best handled externally, while more personal domains like liquidity management, public relations or family governance tend to stay in-house.

In a fragmented world, where strategic clarity and operational efficiency matter more than ever, hybrid models are offering families a practical and scalable path forward – combining trusted partnership with the freedom to evolve at their own approach.

For the second year running, ‘Political stability’ ranks as a key societal concern among UHNW families, especially in Europe, where it was the second most pressing issue. Regional conflicts, shifting power dynamics, and the erosion of democratic norms have left families seeking ways to insulate their wealth, and their lives, from macro-political shocks. This year’s data show that concerns about political risk now extend beyond traditionally volatile regions; fragility is increasingly seen as a global issue.

This persistent anxiety is translating into more sophisticated wealth strategies. Geographic diversification remains a key response. Latin American families, for example, now rank ‘geopolitical diversification’ as their second most important investment theme. Families are also reassessing citizenship, residency, and even educational paths for the next generation. Asset location is being reconsidered not just financially, but politically. For family offices, this has broadened the advisory remit to include political intelligence, scenario planning, and global mobility consulting.

Private direct investments and private equity once again feature prominently in this year’s Family Barometer, confirming that private markets are no longer a niche interest – they are now central to the investment approach of sophisticated UHNW families. Private markets received particularly strong interest in the Middle East, for instance. This momentum reflects both a shift in market structure and a generational tilt toward more active, meaningful engagement with capital.

The allure of private markets lies not only in their potential for superior returns, but in the agency they afford. Families are increasingly using direct investments to align their capital with their convictions – whether through impact investing, venture capital, or sector-specific plays. The rise of next-generation involvement has also fuelled this trend, as younger family members look for investment opportunities that combine financial upside with thematic or mission-driven resonance.

What is clear is that private markets are now a permanent feature of the UHNW investment landscape – and they demand a bespoke, engaged approach.

Concerns around ‘Safety and security’ became more elevated in this year’s survey, with both ‘Data privacy and cybersecurity’ and ‘Personal safety’ cited frequently as critical societal discussion topics. As UHNW families become more globally visible – and as digital integration deepens in all areas of life – the vectors of risk have multiplied. The days when physical security alone sufficed are gone. Today’s risks are increasingly invisible: cyberattacks, identity theft, reputational exposure, and digital espionage.

The implications for wealth managers and family offices are profound. Security is no longer a siloed issue managed by outside consultants, but a central pillar of family governance and risk planning. Cybersecurity infrastructure, crisis communications protocols, and even secure digital family vaults are becoming standard practice among best-in-class family offices. Personal safety strategies have also evolved to include privacy-preserving technologies, secure travel protocols, and location-based risk assessment.

Families are seeking solutions that are not just reactive, but preventive. More importantly, they want integrated advice – security that fits seamlessly into their broader lifestyle, operational footprint, and strategic planning.