Family offices now manage over $5.5 trillion in wealth globally, rivaling hedge funds in total assets. Yet because these private investment arms of ultra-wealthy families aren’t required to disclose their investments, their portfolios are largely kept secret.
To shed light on this massive financial segment, CNBC has teamed up with Addepar—a foundational data and AI platform used by financial professionals globally—to launch the Family Office Portfolio Tracker. Addepar’s data includes the portfolios of hundreds of family offices, ranging from $200 million to over $10 billion in assets, representing $1.4 trillion total.
How the Wealthiest Families are Investing
The tracker reveals some fascinating shifts in how the ultra-wealthy are allocating their capital:
- Public Stocks Are King: Equities are the largest and fastest-growing asset class for family offices. Stocks now account for 34% of portfolios, up from 32% a year ago. Notably, 80% of equity holdings for U.S. family offices are invested domestically.
- Real Estate is Shrinking: Family office real estate holdings slid by nearly 2 percentage points over the past year, now accounting for just 7.5% of their portfolios.
- Private Equity and Credit Dipped: Private equity holdings dipped slightly to 6%, while private credit fell marginally to under 1%.
- Alts vs. Public Markets: The broad collection of “alts” (everything outside of publicly traded stocks and bonds) accounted for 48% of portfolios, while public markets accounted for 52%.
- Cash Reserves: Holdings of cash and cash equivalents remained at nearly 10%, suggesting family offices are keeping “dry powder” ready for potential buying opportunities.
Long-Term Strategy Over Short-Term Reaction
Family offices are the ultimate long-term investors, investing for generations rather than individual retirement. They rarely make major changes to their portfolios or react to short-term events.
“Many of these portfolios are intentionally diversified across public and private markets and built around longer investment horizons… so positioning often evolves more gradually over time,” said Eric Poirier, CEO of Addepar. “More broadly, the data reflects how family offices are evolving — operating more globally, more institutionally and focusing on diversification, liquidity planning and long-term strategic decision-making across changing market environments.”