By Stuart Pinnington, Global Head of Asset Owners
The family office landscape is entering a period of accelerated change. Shifts in global wealth, geopolitics, regulation and technology are reshaping how single-family offices (SFOs) and multi-family offices (MFOs) allocate capital, manage risk and organise themselves. Against a backdrop of higher scrutiny and more complex portfolios, family offices are looking for structures and strategies that protect capital, preserve flexibility and reflect their long-term values. The following seven predictions highlight how family offices are likely to position themselves in 2026.
1. Private markets will remain dominant
Private equity, venture capital and real assets will stay at the centre of family office portfolios. Our recent whitepaper with Barton Consulting shows that private equity and venture capital are core holdings, with allocations often reaching 10–25% for SFOs and 5–20% for MFOs. The number of family offices tracked by Preqin with exposure to private markets has risen by 524% since 2016, underlining this structural shift.
At the same time, platforms such as Moonfare and tools like continuation vehicles are making access easier and exits more flexible. For many entrepreneurial offices, direct and co-investment opportunities offer control, closer alignment with long-term objectives and the ability to capture bespoke deals that traditional fund structures may miss.
2. UAE will become a global hub
For family offices, the UAE is shifting from an optional hub to a strategic necessity. Dubai and Abu Dhabi already offer streamlined family office frameworks through local free zones DIFC and ADGM, combining confidentiality, flexible structures and access to energy transition, healthcare and tech deal flow. At the same time, regulation is nudging wealth eastwards. The ending of the UK’s non-domicile status and broader tax tightening across Europe are prompting more family offices to relocate, with the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report forecasting a net loss of around 16,500 millionaires from the UK in 2025 – one of the largest outflows in decades.
When that mobility meets an ecosystem where SFOs already average close to $900m in AUM, the result is obvious: deeper capital pools, more sophisticated platforms and a clearer role for the UAE as a global asset management and family office hub.
3. ESG and impact investing will mature
ESG is no longer about optics and is now at the core of responsible investing strategies. In 2026, family offices are expected to move beyond compliance towards transition-focused strategies, backing renewable energy and green infrastructure while treating climate risk as an essential consideration when analysing a GP’s portfolio.
That shift is also tightening the definition of “impact”. Rather than broad claims, many family offices will look to science-based targets and more rigorous measurement frameworks, including the UN SDGs and IRIS+, to show measurable outcomes across both environmental and social factors.
Regulatory pressure and stakeholder expectations are accelerating this change. Reporting standards such as TCFD and ISSB are pushing investors towards clearer disclosures and more consistent data. As a result, ESG is increasingly positioned as a driver of long-term value creation and risk management, not a box-ticking exercise.
4. Digital assets will adopt a barbell approach
Family offices are increasingly treating digital assets as two distinct categories, and that is likely to continue in 2026: they combine cautious, tightly risk-managed exposure to core digital assets and infrastructure with venture-style investments in the wider blockchain ecosystem. What allows for this broader investment approach is the clarity that the past year has brought. In the U.S., lawmakers introduced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 to define the SEC and CFTC’s respective roles and reduce the uncertainty that has dominated the sector.
Elsewhere, jurisdictions are competing on oversight. The UAE has positioned the Securities and Commodities Authority as the primary federal regulator for virtual asset activity (with defined carve-outs for other authorities), supporting a more business-friendly environment. Singapore, meanwhile, has established a licensing-led approach via the Payment Services Act, setting expectations for exchanges and wallet providers operating under regulatory standards.
5. Specialist talent and outsourcing will scale up
As portfolios become more complex and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, family offices are likely to lean more heavily on specialist expertise in 2026, particularly across alternatives, digital assets and risk. Rather than building large in-house teams, many SFOs are turning to outsourced CFO and administrative support to handle sophisticated reporting, liquidity planning and compliance without inflating headcount.
This reflects a wider shift towards lean internal structures supported by external partners for middle-office, governance and regulatory functions. Done well, outsourcing brings agility and cost efficiency, while providing access to niche capabilities such as digital asset custody, ESG reporting and cross-border tax structuring.
6. Governance 2.0
In 2026, governance is becoming more structured and underpinned by modernised platforms and processes. Many family offices are formalising constitutions, decision frameworks and next-generation pathways to reduce friction across generations and clarify how capital is stewarded. This shift is partly a response to a tougher market environment and the reality that some investments have not delivered the returns or liquidity originally expected. As Lex van Dam, Founder of SFO Alliance, noted, “when markets are more challenging and returns or liquidity fall short, it’s logical for family offices to tighten governance to avoid repeating the same outcomes.”
At the same time, governance is being improved by middle- and back-office modernisation. Fragmented legacy systems are being replaced with unified platforms, supported by advanced reporting tools and straight-through processing (STP) to improve data flow, real-time portfolio visibility and regulatory compliance. This shift enables automated reconciliation, stronger risk analytics and more consistent ESG reporting. In practice, client demand is already driving the integration of STP into platforms such as IQ-EQ Cosmos.
7. Asia will emerge as a growth engine
Asia is set to play an even larger role in the family office landscape in 2026, both as a source of capital and as a driver of new investment. Our latest survey with Barton suggests Asia is now the second-largest wealth region after North America and the fastest-growing globally, accounting for around 30% of the world’s SFOs and 26% of MFOs. Much of this is relatively new wealth, with 40% of Asian family offices having been established within the last 15 years.
These investors tend to run diversified portfolios, maintaining liquidity through cash and developed market fixed income while increasing allocations to private equity and venture capital, particularly in early-stage technology. Their approach is also global, with capital deployed well beyond the region into the U.S. and Europe.
