Family offices on the hunt for talent to better preserve large assets

Cross-border wealth is on the rise. Ultra-high-net-worth families are increasingly global and sophisticated and their family offices are required to have high skills to meet complex and articulated needs. At the centre are not only money management issues but also, and above all, family issues. The way forward is a holistic view. Compared to the past, it is crucial to involve young heirs and the main educational priority for their active engagement is the understanding of the purpose of family wealth, beyond mere preservation and capital growth. However, only one third of families have developed comprehensive plans for the use of their capital, and most of these strategies remain focused on investment. Decisive is equipping oneself with talent, which in developing contexts such as Italy is not easy to find and retain. This is why outsourcing is a crucial route for almost all family offices and accounts for 20-25% of total costs. Access to specialised expertise, increased efficiency and cost savings are the main factors. Spending on technology remains limited, while cyber threats increase.

These are some of the main indications of the second edition of the report on the operational excellence of Family Offices by AlTi Tiedemann Global (among the world's big names, the only family office listed on the stock exchange) and Campden Wealth, a survey that has been extended this year to include families from Europe and Asia-Pacific, as well as North America.

Concluded in March 2025, it involved 146 family offices (82 from North America, 42 from Europe and 22 from Asia-Pacific) divided into three brackets by assets under management: small (less than $250m), medium ($250m to $1bn) and large (over $1bn), with a focus on 16 areas (from service offerings to the impact of operations on investment success, from wealth planning to governance and generational transition, from talent to outsourcing, from technology to operational risks and costs).

"This work brings to light new emerging trends that characterise global family offices and is a key tool to analyse the state of the art of an evolving sector and map out the way forward, especially in Italy where the development of family offices is in progress," emphasises Giorgia Sanchini, Managing Director of AlTi Global. There is a growing need to rely on outsourced talent, for example on the theme of investment management, family governance and other multiple specific expertise, in order to have access to international expertise and to have the elements available to deal with the generational transition and involve the Next Gen in a more direct way. This best practice is particularly relevant in Italy, where the operational landscape of family offices still appears fragmented".

There are three key elements the family office deals with today: 1) governance; 2) financial management; 3) administrative management. Second and third involve technology. Most family offices spend between 100 thousand and 500 thousand dollars annually on technology and 42% still rely on common application systems. At the same time, cybersecurity risks are rising sharply: 70% consider them the top operational risk (up from 59% last year) and 60% have experienced at least one cyber attack. Artificial intelligence is an area of great interest, with Asian family offices being the main users, with almost 50% using artificial intelligence for various purposes. Outsourcing is now a crucial strategy for almost all family offices. 'Access to specialised expertise, increased efficiency and cost savings are the main factors,' adds Sanchini. Most family offices directly supervise relationships with suppliers, but management is challenging and the level of satisfaction fluctuates'. Finally, on the governance front, the majority of family offices (61 per cent) own operating companies, although about one third of the families anticipate changes in ownership, such as selling the company or reducing the controlling stake.