The global family office market has reached $20.13 billion in value and is projected to hit $27.61 billion by 2030. This growth reflects a fundamental shift in how ultra-high-net-worth families approach wealth management, moving from simple stewardship to strategic value creation across generations.
For many family offices, the risks are no longer theoretical. Governance is informal, reporting delayed, and portfolios are growing more complex by the quarter. Yet many still rely on basic spreadsheets to track billions. According to Copia Wealth, citing KPMG data from 2025, more than 57% of global family offices continue to use general tools like Excel for core financial reporting.
Family offices were once discreet custodians of generational wealth. In 2025, they are fast-moving, capital-rich operators reshaping global investment markets. UBS reports that the average family office now oversees about USD 1.1 billion in assets. With over 3,000 single-family offices worldwide managing more than USD 4.7 trillion, their footprint rivals that of institutional investors (UBS Global Family Office Report, 2025).
Industry research shows that all family offices outsource at least some functions. IT services rank as the third most commonly outsourced area, after legal and tax planning services. At the same time, cybersecurity was the second most common new service that family offices added over the last two years. As security concerns push family offices toward better technology solutions, partnering with an advanced digital wealth platform provider can become the foundation for effective operations across their entire service range.
A gentle ripple has become a deliberate current. High-net-worth families anchored in Europe are quietly expanding their private wealth operations to hubs such as Dubai and Singapore. This is not a retreat from Switzerland, which remains a cornerstone of global fiduciary trust, but a strategic broadening. The map of wealth management is not being redrawn in opposition, it’s being layered with new centres. The motive is not unkindness to tradition, but a desire for jurisdictions that offer agility, clarity, and optionality. As one adviser put it to the Financial Times, family offices in Dubai “can be quieter. That’s more desirable
Inheriting wealth offers opportunity, but often at the cost of autonomy. Across Europe, a generation of heirs is forging entrepreneurial paths of their own, balancing the freedom to innovate with the burden of family expectations. Their challenge is delicate: create independent ventures that satisfy personal ambition, yet remain anchored in the family’s legacy. As one Swiss heir remarked to a UBS roundtable: “I wanted to build something of my own, but respected the foundation that brought me here.”
Deciding whether to establish a family office is often one of the most important choices wealthy families make. A wide range of factors shape this decision. In this article, we examine three of them by comparing four wealthy families and their approaches to managing their fortunes.
María Asunción Aramburuzabala formed family office Tresalia Capital after her father Pablo – executive vice president of Grupo Modelo, the brewer of Corona beer that his own father Felix founded after the Mexican Revolution – died unexpectedly of cancer in 1995 at age 63 with no finalized succession plan. Today she is worth an estimated $8.2 billion, making her Mexico’s wealthiest woman and Latin America’s second after Chilean mining magnate Iris Fontbana. Her story holds three valuable lessons for today’s family office builders.

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