How do you run an effective family office when the family's patriarch is in Geneva and his adult children live in London and New York? According to Campden Wealth research, for more than half of family offices this kind of question isn't hypothetical: They serve at least one family member residing outside the family office's primary jurisdiction. The coordination challenge this creates isn't just logistical. It's structural, and it demands infrastructure built for distributed operations from the start.
In 2025, an estimated 142,000 millionaires will relocate internationally, according to Henley & Partners' latest private wealth migration report. The UK alone faces a net outflow of 16,500 wealthy individuals — the largest exodus any country has experienced since tracking began. Dubai, Switzerland, and Singapore welcome thousands more each year. The Great Wealth Migration, as some call it, is well underway. The result is greater physical mobility without greater asset consolidation. Technology to consolidate the data around diverse assets can bridge the gap.
Trade disputes, sanctions and capital controls can reorder markets in a single news cycle. When they do, risk management stops being abstract. It becomes concrete and personal: where an asset is custodied, which passport a principal travels on, the jurisdiction an entity sits in, and whether the documents you need to act are ready. If wealth is spread across banks, vaults, partnerships and family members in multiple countries, exposure is spread too.
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

Insights On Wealth Management And More.

Delivered To Your Inbox, Weekly.
Left Menu Icon