Goldman Sachs has just released its 2025 Family Office Investment Insights Report and it’s a fascinating read.
Family offices are rarely the loudest voices in global markets, but they are often the most telling. With patient capital, structural flexibility, and freedom from quarterly performance pressures, they can afford to think in decades rather than quarters.
That makes their shifts in allocation, strategy and conviction a valuable barometer of how long-horizon investors view the current terrain.
Risks are mounting, but resilience dominates.
The report shows family offices are far from oblivious to today’s risks. Geopolitical conflict now sits firmly at the top of the worry list, cited by 61% of respondents. Inflation, tariffs and political instability also loom large, especially in the Americas where inflationary pressure is still the key concern. Yet despite this backdrop, the striking theme is not retreat but resilience. Family offices are not stepping back; they are pressing forward, treating uncertainty as part of the terrain rather than a reason to stop moving.
Public markets reclaim attention.
One of the biggest shifts since 2023 is a renewed commitment to public equities, with allocations rising back to 31% of portfolios. Volatility, dispersion and the resurgence of IPO activity are being treated as opportunities rather than hazards. At the centre of this pivot is technology, particularly artificial intelligence.
More than half of family offices expect to be overweight technology in the year ahead, a clear signal that AI has become a structural allocation, not a speculative theme.
Alternatives recalibrated, not abandoned.
Alternatives remain core to family office portfolios, making up 42% of allocations globally. But the composition is evolving. Private equity exposure has edged lower, reflecting a slower exit environment and some reluctance to recommit to new vintages.
Yet the decline is modest and with M&A activity and IPO markets stirring back to life, there are signs this will reverse. Private real estate and infrastructure allocations have grown slightly, reflecting the appeal of tangible assets tied to long-term themes such as digitisation and demographics.
Private credit, too, is drawing capital, offering attractive yield and downside protection in a more normalised rate environment.
Hedge fund allocations, steady at 6%, continue to serve as a volatility buffer, with systematic and multi-strategy approaches gaining interest.
AI moves from niche to embedded.
Perhaps the most important finding is the ubiquity of AI. Eighty-six percent of family offices now report some form of investment in the space, with exposure not just through venture capital but across public equities, industrials, and energy.
The secondary beneficiaries of AI such as data centres, power infrastructure and industrial suppliers are increasingly on the radar. Inside the family offices themselves, AI is already a working tool: half are using it for research, data analysis and productivity, with more exploring portfolio optimisation and risk management.
AI has shifted from a bet on the future to a practical reality in both operations and allocation.
Digital assets gain legitimacy.
Cryptocurrencies, once dismissed as fringe, are now present in one-third of family office portfolios. That’s double the proportion in 2021. Regional differences remain stark: APAC leads both in adoption and future intent, with nearly four in ten planning to increase exposure.
While the Americas and EMEA are more reserved, even there digital assets are increasingly being treated as a potential tail-risk hedge. The days of crypto as an eccentric experiment appear to be fading; it is slowly becoming part of the mainstream toolkit.
From sports to healthcare, passion meets capital.
The report also highlights how family offices are leaning into sectors that combine passion with institutional potential. A quarter already invest in sports franchises or the wider ecosystem, with another quarter showing interest.
Media and content rights are identified as the most powerful future value driver, aligning with the battle for premium live-sports broadcasting.
Healthcare, industrials and energy also feature strongly, often linked to the secondary effects of AI and the need for resilient infrastructure.
What emerges is not a picture of investors battening down the hatches, but one of constructive positioning. More than a third of family offices plan to increase allocations to both public equities and private equity in the next 12 months. A quarter will add to private credit. Cash holdings steady at 12% are expected to fall as dry powder is deployed into risk assets.
This is not capital that is hiding; it is capital that is leaning forward.
Why this matters.
Family offices do not just follow institutional flows they often precede them. Free from external mandates, they can act early, set long-term positions and ride out dislocation. Their conviction around technology, AI, secondaries and private credit is likely to shape broader capital markets over the coming cycle. For managers, advisers and allocators, the lesson is clear: watch what family offices are doing, not just what they are saying.
The Goldman Sachs report is a reminder that despite a climate of heightened risk, the most flexible investors are signalling opportunity.
Family offices are adapting to the terrain and in doing so, pointing to where the next wave of capital may be heading.
