With the great wealth transfer beginning to hit family capital, managers will be faced with new generations which have their own investment priorities, experience, and approach to doing business.
By Jack Arrowsmith, London
An unprecedented shift in asset ownership is happening across generations, as the great wealth transfer plays out. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the family office.
According to Bank of America (BofA)’s 2026 Family Office Study, successors have averaged 45 when they take over leadership positions.
With older millennials now reaching that age, they will increasingly be running these firms. Currently they make up only 7% of principals in single-principal offices, according to BofA. Gen Z will then follow.
This next generation of family office leadership brings with it different priorities and interests, shaped by their own experiences. Integrating them into existing leadership structures is no easy task.
Many family offices don’t even have the structures needed to accommodate this. According to a 2025 survey by KPMG and family office advisor Agreus, 36% still lack an investment committee.
“You created all this substantial wealth, and now you’re hedging it all in the hands of one CIO. One you trust, I’m sure,” says Tayyab Mohamed, co-founder of Agreus. “But no one person is worth that kind of risk.”
Fixing this is a clear priority: BofA says that 73% plan to adopt new governance structures within the next three years.
The new generation is helping to drive that shift. Mohamed explains that because heirs often bring formal education from elite universities and business schools, they are well-versed in best practice.
While there is a capability gap across generations, it does not necessarily come from financial knowledge, but rather from a lack of practical experience. Some family offices have implemented mentorship programmes to provide hands-on training, according to Mohamed.
Other families are already deep into these transitions. Robin Lauber is the 34-year-old heir to the fortune of the Lauber family, a Swiss real estate investor, and now runs its family office.
Lauber built investment experience by doing deals of his own. In 2015, alongside other investors, he helped bring Dunkin’ Donuts to Switzerland.
Three years later he founded Infinitas Capital, a single family office, to manage the family’s investment portfolio.
He has moved the investment focus beyond real estate to explore growth sectors including biotech, defence, energy and sports, committing capital both to funds and directly to companies.
Lauber says real estate investing in Switzerland is considered “one of the safest investments you can do”, and he prefers to target higher-risk, higher-reward sectors.
Compared to his grandparents, who built the family’s wealth, he says “I’m probably a bit more of a curious person… I like velocity”.
That ambition seems widespread across family office successors. “[The next generation] don’t want to be just the generation that’s managing the wealth that the previous generation built,” says Mohamed. “They want to make their own mark.”
This could come through investments in digital technologies such as AI and cryptocurrencies, which older generations would still consider untested.
But it’s not just about personal interests. As a family office matures, its investment priorities have to shift beyond what may have worked in the past, if it wants to continue to grow.
“A founder who created wealth through building a business may be comfortable with a high degree of concentration and have a strong attachment to the industry that generated the wealth,” explains John Walker, managing director for the private client practice at investment firm Cambridge Associates.
“Subsequent generations face a different task: preserving and growing that capital while meeting the needs of an ever expanding family.”
That may mean turning more towards asset classes like alternatives, which have the potential to offer higher returns.
According to BofA, 79% of family offices with a potential next-gen principal expect them to make up a larger share of the portfolio after the transition.
“I think it is a combination of the opportunity set and the experiences this generation has grown up with,” says Alison Davis, family office strategist at Bank of America Private Bank.
“Private companies have become an increasingly important part of the investment landscape, and the next generation has seen the value that can be created through private equity and direct ownership.
“As companies remain private rather than going public, private markets can also provide opportunities to participate in businesses at different stages of their growth,” she says.
The apparent higher risk tolerance of new generations may also help win over family offices which have previously been more conservative in their approach to private markets.
But not every generation will look on them so fondly. For Gen Z, the picture has been more mixed. While they’ve lived through Silicon Valley unicorns, they’ve also seen the end of multiple expansion and a period of public market outperformance. Both could influence their investment approach.
“There are still very high allocations to alternatives… but I think it’s a lot more cautious now as well,” says Mohamed, citing the challenges private markets have faced in recent years.
A wider net
Targeting new sectors requires a change in how family offices approach their branding. Traditionally they have relied on their own networks to source opportunities, and maintained a relatively low public profile. Going forward, that may prove insufficient.
Lauber explains that the family’s previous investment strategy did not require a large public presence. Of Swiss real estate, he says “it’s a very small world: everyone knows everyone, so you don’t really require a brand”.
Pivoting into growth and VC investing has seen Lauber make the family much more outward-facing. Infinitas markets its own venture funds, holds events for family offices and is looking at launching new vehicles on the public markets. Lauber has also sought to build up his own media presence as an investor.
He considers this approach a key part of the investment strategy. “The hot companies basically get to pick and choose their investors. And if you don’t stand out, you don’t have a chance against the big ones: a16z, Founders Fund, GC.
“Your brand needs to signal that you’re able to offer them something besides money,” he says. Infinitas touts its own industry experts, and has an in-house consulting team.
Mohamed is also noticing more outward-facing family offices. He has seen this shift at Agreus, which was founded in 2010 and hosts networking events for its family office clients.
“At the start, it was really hard to get a room full of family office principals… that’s changed over the years,” he says.
This openness is an advantage for private equity managers, who may now find it easier to get themselves in front of family office CIOs. But actually closing those deals will require an understanding of what this new generation values, and how its investment goals are changing.
