Seven trends reshaping family office careers today
Family offices are looking for a wide array of talent to help them stay relevant and resilient in an ever-changing investment landscape.
No two families are alike, so there is a great deal of variety in the structure of the vehicles they set up to manage their assets and personal affairs. This, along with the swelling ranks of ultra-wealthy individuals around the world (see Figure 1) and the increasing complexity of their financial needs and aspirations, is creating distinct career opportunities within the rapidly expanding family office universe.
Even within a particular family, circumstances can change considerably over time. Initially, owners of a family business may ask employees to help out with important financial and personal matters, giving rise to informal structures within family-owned companies known as an embedded family office. But as a family’s wealth grows and its needs evolve, it can become more efficient and prudent to outsource these functions to a separate entity.
These entities take two main forms:
I. Single-family offices (SFOs) serve one family exclusively, providing highly personalized services such as investment management, estate planning, tax optimization, and lifestyle management. While offering the highest level of privacy and control, they require significant resources and are cost-effective only for the wealthiest of families – USD100 million in investable assets is widely considered as the threshold. Some SFOs have gone on to spin out full-fledged asset management firms serving outside investors, with funds seeded by the original family.
II. Multi-family offices (MFOs) cater to multiple families, pooling resources to offer similar services at a lower cost and gain access to a broader range of investment opportunities. MFOs vary greatly in size, scope and services offered. Some serve just a handful of families while others have hundreds or even thousands of clients. Although MFOs are generally associated with the lower rungs of the wealthiest families, they are sometimes used by the extraordinarily affluent too. Take Iconiq Capital, which manages the personal wealth of some of the biggest names in tech, including Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Satya Nadella and Sean Parker.
Family office careers: Seven dynamics driving success
Meanwhile, several trends are currently making a big impact on the family office sector and the available roles within it:
1. Expanding investment opportunities: The search for yield during the protracted era of ultra-low interest rates, coupled with volatility in public markets, prompted family offices to diversify into alternative assets, which now make up almost half their strategic asset allocation (see Figure 2).
Meanwhile, in line with the large share of recent wealth accumulation that has been driven by technology startups, there is also a greater focus on venture and startup investments. But this shift towards concentrated private holdings and direct deals brings new risks, calling for greater rigor in sourcing and vetting investments, as well as installing institutional-grade guardrails.
2. Institutionalization: The need to respond to heightened macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty has put family offices into risk-management mode, observed asset manager BlackRock. This has magnified the need to cultivate resilience, hastening the ongoing trend for family offices to professionalize and institutionalize their operations. They are doing so by recruiting seasoned executives from private banking, asset management, and consulting. Attracting such talent has become easier as the family office sector grows and provides exposure to an ever-expanding range of investment opportunities.
3. The rise of the next generation: Just 5% of family offices are currently owned by heirs, according to consultancy PwC. The impending Great Wealth Transfer is creating strong demand for consultants and advisors to help with family governance and communication to ensure wealth is passed down successfully through generations. But suggestions that heirs may depart radically from the previous generation’s investment style could turn out to be more myth than reality.
4. Making an impact: Wealthy families are adopting a more systematic and structured approach to their philanthropic efforts and investing with impact. This has created a strong appetite among family offices for professionals with the requisite expertise. Some family offices are establishing dedicated philanthropic foundations or donor-advised funds, while others are integrating philanthropic goals into their core investment strategies.
5. Regulatory and tax complexity: Increased scrutiny from tax authorities, anti-money laundering regulations, and evolving reporting requirements are adding layers of complexity to the management and transfer of family wealth. Family offices are responding by beefing up compliance departments, engaging specialist advisors, and investing in technology to automate reporting and ensure adherence to local and international rules.
6. Digital concerns: Family offices are facing mounting pressure to embrace digital transformation to need to keep up with the expectations of next-generation clients, enhance efficiency and security, and remain competitive within a rapidly evolving financial landscape.
Cybersecurity has become a top operational risk concern for family offices worldwide (see Figure 3) – one they will seek to ward off by recruiting relevant talent.
7. Outsourcing: In addition to bolstering their internal talent with investment, financial planning, legal and technology professionals, family offices are also increasingly turning to external providers to cost-effectively fill gaps across a variety of functions, from reporting and family education to deal-sourcing and investment strategy.
A Citi Private Bank survey found that 10% of global family offices used an outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) solution, and more than half of the sample’s assets under management (AUM) were managed in collaboration with or exclusively by external managers.
CFA Institute recently published guidance to standardize performance reporting for OCIO portfolios, with a vi ew to bolstering transparency and consistency for the increasingly popular service.
The outsourcing trend has also led to the emergence of virtual family offices (VFOs), which, as the name suggests, do not have a physical presence, but rather, use technology to bring together networks of external advisors.
You may also be interested in
09 Oct 2025
What do grads really want in a job?
26 Jun 2025
Behind the allure of a private markets career
Explore our programs and certificates
CFA Institute offers a diverse range of programs and certificates designed to meet the needs of finance professionals across various career stages and specializations.
