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Co-investing and next-gen attitudes to be surveyed in new family office report

By James Beech

How to succeed in co-investments and how the next generation will shape the future of family offices will be probed by Campden Wealth–but its researchers need your help to do so.

Campden Research urged members of the ultra-wealthy multigenerational family business and family office community to share their insights for the new Global Family Office Report 2017. Peers, rivals, advisers and commentators use the annual report as their benchmark for best practice and their guide when making multi-million dollar strategic decisions.

The Global Family Office Report survey returned online earlier this month as the backbone of the influential study with new facets of the family office sector to explore. While responses have flooded in, the Campden Research team said they wanted as many contributors as possible to deliver their most robust and authoritative report yet.

The survey covers investments, costs, governance and philanthropy among other topics family office principles want to know more about. It also explores the big questions that family office executives and families are really wrestling with, Philip Blackburn, research executive at Campden Wealth, said.

“This year, some of the questions we are looking at are how to make a success of co-investing and exploring what the next generation will do with the family wealth in the coming years.

“Co-investing was one of the biggest puzzles of 2016. While more than half of the family offices claimed to be interested in increasing their involvement, we found that the actual year-on-year change in their co-investment activity was negative. The following questions will explore this matter in more detail. We hope they will provide us with a better understanding of what it takes to succeed in this field.”

Blackburn said last year's Global Family Office Report revealed that 43% of participating family offices were yet to undergo generational transition within the next 10 to 15 years.

“But what do we know about the next-generations' current involvement in the family office? And how are they expected to influence its future? The questions included in the new survey will help us to find out.”

A total of 242 family offices in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Australasia were surveyed for the report in 2016, produced for the fifth year in partnership with UBS. The Zurich-headquartered advisory and wealth management group has returned to support the eagerly-awaited 2017 study.

The report provides a unique analysis of the current state of family offices globally and by region, size and investment strategy. Last year's study grabbed headlines in major financial media when it revealed the extent of the switching out of hedge funds and into private equity, the coming of age of impact investing and the alarming extent of cyber-security breaches.

Click here to register your interest in completing the free and quick online survey. Urge your relatives and colleagues in the ultra-wealth family office world to contribute too before the closing date in mid-May. All participants in the survey will receive an exclusive copy of the Global Family Office Report 2017 when it is launched in the autumn.

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