Alternatives & Private Markets

Nearly 40% of Family Offices Plan to Raise Allocations to Public and Private Equity

A majority of respondents (58%) in a Goldman Sachs survey of family offices expect to overweight their portfolios to technology in the next 12 months, compared with just 5% who say they will be underweight.
The biggest market risks right now are geopolitical instability and political uncertainty, survey respondents say, followed by the possibility of a recession, while other concerns such as inflation are less cited.
Family offices invest on average 31% of their portfolio in public equities, up from two years earlier, and they have an average allocation in alternatives of 42%.

Nearly 40% of surveyed family offices plan to increase their allocations to public equity in the next 12 months, and a similar percentage intend to raise their allocations to private equity during that span, according to the 2025 Family Office Investment Insights report from Goldman Sachs. More than half of respondents expect to be overweight the technology sector in the next 12 months.

Family offices fill an important and evolving role in the capital markets, bringing permanent, multi-generational capital and operating without mark-to-market pressures from outside investors.

Investment teams in family offices are strong but lean, typically made up of fewer than five individuals, according to the report, Adapting to the Terrain, which is based on a global survey of 245 respondents. Family offices are able to make agile investment decisions and allocate to areas of the market where others cannot.

While their role in the markets is evolving, family offices have remained committed to their portfolio allocation priorities. Their portfolio weighting to public market equities climbed to 31% in the 2025 survey, compared to 28% in the previous edition of the Family Office Investment Insights survey in 2023. The increased share for equities is likely due to the strong performance of this asset class last year.

Going forward, 38% of family offices plan to increase their allocations to public market equities in the next 12 months, and 39% intend to boost their allocations to private equity.

Family office allocations stay steady as risks change

Allocations have held relatively steady even amid the shifting investment risks cited by family offices. Asked to choose their top three among a dozen potential investment risks, 61% of family offices picked geopolitical conflict, followed by political instability at 39%, and economic recession at 38%.

“I think this traces back to a very active newsfeed, both politically and geopolitically,” says Tony Pasquariello, global head of hedge fund coverage for Global Banking & Markets and a coauthor of the report. Other investment concerns such as inflation and high market valuations ranked lower than politics and geopolitics in this year’s survey responses.

Family offices reported that 42% of their funds were allocated to alternative asset classes such as hedge funds and private equity, down slightly from 44% in 2023.

“Family offices are quite committed to their asset allocation,” says Sara Naison-Tarajano, global head of Private Wealth Management Capital Markets and Apex, another of the report’s coauthors. “Despite being in a totally different market environment than we were two years ago, you really see a pretty similar allocation.”

Related to this, some 35% of respondents from the Americas region said they are not focused on hedging for tail risk. “These families have been through market cycles with deep dislocations,” Naison-Tarajano explains. “They saw those events as opportunities to buy, and saw the markets come back, so they worry less about hedging for that risk.”

Family offices’ patient capital often lends itself well to investing in innovation trends, and that holds true today. A majority of respondents (58%) expect to be overweight technology in the next 12 months, compared with just 5% who say they will be underweight. That’s by far the biggest overweight in the survey results for any sector.

“A lot of the technology focus is AI-driven” explains co-author Meena Flynn, co-head of Global Private Wealth Management. “Family offices are getting exposure through public equities but also through the private markets, with investments in infrastructure that supports development of AI such as energy.”

The majority of family offices are still not investing in cryptocurrency, but this is one area where attitudes are changing. In the 2025 survey, 33% of respondents said they’re investing in crypto, up from 26% in 2023, and just 16% in the first edition of the survey in 2021.

This article is being provided for educational purposes only. The information contained in this article does not constitute a recommendation from any Goldman Sachs entity to the recipient, and Goldman Sachs is not providing any financial, economic, legal, investment, accounting, or tax advice through this article or to its recipient. Neither Goldman Sachs nor any of its affiliates makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements or any information contained in this article and any liability therefore (including in respect of direct, indirect, or consequential loss or damage) is expressly disclaimed.

Related Tags