Wealthy families increasingly relying on external managers for ‘fast-growing asset classes’
According to new research from Standard Chartered Private Bank, which surveyed more than 300 ultra-wealthy families globally, nearly seven in 10 (69 per cent) are using an "institutional" approach to investment decisions rather than taking a "personal" approach to family affairs (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
More families are using external asset managers for fast-growing asset classes like private credit, with many also looking to external wealth advisory services as families become multi-generational and move into new markets.
According to new research from Standard Chartered Private Bank, which surveyed more than 300 ultra-wealthy families globally, nearly seven in 10 (69 per cent) are using an "institutional" approach to investment decisions rather than taking a "personal" approach to family affairs.
Families are also relying more on external partners in "fast-growing asset classes" including private credit, the global private bank found.
"The trend is increasing in terms of families engaging with external advisors," Mike Tan, global head of wealth planning and family advisory at Standard Chartered Private Bank, tells MandateWire Analysis.
Standard Chartered's report also found that more than half of families (54 per cent) are reconsidering their family office locations, or are considering a new branch.
This includes hotspots like Singapore, where the number of single-family offices exceeded 2,000 in 2024, the country's finance ministry found. According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore the jurisdiction offers long-established tax incentives, a wide network of wealth and legal advisers, and a "vibrant private equity and venture capital ecosystem". Other popular destinations include Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.
"It has to be a market where there are interesting investment opportunities for the family," says Tan. "It [could be] a region that the family feels will see upcoming growth and [a] good ecosystem and infrastructure, and a region they want to be based in."
It also helps when a prospective jurisdiction already has "like-minded families" with which they can "discover opportunities together".
Many are relying on external support as families become multi-generational, and may not possess all of the internal resources to "address the different [family] needs on their own", Tan explains.
However, critical decisions are often retained by families, where "the quantum [of wealth] exceeds a certain amount" or it involves "a very significant decision relating to the family business", he says.
"[That type of] decision maybe is not something that you want to allocate to a third party. You might want to retain that within the family."
Millennial investors embrace new fund structures
Just as families and ultra-wealthy individuals are working more with external advisers and re-rooting themselves globally, many are reconsidering how they can tap private market opportunities.
New semi-liquid or evergreen structures allow private wealth investors — and wealth managers with private clients — to redeem their holdings at more regular intervals than traditional private market deals. The more-established closed-end structures in the market typically return cash to investors before money must be reinvested in new deals, but evergreens fundraise continuously and strive to provide more consistent returns.
According to Barclays Private Bank's annual private markets report for 2025, which was released in October and polled more than 550 wealthy individuals globally, "access and improved liquidity have emerged as core priorities for investors to consider increasing their allocations to private markets".
Indeed, 98 per cent of the private bank's survey respondents reported that liquidity was an important consideration for private markets access, with two-thirds (68 per cent) saying liquidity was either "very important" or "extremely important".
The report adds that liquidity is increasingly important for millennial private wealth investors, who are "driving demand for shorter lock ups" and looking for funds with reduced minimum investment sizes.
As investors diversify portfolios, more than two-fifths of private wealth investors (43 per cent) report interest in venture capital opportunities, while a third (33 per cent) have expressed interest in secondary private asset opportunities.
A new generation of private wealth investors are "particularly positive" on early-stage investment opportunities, the report adds, reflecting a "decisive shift among millennials towards greater diversification and a willingness to embrace different asset classes in pursuit of long‑term growth".
While 86 per cent of millennials report confidence when it comes to making decisions on private market investments, fewer baby boomers (63 per cent) feel confident when engaging with these same opportunities, underscoring the role that managers can play in assisting a relatively new and growing private investor base for private markets.
End clients must understand 'risk and rewards' in new structures
The increasing interest in semi-liquids was echoed by private wealth professionals who spoke at the Financial Times' recent Global Wealth Management Summit in London.
Fahad Kamal, chief investment officer at Coutts, said public companies face "genuine headwinds" as they are subject to more onerous public reporting requirements.
Kamal explained that with no real downside to remaining private, companies would be more likely to forgo the opportunity of going public for longer. But he added that going public would still be the "end goal" for many businesses, which could then tap into a much wider investor base.
As private wealth clients dive into private assets through novel fund structures, Kamal said clients have to understand how these operate and "what the risks and rewards are".
"That is particularly true when it comes to an asset class that's new, or one in which they've not previously had any experience," Kamal said, while adding that new private asset opportunities were an "exciting frontier".
While he said such structures can lower volatility, enhance portfolio returns and produce better client outcomes over the long run, he added the caveat that there was "no question there are risks".
Olivier Fines, head of advocacy and policy research for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at the CFA Institute, highlighted the importance of transparency as new types of fund structures proliferate.
"The level of disclosures on specific aspects will need to be enhanced," he said, on things like cost, carried interest payments to managers and on asset valuations.
"There's a new series of considerations that pertain specifically to the private space that we may not have had to worry about too much when we were talking about [a] plain vanilla low-leveraged equity fund that has a management charge, and maybe sometimes a performance fee," Fines said.
"[This is] a complete change in paradigm, and I think regulators need to be on top of that."