Family offices are evolving—growing more numerous, more complex, and more ambitious. In fact, the number of family offices worldwide has grown by more than 31 percent since pre-pandemic levels, according to Deloitte’s latest Family Office Insights series report. Yet even as they expand, many still hold portfolios that haven’t kept pace with their aspirations. Concentrated holdings, under-diversified alternatives, and vague long-term goals can all undermine the core mission: preserving and growing wealth across generations.
That’s why a new wave of investors is stepping back and reassessing the foundation. Many are turning to leading experts like Wharton’s Raffi Amit, who has spent decades studying family enterprises and governance. Professor Amit shares cutting-edge knowledge and insights in Wharton’s Family Wealth Management: Advanced Financial Strategies and Wharton Family Office Program: Balancing Family Harmony and Financial Prosperity. These programs equip participants with practical tools to strengthen investment strategies and governance frameworks.
One private investor who attended the Family Office Program returned to his team with a surprising discovery: “The first thing I did when I returned to work was run correlations across all of our asset classes and see which ones were correlated to our concentrated stock position. I am now crafting our revised investment policy based on what sectors we should be investing in that are not correlated with the concentrated stock,” he explains. “We are also starting to address family-related issues, such as having a family constitution, creating unity within the family, and planning for transferring knowledge and wealth from one generation to the next.”
A similar shift is happening in how families approach private investments. For years, many have understood the value of allocating to alternatives—but fewer have gone the extra step of diversifying within those allocations. “We realized our private equity exposure was pretty narrow,” one family office leader said. “We had good managers, but there weren’t many of them. And they were mostly doing deals in the U.S.”
By expanding both the number of fund sponsors and the geographic spread of their investments, the family was able to reduce risk and increase access to differentiated deal flow. The changes weren’t radical—but they were deliberate, and grounded in a clearer understanding of portfolio dynamics.
Applying the Endowment Model
Another powerful insight is coming from the endowment world. While the circumstances of a university endowment and a family office differ, the underlying model—grow the corpus, spend sustainably, reinvest with discipline—has strong appeal. Some families are rethinking their distribution policies accordingly.
One investor described it this way: “Similar to the endowment model, we want to limit the distributions to the family that can be taken out of the portfolio. I learned how to reverse engineer our target return with that distribution target, shifting the focus from a traditional portfolio into more of an endowment-style portfolio. It’s something that I am starting to implement.”
A Holistic Approach
Beyond the spreadsheets, these changes are helping to open broader conversations within families. When a portfolio becomes less reactive and more intentional, it’s easier to connect financial decisions with family values, philanthropic goals, and intergenerational trust. “This wasn’t just about investments,” one leader said. “It helped us have a more productive discussion about who we are and what we’re building.”
Professor Amit says that holistic view drives his research and his teaching. “Family wealth management is about navigating a delicate balance between often conflicting goals,” he explains. “When hiring for a family office, mindset is everything. It’s not just about investment expertise — it’s about having the emotional intelligence to understand family dynamics and integrate them into the investment process.”
Ultimately, sophisticated family wealth management today requires more than access and intuition. It requires structure. By applying tools like correlation analysis, manager diversification, and endowment-inspired distribution models, family offices are building portfolios that are not only more resilient—but more reflective of what their families truly want to preserve.
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