Though North American families increased their wealth this year, many are not as optimistic for next year.
Key Details
- North American family offices performed better than others around the world. Their portfolios saw a 15% average return compared to the 10% Asia-Pacific return, and 13% return in Europe.
- In the U.S., the average family wealth was $2 billion.
- Next year, many of these family offices plan to invest in artificial intelligence, healthcare technology, and green technology.
- Family offices provide wealth management for high-net worth individuals.
Why it’s news
Many of these North American families have made investments in the same key areas—the metaverse, NFTs, and Web 3.0 technology. These offices that saw growth in these areas plan to continue their investments, according to a report from London’s Campden Wealth and Toronto’s Royal Bank of Canada.
North American family companies have some differing strategies than their global counterparts. European and Asia-Pacific offices are planning to increase their allocations in the next year, but North American offices plan to keep them relatively flat.
The report further found that Asia-Pacific and European offices are more heavily invested in sustainability than North America. Europe is particularly heavily invested.
North American offices reportedly have a combined worth of $182 billion.
Since the pandemic, the key focus for family offices has shifted from public equities to private equities.
Venture-capital investment, however, was the main boost to family office assets. Though family offices are looking to moderate and create more balanced investments, private equity will still likely play a major role.
Though the offices are not as cautious about risk this year, the report showed that 68% of those surveyed have a negative view of next year. No North American respondents said that they had a “very positive” outlook on next year.
The pessimism about next year was not isolated to North America. The majority of global respondents looked to the future with some level of uncertainty.