Family offices turn to private markets, allocations up 500% since 2016

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

As the world’s rich have gotten richer, their investment firms have doubled down on private assets such as direct lending and data centers.

The number of family offices with allocations to private markets has surged by 524% since 2016, rising from 651 to 4,067, per Preqin data. This increase surpasses that of wealth management firms (410%) and endowments and foundations (81%) with allocations to private markets, according to the alternative investment data platform owned by BlackRock.

This growth has been marked in recent years, surging nearly 21% in 2023 and about 26% in 2024. In the first half of 2025, the number of family offices with private markets exposure increased by 8%.

Armando Senra, who leads BlackRock’s institutional business in the Americas, said family office activity reflects broader interest in private credit and infrastructure from investors. A BlackRock survey conducted this past spring reported that nearly a third of single-family offices planned to invest more in private credit and infrastructure from 2025 through 2026.

PwC’s Jonathan Flack told CNBC via email that much of this activity can be attributed to family offices having far more wealth to manage. By Deloitte’s estimate, family offices managed a combined $3.1 trillion in 2024, up 63% from 2019.

Family offices have less need for quick cash, so they can afford to make illiquid private investments, Flack said. With family offices known to invest for decades or even generations, private markets appeal to their long-term mindset, according to Flack, the leader of the consulting giant’s U.S. and global family office practice.

“Private markets allow the families to invest longer term in a more stable growth environment as compared to the public markets which have proven to be more volatile over the same period,” he said.

But family offices have become increasingly selective about private offerings. A May survey by UBS found that family offices planned to increase their private debt holdings but trim their private equity bets in favor of developed market equities in 2025. For U.S. family offices, the expected drawdown was especially steep.

That said, when asked about their five-year plans, more family offices intended to increase rather than decrease their allocations to private equity and other private assets.