Family offices are preparing to take on materially more investment risk over the coming year, according to a new global study by Ocorian, the specialist services provider. The survey—covering family members and senior executives managing a combined $119.37 billion in wealth—found that seventy-five per cent of respondents expect their risk appetite to increase over the next twelve months, including thirteen per cent anticipating dramatic increases. The findings span sixteen countries and territories, among them the United States, the UAE, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Mauritius, and Bahrain.

Increased transparency around alternative investments emerged as the primary catalyst for the shift. Around sixty-one per cent of respondents cited improved transparency as the key driver behind their willingness to embrace greater risk. Nearly half pointed to falling interest rates and the outperformance of AI and technology stocks as additional factors boosting their appetite for higher-risk exposures. Forty-six per cent said geopolitical instability is forcing family offices to recalibrate their risk attitudes.

All family offices surveyed expect to increase allocations to private equity over the next two years, with two-thirds planning to boost private equity exposure by between twenty-five per cent and fifty per cent over that period. Ninety-six per cent plan to increase allocations to private capital, and ninety-three per cent intend to expand their private debt holdings. Infrastructure and real estate will see somewhat smaller but still substantial increases, with eighty-eight per cent and eighty-six per cent of respondents planning higher allocations, respectively.

The survey results arrive as private market investing—a large component of the alternatives universe—continues to mature, according to a recent report from index provider MSCI. That maturation has not been frictionless. Semi-liquid structures offering periodic redemptions based on manager-reported valuations have come under increased scrutiny over the accuracy and timeliness of those valuations. The MSCI report also noted signs of borrower strain, particularly among smaller funds. Such structures are sometimes referred to as evergreen vehicles.

Last October, a survey by the asset management arm of Goldman Sachs found that high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals are more likely to include alternative assets in their portfolios as they accumulate wealth, suggesting that rising wealth correlates with greater comfort holding illiquid positions. The Ocorian findings reinforce that pattern, though they highlight a distinct institutional appetite for alternatives that is now being driven as much by structural market dynamics—lower rates, geopolitical volatility—as by portfolio diversification mandates.

The family offices moving fastest into alternatives right now are the ones least likely to have stress-tested their liquidity at the eighteen-month mark, family office advisor Jaf Glazer has cautioned.

ESG principles remain a central consideration for the family offices surveyed. Almost all respondents said environmental, social, and governance factors are key to their investment priorities, and seventy-nine per cent expect their focus on ESG principles to increase over the next three years. That emphasis is likely to shape not only sector selection within alternatives but also due diligence protocols and manager selection processes.

"Family offices are increasingly willing to take on more risk and their growing interest in alternative assets is a major reason for that – with plans to increase allocations to major alternative asset classes in general," Andy Bailey, head of Private Client Guernsey & Isle of Man at Ocorian, said. "It is, however, striking that nearly half believe that rising geopolitical instability is leaving family offices with little choice but to increase their risk appetite, as our research shows."

The scale of the pivot toward alternatives is noteworthy. Private equity will see the biggest increase in allocations, but all alternative asset classes will benefit, the survey reveals. That unanimity suggests family offices are not merely rotating out of public equities into a single sleeve but are executing a broader re-weighting across illiquid strategies. Whether that reallocation proves durable will depend on how well the underlying vehicles perform through the next downturn and how transparent managers remain when valuations come under pressure.