Private equity will see the biggest increase in allocations but all alternative asset classes will benefit, the survey reveals.

The global study – among family members and senior executives working for family offices with total wealth of $119.37 billion – found that 75 per cent said their investment risk appetite would increase, including 13 per cent predicting dramatic increases.

The study – which covered 16 countries or territories including the US, the UAE, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK, Hong Kong, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Mauritius and Bahrain – found that greater transparency for riskier asset classes is the main reason.

Private market investing – a large part of the "alternatives" area – is maturing, according to a recent report from MSCI, the index provider. But the area has also had stresses: “Semi-liquid” structures, such as those offering periodic redemptions based on manager-reported valuations, and increased scrutiny on how accurate and timely those valuations are. There are more signs of borrower strain, particularly among smaller funds, the MSCI report said.

Last October, a survey by the asset management arm of Goldman Sachs found that HNW and ultra-HNW individuals are more likely to put alternative assets into their portfolios as they get richer, suggesting that people with rising wealth are more comfortable about holding illiquid assets.

Transparency matters
Around 61 per cent selected increased transparency as the key driver for increased risk appetite with nearly half pointing to falling interest rates and the outperformance of AI and tech stocks as reasons for boosting risk appetite. Around 46 per cent said that geopolitical instability means that risk attitudes have to change.

ESG principles remain important in investment priorities – almost all said they are a key consideration – while 79 per cent said focusing on ESG principles will increase over the next three years.

All the family offices questioned expect to increase allocations to private equity over the next two years, with two-thirds planning to boost allocations by between 25 per cent and 50 per cent over the period. Around 96 per cent plan to increase allocations to private capital with 93 per cent doing so for private debt. That drops slightly to 88 per cent for infrastructure and 86 per cent for real estate.

“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.”

See this report from June 18, by our US correspondent about Morningstar's views of the private credit market dramas of recent months.