New Family Offices Show Pivot To Direct Investing – Data

Editorial Staff

19 August 2026

FINTRX, a private wealth intelligence platform, which added 96 family offices to its global database in the second quarter of this year, said the joiners clearly prefer to invest directly, with almost all saying they take this approach.

The US-based organization said some 92.7 per cent of additions listed interest in direct investments and 89.6 per cent in private equity, both up from 83.2 per cent for the first-quarter cohort of family offices. Interest in hedge funds fell to 10.4 per cent among added family offices, against 38.2 per cent across the total database. Private credit interest tumbled to 6.3 per cent from 19.3 per cent in the prior quarter's cohort, possibly suggesting concerns about stresses in that asset class.

Among the latest additions to the FINTRX database, there were 68 single-family offices and 28 multi-family offices. North America contributed 43, Europe 26, Asia/Oceania 19 and Africa/Middle East eight. Latin America recorded no additions, the firm said. In total, single-family offices account for 52.7 per cent of the entire database. Of the 28 new multi-family offices, 24 are not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

First-generation, entrepreneurial wealth boosted its share of family offices that FINTRX tracks, making up 68.6 per cent of newly-classified FOs, rising from 57 per cent in Q1.

Private investing, technology and real estate were the three largest source industries for this wealth, the report said.

"What stood out this quarter was the striking disinterest in hedge funds and private credit compared with the total FINTRX database," Patrick Galvin, research associate at FINTRX and author of the report, said. "Almost 93 per cent of the firms we added list direct investments, and hedge funds and private credit barely show up at all."

FINTRX said the report draws on a platform that now tracks more than 4,600 family office profiles and over 30,000 contacts globally, with all figures reflecting the database as of June 30, 2026.

A report by the Financial Times on August 17 said private credit, a sector that came under pressure earlier this year with examples of pullouts from funds, is continuing to show signs of strain. The value of troubled loans held by some of the biggest private debt investors has reached levels last seen in 2017, the news service said, citing analysis of figures from fixed-income data provider Solve. There is still debate on how significant such strains are, and certain players in the market have told this publication that concerns are exaggerated.