UBS Global Family Office Report 2025: What It Means for Your Family

The Report

UBS’s Global Family Office Report 2025 captures insights from 317 family offices managing an average of USD 1.1 billion. It reveals that wealthy families are holding steady amid global volatility, shifting more toward developed market equities, private debt, and healthcare or AI-driven investments. The biggest concern for 2025 is a potential global trade war, yet most family offices maintain a long-term, all-weather approach. Notably, just over half of these families have formal succession plans. This signals that while diversification and professionalism are advancing, many still struggle with preparing the next generation for stewardship.

(Reference: UBS Global Family Office Report 2025)

View of a UBS bank building featuring a modern glass walkway connecting two sections, set on a bustling urban street with pedestrians and parked vehicles.

My Take on the UBS Report

After 15+ years in wealth management including time spent at UBS, I find the report’s realism refreshing. It reminds me that even the most sophisticated investors face the same human challenges: uncertainty, emotional bias, and the delicate art of preparing the next generation for responsibility.

The move toward developed market equities and private debt shows a clear appetite for yield with safety. Families are balancing opportunity (AI, healthcare) with preservation. Interestingly, the home bias in US family offices mirrors what I often saw in smaller family portfolios: people feel safest investing in what they know.

But for me the most powerful insight about succession planning is that even among billion-dollar families, many delay this discussion. this is proof that legacy conversations are emotionally complex. In my experience, it’s not about creating rigid rules; it’s about shaping shared values.

Wealth isn’t just what we accumulate, it’s how we prepare our children to use it. As the report suggests, the best family offices don’t chase trends; they create frameworks for stability, collaboration, and continuity.

This mirrors the core message of my upcoming book about financial confidence aimed at children ages 4-12. Confidence, planning, and execution build lifelong financial wisdom. When families talk about money early, they plant the seeds of independence in their children.

What This Means for Parents

This report quietly says something every parent should hear: success without structure is fragile. Just as family offices use investment policies to stay disciplined through market swings, families can build their own small systems for their money at home.

Create family habits that mirror professional strategies, investing consistently, reviewing spending, and setting shared goals. If wealthier families use diversification to stay stable, everyday families can diversify too: balancing savings, emergency funds, and small investments alike.

And don’t forget the UBS finding about succession: more than half haven’t planned for who takes charge next. In a household, that could mean teaching your children already in primary school how bills or insurance work or simply explaining why and how you save for the future. The earlier these lessons start, the more confident the next generation becomes.

Teaching Moment

The UBS report highlights how families invest with time horizons, not just returns, a perfect teaching opportunity. Family offices are maintaining a long-term, multi-generational focus. They integrate investment strategy with next-generation education and continuity, reinforcing the principle that successful families invest with time perspective rather than just immediate performance metrics.

With young kids, play The Patience Game. Give them a small treat and offer two if they wait 10 minutes. Then explain that investing works the same way: those who wait and plan often end up with more.

For older kids or teens, introduce the concept of succession in fun ways. Let them plan a pretend family business or decide who manages what when you are on vacation. This builds both curiosity and accountability.

Discuss how diversification, spreading money into different areas, protects families. Ask: If one thing doesn’t work out, what’s your backup?

Finally, share the report’s big idea: even billion-dollar families don’t have everything figured out. The smartest families are not perfect; they plan, they talk, and they adjust. That is true wealth wisdom for every generation.

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I am a Zurich based wealth management professional with over 15 years of experience advising high-net-worth clients. Through LearnWithEbba, I helps families build financial confidence through storytelling and practical education. I'm also writing a children's book that teaches investing through magic, because our kids deserve better than boring money lectures.