Are family offices ready for the risk of private market growth?
This article by Canoe Intelligence examines the rapid rise of family office investments in private markets and highlights how AI-driven automation is transforming data management and operational efficiency.
Contributed by Christian Mussard, Family Office Account Executive at Canoe Intelligence
Family offices have allocated to private markets for years, but their presence is growing thanks to new investment structures. Similarly, feeder and evergreen funds offer easier ways to allocate private equity or credit, often offering lower minimums and more flexible terms than traditional closed-end funds. As a result, family offices are increasingly investing in private markets. Since 2016, the number of family offices allocating to alternative investments has grown by more than 500%.[i] The factors behind the recent boom, however, are far more complex than emerging opportunity.
First, there is a shift in global wealth. According to recent reports, billionaire growth increased 2.6% worldwide in 2024.[ii] In short, the new environment has created a strategic advantage for family offices.
Expanding wealth equates to a growing client base for multi-family offices (MFOs). Deloitte estimates that the total investments under management at MFOs soared 63% between 2019 and 2024.[iii] With more cash on hand, MFOs can better afford the illiquidity restrictions imposed by private markets, while taking advantage of enhanced returns and options for diversification.
The benefits are equally compelling for single-family offices (SFOs). With concentrated pools of wealth, SFOs can better support the family’s long-term vision by aligning investments to goals. For instance, a family with roots in the healthcare industry may want to extend its legacy across multiple generations. Investing in private biotech ventures could do just that, while also providing the chance to capitalise on long-term returns.
At present, opportunity shines bright on family offices, but the light can’t completely chase away the shadows. Allocating to private markets is complex and fraught with risks that can be hard to both quantify and manage. As exposures expand, so do the stakes, making it essential for family offices to efficiently source and manage data to support informed decision-making.
Efficiency isn’t optional. It’s survival.
Family offices are expected to provide white-glove service, delivering detailed and accurate guidance, even when the data is complex and rarely easily accessible. Firms that can’t manage data with speed and accuracy simply won’t be able to keep pace in private markets or to meet the expectations of exacting clients.
Since private assets often post irregular returns and other financial data, valuing investment opportunities is not a straightforward task. The information necessary to make accurate, up-to-date decisions is contained across multiple documents, which must be thoroughly reviewed to extract the relevant information.
To provide the white glove touch, MFOs are also delivering custom reports to each client. Documents must be sourced from multiple portals, covering each investment type, and then manually mapped to individual client reports.
As $85.5 trillion in wealth changes hands over the next 2 decades,[iv] efficiency is more important than ever to multi-family offices, given the potential for client attrition. Over 80% of the next generation of high-net-worth individuals say they plan to change who manages their inheritance.[v] To mitigate the risk of losing clients, MFOs will need to anticipate and meet changing client expectations and needs, requiring rapid and exacting access to data.
These pressures only intensify for single-family offices, where staffing is leaner, leaving each employee to manage a wider array of complex responsibilities. With wealth spread across multiple investments, manually consolidating data becomes a complex and time-consuming task, prone to higher costs and risks due to the resource demands and heightened chance of errors.
These challenges come at a time when labor markets are often inhospitable to businesses looking to hire. Currently, 45% of family offices across Europe and its surrounding regions struggle to attract and retain employees.[vi] A limited hiring environment places greater strain on entities that already run on a minimal staffing structure, elevating the need for operational efficiency.
Delivering white glove service with the help of AI.
This is where AI-driven automation is a game changer, taking over the grind of gathering hundreds of reports from multiple sources and sifting out relevant details.
Highly functional platforms work to cleanse and standardise extracted data, validating points for accuracy, before pushing information into each downstream reporting system. Reports can be configured according to different exposures, performance standards, allocations, and risks, providing personalised views for each client.
With over 500 connected portals, innovative solutions like Canoe Intelligence effortlessly reduce document retrieval time by 94%, allowing family office teams to spend less time gathering documents or extracting data, and more time analysing portfolios, identifying opportunities, and managing risk. While manual data management erodes margins through high resource expenses, AI-powered automation enables family offices to achieve faster and more accurate results at a significantly lower cost. As opportunity in private markets continues to knock, family offices will need the power of AI and automation to deliver the white-glove touch to exacting clients.
[i] Hayley Cuccinello. “Family Offices Flock to Private Markets with Allocations Surging Over 500% in Nearly a Decade.” CNBC, Aug. 15, 2025. Web.
[ii] “World Wealth Report 2025: Sail the Great Wealth Transfer.” Capgemini Research Institute, 2025. Web.
[iii] “World Wealth Report 2025: Sail the Great Wealth Transfer.” Capgemini Research Institute, 2025. Web.
[iv] Hayley Cuccinello. “Family Offices Flock to Private Markets with Allocations Surging Over 500% in Nearly a Decade.” CNBC, Aug. 15, 2025. Web.
[v] “Sail the Great Wealth Transfer: Setting a Course to Win Next-Gen HNWIs.” Capgemini, 2025. Web.
[vi] “Sail the Great Wealth Transfer: Setting a Course to Win Next-Gen HNWIs.” Capgemini, 2025. Web.
Canoe Intelligence is a cutting-edge technology company redefining alternative investment data management. Leveraging advanced AI and machine learning, its platform automates the extraction and organization of complex documents, empowering investors, wealth managers, and family offices to streamline operations, minimize errors, and unlock faster, smarter insights across their portfolios.
