The 2025 Family Office Operational Excellence Report
Key takeaways from a valuable research effort
Last week, the results of the 2025 Family Office Operational Excellence Report were presented at the IPI (Institute for Private Investors) Mid-Year Forum in New York City. It’s one of the best research efforts available, and today I’m sharing with you a few of my comments and takeaways on the report.
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1. The report and the families in it
Campden/IPI and AlTi Tiedemann worked together to survey 146 UHNW families (generally defined as having a net worth over USD $30M). 82 were in the United States, 42 in Europe, 22 in Asia. Each family’s wealth ranged from $50M to over $1B.
Limited scope
This entire field is still young enough, with sufficient obstacles to data gathering (privacy, security, access, data verifiability and trust are just a few of them) that even the very best research in family systems is still quite limited.
All or nearly all of the families surveyed are part of the Campden/IPI network, which means they are already wealthy and already believers in the value of working together as a family with good structures and processes to guide them, and already investing in a healthier and more successful future for themselves.
Also, there are ZERO survey responses from Latin America or Africa.
Unavoidable limitations in the data
Because of the inevitable selection bias in the families surveyed, the data will be more positive than the average in society and there is ZERO data in the report on families with less wealth (who are the huge majority) and families from Latin America or Africa.
However, this is still one of the few data sets that is reasonably reliable and this data is some of the very best we have. We don’t throw good data away just because it’s limited… we simply use it appropriately.
And we keep in mind that we’re not (yet!) able to capture the kind of broad, representative data we really need about ALL family systems.
So ANY time someone quotes statistics at you and tries to tell you that they are a true and accurate reality, remember that none of the statistics are very good yet! Ask them for the source and the underlying data and you’ll see.
2. Their greatest and most urgent lesson
At the end of his presentation, Erik noted a clear pattern in the survey responses which represents a very real danger to families in business: like most people, they tend to overvalue the “tangible” concerns like money, staffing, contracts, investments, and business and they undervalue the “intangible” things like family cohesion, next-generation education and development, and so on.
Families must focus on understanding the family, keeping it healthy and united, and leveraging the family as the greatest strength in the system.
Failing to do so is the greatest danger to their survival today.
Improving at this is their greatest opportunity for future success.
This agrees 100% with our focus at Fidelius that the center of everything is the business family, and that a healthy family is at the core and the base of everything we do.
If you focus on business and money, and ignore the family, you’re going to lose the family and eventually you’ll lose the wealth and the business too!
On the contrary, if you build on the base of a healthy family, you will be able to acquire and sustain great success in the tangible things like business and wealth.
3. The need to develop your next generation
From the report
Slightly over half of the rising generation are invited to participate in Board meetings and multi-generational family gatherings in order both to contribute their thoughts/experience and to give them spaces for continued growth and learning.
But only a minority of families—even in this wealthy data set!—have structured educational or development plans for the next generation.
And while families give some thought to topics like the purpose of family capital, financial fundamentals, and leadership development, very few pay significant attention to topics like “money and relationships” or legacy planning.
My comments
The “human capital” of the family is also spiritual, intellectual, social, and reputational. The family is the first thing we should try to keep healthy, happy, growing, and contributing. If you worry primarily about the business and the money, you will eventually lose the family… and eventually you’ll lose the business and the wealth too.
But caring for the family is intangible, not subject to hard, numerical metrics, and has a million variables. It’s hard for every family, with or without a business or wealth attached to it! Still, that’s all the more reason to pay attention to this issue.
I know it’s easier—and really tempting—to work on easier things. But this is really important. It’s not about getting the kids to work with us. It’s OK if they grow up to be lawyers, doctors, or artists and don’t want to work in or even own the family business; but we MUST ensure that they are as prepared as possible to lead healthy, happy lives. That will also ensure that they are the best possible owners, directors, or executives for our family business too.
I have always found that most senior family members WANT to do all this.
But because it’s squishy, and difficult, it ends up getting pushed back or set aside. And in the end, it’s not getting done.
Please pay attention to this. Give it time. Make it a priority. Ensure you have good advisors helping you move this forward (and who have also earned the children’s trust so they have good information from ALL parties involved).
4. A more international reality
From the report
57% of the surveyed families have at least one person residing in a different jurisdiction from the primary jurisdiction of the family.
The most pressing issues reported for those non-resident family members—and by extension, for the family system as a whole—are:
tax planning (74%)
investments (71%)
estate planning (68%)
My comments
It’s essential for at least a few members of the family and family-office executives to become educated consumers of legal, fiscal, and financial products related to their international needs.
I see too many families overpaying for investment products, or trust structures, or tax advice and then getting bad results because their advisors are either taking advantage of them or (even worse) trying their best to serve the family but failing because the family is providing bad data and asking bad questions.
In several cases, we’ve saved families hundreds of thousands of dollars every year by creating simpler, more appropriate governance structures and preventing some advisors (lawyers, wealth managers, trustees) from overcharging. This happens all the time.
And of course, the core issue is that you also need to be giving more thought to where your people live (or want to live, or would benefit the family by moving to) and what those considerations are.
For example: if you want to move a family member to a high-tax country for the benefit of the family business and their personal income taxes will increase from 10% to 35%, should that person pay the 35%? Or should the family business pay for the difference? Or something in between?
As always: there are no universal right answers. The important thing is to ask the questions and have the conversation and have good advice so you make good decisions for YOUR family at THIS time and in THIS situation.