Family Offices are not disappearing – they are evolving

What we are seeing is not decline, but structural transition - shaped by cost pressures, tax and structuring complexity, intergenerational change and a rapidly evolving geopolitical environment - all of which are reshaping the needs of UHNW families.

For families with significant wealth, this evolution increases the need for specialist advice, with significant and wide-ranging implications for the future strategy, direction and role of private client/private wealth services.

Today’s UHNW families are dealing with heightened, cross jurisdictional tax uncertainty, global family mobility and complex classes of assets. Families need to seek advice earlier, to enable them to navigate governance and succession challenges, particularly when there are sensitivities around trust within families and between institutions and professional advisers.

Many family offices were established at a time when tax regimes were relatively stable, governance issues were less divisive, families were more geographically concentrated, and investment strategies were less sophisticated. 

Against this backdrop, it is unsurprising that many family offices are actively reassessing their structures, governance arrangements and strategic direction to operate effectively in a far more complex and rapidly evolving environment. 

This reinforces the critical importance of coordinated, cross-disciplinary advice, capable of addressing legal, tax and governance considerations.

Establishing, restructuring or hybridising a family office is not an administrative exercise. It is a strategic decision that sits at the intersection of private client law, tax, governance, succession planning, family dynamics, investment oversight and risk management, frequently across a variety of jurisdictions. Problems tend to surface, where families underestimate this complexity, giving rise to disputes, eroded trust, tax inefficiency or structures that fail to survive generational transition.

Families increasingly want depth of experience at the right time, seamless multi-disciplinary, co-ordination coupled with a deep understanding of their family dynamics. In practical terms, this is likely to accelerate the use of highly sophisticated technology, which is secure, and interoperable platforms combine legal, tax, investment, reporting and governance functions cross jurisdictionally.

The combination of cross-disciplinary complexity, the emotional and relational aspects of wealth, and the increasing focus on trust, governance and long‑term planning mean that UHNW families will continue to require an overarching framework that integrates these considerations in their entirety.  They may adapt but their core function will remain.

This reinforces the strategic importance for clients to understand that their advisors should not be “siloed” but viewed as a trusted partner in family office thinking, capable of supporting families through creation, transition, hybridisation and succession. 

In this context, the evolution of the family office market aligns squarely with the long term strategy of Irwin Mitchell’s Private Client Group: supporting UHNW families with clarity, confidence and resilience, tailored to each individual family, whatever form their family office solution ultimately takes.

A recent report by Deloitte ‘The Family Office Insights Series’, states that ‘the total number of single-family offices in the UK was recently estimated at around 259, while the broader European landscape is part of a global surge expected to reach over 9,000 offices by 2025 and continue expanding toward 10,720 by 2030.’ 

According to the Henley & Partners Private Wealth Migration Report 2025, ‘the UK is projected to lose a record 16,500 millionaires in 2025, more than any other country globally.’  While this is clearly having an impact, London is still expected to maintain its status as a primary global hub for family offices.