A third of family offices expect a leadership change within five years, Citi finds. Most are not ready for it.

On 22 September 2026, Citi Wealth published its 2026 Global Family Office Report. The survey ran through June and July, starting at the bank’s annual family office summit in June and then opening to its wider client base: 351 family offices in 41 countries answered roughly fifty questions. Citi’s Global Family Office Group, which compiled the report, says it works with more than 1,900 family offices worldwide, so the sample is drawn from the bank’s own client list rather than from the market at large.

What the portfolios did

The investment findings are, on Citi’s account, comfortable ones. Nearly 90% of respondents reported positive year-to-date performance, and 41% still target annual returns of 7% to 10%. Close to half increased their public equity exposure over the year, making listed markets the main destination for new money, with global developed equities the most favoured asset class for future net allocations. Private markets did not lose their place: private equity continued to draw capital and direct investing kept rising, though Citi reports that families have become more selective about sourcing and access.

Nothing in the geopolitical year prompted wholesale repositioning. More than 40% of respondents made no major portfolio changes, preferring hedging and targeted adjustments. Inflation displaced tariffs and trade disputes as the leading stated concern, followed by interest rates, financial system stability and market volatility.

Where it gets awkward

Roughly one in three respondents expects a leadership transition in the family, the family office or the family business within the next five years. Against that, Citi records three recurring obstacles in its own client base: succession plans that are not clear, successors who are not ready, and no shared view of what the family is trying to do next. Those are not scheduling problems. They are governance problems, and the five-year horizon means they are already inside the planning window for most of the offices concerned.

Two further findings sit alongside it. Thirty-eight per cent of respondents expect their family to become more internationally spread over the next five years, which pushes tax coordination, structuring and cross-border compliance further into the family office’s job description. And artificial intelligence, Citi says, has moved from experiment to deployment, though mostly for reporting, information handling and due diligence support rather than for investment decisions.

What it means for family offices

The gap this report describes is between investment capability, which the respondents clearly have, and institutional continuity, which many of them do not. An office that can run an active hedging programme but cannot say who leads it in 2030 has solved the easier problem. For advisers, the useful reading is that demand over the next five years is likely to sit in governance, successor preparation and cross-border structuring rather than in allocation advice, and that it will arrive with a deadline attached. Families in that position should note the sample: these are large, banked, already-professionalised offices. If a third of them are facing a transition without a settled plan, the position further down the size range is unlikely to be better.

One caveat on the figures. Every number here comes from Citi’s own survey of its own clients, and the bank has an interest in the conclusion that family offices need more institutional support. The direction of travel matches what other 2026 surveys have reported, but the percentages should be read as a description of Citi’s client base, not of the sector.

Sources: Citi Wealth (via Business Wire); ThinkAdvisor.