Family offices plan to outsource more, Ocorian survey finds
A survey of 200 family offices managing $119 billion found 77 per cent expect to lean more on third-party specialists, from illiquid investments to cyber security.
Family offices expect to hand more work to outside specialists over the next three years, according to research from Ocorian, a provider of fund, corporate and fiduciary services. The finding, published on 3 August 2026, points to a shift in where family offices draw the line between what they do in-house and what they buy in.
More than three-quarters of those surveyed, 77 per cent, said their use of outsourced support across key services would rise, while 21 per cent expected no change. The study covered 200 family members and senior family office employees across 16 countries and territories, among them the UK, the UAE, Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong, together managing $119.37 billion. The fieldwork was carried out by PureProfile in February.
What gets farmed out
Advice on illiquid investments is already the service most commonly outsourced, cited by 55 per cent of respondents, followed by cyber security at 49 per cent and personal finance advice at 48 per cent. Extended family services such as concierge support and global insurance programmes sit at the other end, outsourced by only 3 per cent, though 70 per cent said they plan to use more of them as needs change. Wealth planning is another area set to move outward, with 68 per cent expecting to increase their reliance on external providers.
The reasons given are less about cost than capability. Demand for more sophisticated services was the leading driver, cited by 74 per cent, ahead of a shortage of in-house expertise as offices grow, at 62 per cent, and the cost-effectiveness of third-party providers, at 55 per cent. When choosing a specialist, respondents put the ability to work across multiple jurisdictions first, cited by 62 per cent, followed by trusts capability at 58 per cent, technology and reporting at 53 per cent, and cost at 52 per cent.
Why it matters
The build-versus-buy question is an old one for family offices, and the pressure to buy tends to weigh most on smaller offices that cannot justify a full in-house team for every discipline. Ocorian made a similar prediction about outsourcing intentions in 2023, so the direction is not new. What the latest figures suggest is that the trend is broadening from investment functions into areas families once kept close, including cyber security and elements of family life.
For families choosing advisers, the survey is a useful reminder that a modern family office is often a coordinator of specialists rather than the sole provider of them. That places a premium on the office’s ability to select, oversee and hold those specialists to account, and on cross-border reach, which respondents ranked as the single most important quality in a provider. As one caveat, the research reflects the views of family offices themselves rather than an independent audit of what they actually spend, and a firm that sells outsourced services commissioned it.
