Family offices with bigger investment teams hold more in private markets, IE University study finds
The IE Family Offices Knowledge Hub's first report, presented in Madrid on 15 October 2026, surveys 157 single family offices. Average private markets allocation is 48.2%, rising to 62.9% where the in-house team has six or more specialists.
On 15 October 2026, the IE Family Offices Knowledge Hub presented its first report at IE Tower, IE University’s campus in Madrid. Published in Spanish as La evolución del family office en los mercados privados: de familias empresarias a inversores estratégicos (the evolution of the family office in private markets, from business families to strategic investors), it draws on a survey of 157 single family offices in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, 27 in-depth interviews and historical investment data. Cristina Cruz is academic director.
The hub is run by IE University with three partners: the law firm Cuatrecasas, the asset manager Franklin Templeton and OpenWealth, the CaixaBank group’s wealth advisory arm. All three provide services to family offices.
The figures below come from the hub’s announcement, published by Cuatrecasas and carried in near-identical form by El Debate and RankiaPro. These reports all rest on the same release, so they amount to a single source. We have not seen the full report.
The headline allocation
Respondents hold an average of 48.2% of their portfolios in private markets. More than half (53.4% of the international sample) expect to raise that share over the next five years, and none expects to cut it. Within the allocation, private equity (16.1%) and real estate (15.1%) carry the largest weights. Over 60% of respondents say they are satisfied or very satisfied with returns, and no office in the sample invests only in its home market.
Team size and exposure
The most useful finding links allocation to in-house capability. Offices with one or two specialist investment professionals put an average of 44.9% into private markets. Those with six or more put 62.9%.
The release does not say which way the relationship runs. Families may hire once they already hold a lot of private assets, or invest more once the people are in place. Either reading leaves smaller offices holding close to half their portfolio in private funds with very few staff to select, monitor and value those holdings.
Who takes the decision
The study also looks at how decisions are made. In 52% of offices the family keeps the final investment decision, and only 10% delegate it fully to professionals. The report describes four stages of learning as families move from running a business to investing in private markets, and proposes four working systems: an investment policy, a governance model, a system for managing the capital cycle, and an overall wealth structure.
The Spanish sample
Spain is reported separately. Of the Spanish family offices surveyed, 41.2% were set up after 2015 and 53% belong to first-generation families. 71.7% invest in private markets, allocating an average of 47.2% of the portfolio, led by real estate (16.2%), private equity (13.2%) and venture capital (10.5%). 68.1% plan to increase exposure over five years, against 53.4% internationally, and 23.5% describe themselves as very satisfied with returns, against 7.1% in the rest of the sample. The family takes the final decision in 61% of Spanish offices, according to El Debate and RankiaPro; the Cuatrecasas text gives 6%, which appears to be a typing error.
What it means for family offices
The gap between 44.9% and 62.9% is the number to take away. A lean office carrying a heavy private markets book depends on managers and consultants for most of the work, while the family, which in most cases keeps the final say, carries the decisions on pacing, liquidity for capital calls and valuation. A written investment policy and a clear statement of who may approve what matter more in that set-up than in a large, staffed office.
Readers setting this beside BNY Wealth’s study, reported two days earlier, should note that the two use different categories: IE’s private markets breakdown includes real estate, which BNY counts as a traditional asset. The headline percentages are not directly comparable.
Sources: Cuatrecasas (15 October 2026); El Debate (15 October 2026); RankiaPro (15 October 2026).