What Family Offices Do Differently, And What That Means For Passive In

In my engineer days, I thought I was being smart by stuffing every spare dollar into broad index funds and a target date fund. Then a rough quarter hit, rates moved up, and I watched seven figures swing on my screen in a single season. That was my cue to study how durable families actually manage risk. The most useful lens came from the UBS 2024 survey of single family offices. I am not giving allocation advice here. I am simply reporting survey findings and sharing what I learned.

The simple idea, give every dollar a job

The families in the survey do not treat public stocks as the whole plan. On average, equities are about 28 percent with a tilt toward the United States and a home region. Private equity sits near 22 percent, split between direct deals and funds. Fixed income is back in the tool kit at roughly 19 percent, including about 16 percent in developed market bonds. Real estate has pulled back to about 10 percent. Cash is also around 10 percent. The rest includes hedge funds at 5 percent, private debt at 2 percent, and small sleeves like infrastructure, art and antiques, and gold or precious metals. Alternatives are about 42 percent in total, traditional assets are about 58 percent.

That mix tells a story. Growth still matters. Ownership matters. Income and ballast matter. Liquidity matters. The goal is not excitement. The goal is durability.

A quick piece of math that changed my behavior

If stocks drop 20 percent, an 80 percent stock portfolio takes a 16 percent hit before anything else moves. A portfolio with 28 percent in stocks takes about 5.6 percent from that sleeve. This is not a forecast. It is a reminder that concentration amplifies stress, which often leads to forced selling, bad timing, and tax pain.

A real world example from my calls with professionals

A couple I met, both physicians, had about three million in net worth and almost everything in public equities. Great income. Little sleep during drawdowns. We did not copy a family office. We copied the mindset. We wrote a one page plan that assigned roles. Public equities for growth inside a range. Fixed income with a clear duration and credit policy. Cash with a floor and a ceiling so decisions were intentional. For ownership, they started a measured process to vet a small number of private deals, focusing on operator quality first. Twelve months later the market still moved, but their behavior did not. That was the win.

Mistakes I see often

1. Letting public markets be the entire identity as an investor (The Tesla Guy)

2. Buying private deals without underwriting the operator and your own liquidity needs

3. Rebalancing only when it feels good, which is usually the wrong time (Not taking profits off hot stocks off the table)